Silk Kisses

Lin


If they be two, they are two so
As stiff twin compasses are two:
Thy soul, the fixed foot, makes no show
To move, but doth, if the other do;

And though it in the center sit,
Yet when the other far doth roam,
It leans, and hearkens after it,
And grows erect, as that comes home.
A Valediction: Forbidden Mourning by John Donne

The light bounced against the computer screen, blinding CJ. She grumbled, picked up the laptop, and settled on her couch, opposite the desk and window.
::clack, clack:: Her hands slowed as her mind relived the night before.
What a night it had been. It had all been normal, up to a point. First she and Sam danced, then they talked, and then they kissed...That kiss. Why in the world was she obsessing over it? The entire thing was totally innocent. A mistake. Sam has probably forgotten about it by now. 'Just like you should have done.' ::sigh::
"Knock, knock."
CJ's head snapped towards the door. "Abbey?!"
The First Lady smiled at her husband's Press Secretary, sprawled on her couch, daydreaming. "Hey, CJ." She took the liberty of sitting in one of the chairs across from CJ, settling the small package she held, in her lap. "What are you up to?"
CJ rolled her eyes. "Briefing in an hour. I'm boning up on my enviromental prowess and so forth. In other words, I'm completely bored, so thank you for the interruption." CJ snapped her laptop shut and sat up so she could face the older woman.
"Oh, don't let me interrupt you. I just wanted to give you this," Abbey patted the large envelope.
CJ's eyes swept over the manila envelope. "What is it?"
"Oh, nothing. Just the pictures from last night."
"So soon?"
"This is the White House, CJ," Abbey laughed. She handed the thick envelope to CJ.
"Are they nice?" CJ asked as she pried the metal clip open.
"Why don't you take a look?" Abbey paused, taking in the other woman's face as she perused the pictures, one at a time.
"Oh, this is nice," CJ commented, coming across a picture of Josh and Donna gliding across the dance floor.
"I gave Josh a copy earlier."
CJ smirked. "I wonder where that one will end up?"
"Probably along with the rest of them," Abbey answered. They both shared a smile.
"Aww, this is a nice one," CJ said, holding up a picture of the President and the First Lady.
Abbey brushed it off, "We have a thousand pictures that look exactly like that one. Keep going," she tried to keep the anticipation out of her voice as CJ cautiously picked through the stack.
"Me and Josh." CJ flipped through the pictures, afraid of what she would find next. "Me and Sam." She paused to look at the picture she could only call stunning. They were standing face to face, oblivious to the party around them. Sam had his arm wrapped around CJ posessively, her body pressed against his, firmly. They both had wide smiles plastered on their faces as they shared a small joke with each other.
"I wonder what you two were talking about?" Abbey asked CJ.
"Huh?" CJ's head snapped back up. She carefully placed the picture on the top of the pile. "Oh, it was nothing. You know, just about...nothing," she finished lamely.
"Oh, really," Abbey smiled slyly. "You two make a cute couple."
CJ's face turned crimson, "We do not." She continued, "We're not a couple."
"I didn't say you were a couple. I said you *made* a cute couple," Abbey clarified.
"Yeah, right," CJ stood up, trying to hide her blushing face.
"Have you spoken to Danny lately?"
"Danny?" CJ whirled around, caught off-guard.
"Yes," Abbey waved her hands in CJ's face. "You know, White House reporter, asks you out all the time, father of your fish..."
"I know who Danny is, Abbey," CJ snapped. "No, I haven't spoken to him. Why?"
Abbey shrugged. "No reason. I thought he would have found you before the Dinner last night."
CJ laughed, "Oh, he did. He liked my dress."
Abbey grinned. "I bet he did." Abbey glanced at the clock. "Oh, I've gotta go. Could you give those to Sam for me?"
"Give what?"
"There are doubles in there," Abbey said, referring to the envelope.
"Abbey..."
"What?" Abbey put on an innocent face. "I didn't do anything. Just do me a favor. I have to go."
"Are you trying to set me up?"
"Set you up? Darling, I don't have the time to set up my husband and myself, much less you and...," her voice drifted off, reluctant to fill in the other person's name. "Bye, CJ." Abbey waved and disappeared out of the door.
CJ watched Abbey walk out of her office. When she was sure she was gone, she picked up the pictures again and stared at the one of her and Sam again. "Nice couple, yeah right."
She shuffled through the small stack until she found all of the doubles in the envelope and settled them on top of one another, so her copies were on the bottom.
*~*
"Cathy, could you get me Senator Redmond?!" Sam yelled into the bullpen, from his office. His head ducked down as he picked through a file the size of a book, lying on his desk.
"I figured I would hear Toby yelling from his desk, but you..."
Sam jumped "God, CJ! Don't ever do that again."
"Why are you so jumpy?" CJ dropped onto his couch.
"Why were you so jumpy last night," Sam shot back, leaning back in his chair, letting the sunlight surround his head in a halo of light.
"Because it was late at night and I was alone. What's your excuse?" CJ jeered at Sam.
"What's up?" Sam avoided the question.
"Oh, nothing. Same old, same old. I have something for you."
"You do?" Sam took in the envelope CJ held in her hands. "Are you going to give it to me?"
"Maybe." CJ answered, a slow smile curling on her lips. "Answer the question. Why did you jump?"
Sam gave her a sickly smile. "I did...Well..."
"Are you afraid of me?"
"Of you?" Sam looked surprised. "Why would I be scared of you?" He leaned back further as CJ stood up and made her way to him.
"I don't know," CJ stood in front of him. "Maybe it has something to do with last night."
Sam moved further back in his chair, trying to escape CJ's insistent gaze. "Last night?"
"Yeah," CJ leaned down closer to Sam until he could smell the peppermint on her breath.
"Well, CJ..."
"I enjoyed it," she whispered.
"Enjoyed *it*?"
"Kiss, Sam."
"Oh," Sam was speechless.
CJ stood up and dropped the envelope on his desk. "I took mine out."
Sam opened the package and shuffled through the pictures. "These are nice."
"Yeah, especially the one of you and Ainsley."
"CJ..."
"What? I didn't say anything." CJ took up residence on Sam's couch once more.
"You and Josh look nice."
"So do Josh and Donna."
"Oh," a soft breath of air escaped Sam's lips.
"What?"
Sam held up the picture of him and CJ. "Abbey liked that one," CJ told him.
"I bet she did," Sam muttered.
"Oh, don't get your panties in a knot, Sam."
"Panties in a knot?" His eyebrows rose.
"Expression," CJ brushed him off. "She's not trying to set anyone up. Namely, you and me."
"Well, I would think not," Sam replied. Pause. "Stunning."
"Huh?"
"Stunning. You looked stunning."
CJ blushed. "Let's not do that again, Sam."
Sam got up from his chair and sat down next to CJ on the couch. "I mean it."
"Do you tell all the girls that, Sam?"
He grinned, good naturedly. "Yeah," he admitted.
"Good to know I'm in such good company," CJ dryly replied.
"May I keep these?"
"What? Why did you ask me that?"
"No reason. I thought maybe we didn't have the same pictures."
"No, they're doubles." Pause. "I'm gonna go," CJ stood up.
Sam's eyes followed her. "You are?"
"Yeah, Sam, I have work to do. Remember?"
Sam shook his head, as if he were coming out of a daze. "Yeah. See you later."
"Bye, Sam."
Sam stared at the picture of them dancing, a small smile forming on his face. She was almost out of the door when he yelled, "CJ?!"
CJ quickly stuck her head back in the door, "What! What happened?"
"Nothing, I just wanted to ask you something."
CJ sighed. "Ask what?"
"I want to frame this picture." Sam held up the copy of them dancing together.
"Frame?" CJ squeaked.
"Yeah, I usually put them up." Sam walked back to his desk.
"Uh, sure. Why not?"
*~*
(a few days later)
"You still here?"
CJ picked her head up from her desk, wiping away the sleep from her eyes. "Huh?"
"Working hard?" Sam teased.
"Something like that," CJ replied. "Why are you here? It's almost midnight," she told him.
"I know. I just wanted to give you something before I left."
CJ sat up straighter. "Give me something? What?" For the first time she noticed the large package Sam held in his arms. "Wow, that's for me?"
"Kinda," Sam set the package on CJ's couch. "Are you gonna open it?"
"Yeah." CJ got up and made her way to the couch. "Something nice?"
"Look."
CJ tore the brown paper from around the thin package to find,
"Oh, Sam, it's beautiful." CJ held up the small framed portrait of them. It was encased in a cherry wood frame, surrounded by carved leaves, making long tendrils along the sides. At the bottom, was a simple rose, in full bloom, the tendrils barely kissing the wooden rose petals.
"I thought you might like it."
CJ grinned at Sam. "You thought right. Good job, Spanky." Pause. "But I thought this was your copy."
"Oh, it is," Sam quickly answered. "I just thought I'd give you this one and we could...share it," he finished finally.
"Share?"
Sam tried to hide his blush as he turned away from her, looking around her office. "Yeah, where are you going to put it?"
"Put it?" CJ looked around her office, trying to find a clean, prominent spot. "How about..." She moved a few steps down from the couch, "right here."
"There?" Sam stood beside CJ, staring at a spot beside her framed copy of "A Valediction". "Are you sure?"
"Yeah, why not? I can put it up tomorrow."
"CJ, I've been meaning to ask, but where did that poem come from? It's beautiful." Sam admired the copy on her wall, written on what appeared to be parchment. Dried petals were laced throughout the paper, sprinkled liberally between the handwritten words.
CJ shifted uncomfortably. "Oh, a friend gave it to me when I was 18."
"Oh?"
"Yeah, after my boyfriend died in an accident."
"CJ...I don't know what to---"
CJ cut him off, "Don't say anything. It was a long time ago. A very long time ago."
"But it still has to hurt."
"A little, but not how you'd think." Pause. Whispering, "We were going to go to the same college and everything. At least, that's what we said. You know, things change."
"High-school sweethearts?"
CJ threw him a small smile, "Something like that. What did people say...'an unlikely couple if there ever was one.'"
Sam gave CJ's arm a supportive squeeze. "How so?"
"He was everything I wasn't. Everyone thought he was a fast-talking, manipulative..."
"And you saw through all of that?"
"God, no," CJ laughed. "I was shy and quiet. I was suprised he even noticed me."
'I have a hard time people wouldn't,' Sam thought.
"Hard to imagine that."
"Yeah, I know what you mean. His death kind of threw me for a loop. We weren't in love or anything, it was just...sad."
They sat in silence. She cleared her throat and continued, "Now that you've heard my life story, how about you?"
Sam looked taken aback, "How about me what?"
CJ smiled at Sam. "I bet you have a string of broken hearts a mile long."
Sam gave CJ a rueful grin. "You would probably bet wrong. Remember, I was the Secretary for the Gilbert and Sullivan Society at Princeton."
"And you mean you couldn't get a date," CJ asked in playful shock. "I find that hard to believe, Samuel."
Sam grimaced at the use of his full name. "No, I could get a date. It was keeping the date that was the problem."
"Relationship problems?"
"You could say that."
"Well, Sam," CJ covered Sam's hand with her own. "You're in good company. I think it must be a rule working here, that you must have no love life."
"No, just the nature of the beast."
"You can say that again," CJ retorted. "Come on, Spanky. Let's beat this popsicle stand."
"CJ, you know, you've gotta lay off the cliches."
CJ gathered her coat and purse and followed Sam out of the office. "I know, they just pop up---"
"--And out of your mouth," Sam finished.
"Yeah," their voices faded as they walked down the hall, together.
A couple stood, pressed together, oblivious to the world, laughing at their own joke. One dressed in navy blue and the other in a black tuxedo.
Stunning.


A Valediction: Forbidden Mourning
by John Donne
1611?

As virtuous men pass mildly away,
And whisper to their souls to go,
Whilst some of their sad friends do say,
"Their breath goes now," and some say, "No,"

So let us melt, and make no noise,
No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move;
'Twere profanation of our joys
To tell the laity of our love.

Moving of the earth brings harms and fears,
Men reckon what it did and meant;
But trepidation of the spheres,
Though greater far, is innocent.

Dull sublunary lovers love
(Whose souls is sense) cannot admit
Absence, because it doth remove
Those things which elemented it.

But we, by a love so much refined
That our selves know not what it is,
Inter-assured of the mind,
Care less, eyes, lips, and hands to miss.

Our two souls therefore, which are one,
Though I must go, endure not yet
A breach, but an expansion,
Like gold to airy thinness beat.

If they be two, they are two so
As stiff twin compasses are two:
Thy soul, the fixed foot, makes no show
To move, but doth, if the other do;

And though it in the center sit,
Yet when the other far doth roam,
It leans, and hearkens after it,
And grows erect, as that comes home.

Such wilt thou be to me, who must,
Like the other foot, obliquely run;
Thy firmness makes my circle just,
And makes me end where I begun.


I Hope You Dance: Satin Memories

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