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MY GUESTBOOK
�I told you I have no threshold of embarrassment here. I�m prepared to abase myself until you submit,� Josh said. �She passed the Bar once, right?�
�Goodbye,� I said before hanging up.
I stared at the phone for a minute before picking it up again. �Tracey, I need you to book me a flight to DC, either tonight or early tomorrow morning.�
�One way?� my assistant, Tracey Shapiro, asked. She knew about Josh�s offer and had told me, many times, that I would be crazy to turn it down.
I considered that for a moment. �Open ended,� I decided. �Oh, and make sure my lunch with Sara is confirmed. She and I have a lot to talk about.�
�Yes sir,� Tracey said. One thing I wouldn�t miss about being a lawyer is the constant �sir�-ing thing. Tracey had worked for me since I joined the firm two and a half years earlier and she still refused to call me �Sam�. �Do you want me to reschedule the Collins meeting?�
�See if James or Wendy can handle it. I�m going to be taking a leave of absence for a few weeks,� I said.
�How long a leave?� Tracey asked, her fingers flying over her keyboard as she accessed my schedule.
I thought about it for a minute before I answered her. I already had three weeks blocked out to help write the Inaugural�well, actually, Josh had said that he would like me to write the Inaugural, not help write the Inaugural�but the more I thought about it the more I realized that I would probably need the entire Transition to not only craft the speech but to get the President Elect�s speech patters and everything down. It was easier with Bartlet. Toby and I had worked with him on the campaign and so we�d gotten a lot of practise at writing for him. The thing that we had found the most difficult about writing Bartlet�s Inaugural Address was that Toby and I had such different writing styles that it was hard to put our work together into an elegant�not to mention coherent�speech. �Eight, maybe ten weeks,� I decided. If I finished with the Inaugural early I could always help out with the Transition. From what I saw when Josh came by he could use all the help he could get. �Until January twenty-fourth to be safe,� I said a second later. Inauguration was January twentieth and I would probably need the other four days to recover.
Tracey was quiet for a minute and then I heard a knock at my door and she let herself in, closing the door behind her. �Why aren�t you asking me to write up your resignation?� she asked bluntly. That was one thing that I loved about Tracey. She didn�t beat around the bush when it came to things that mattered.
�Because I�m not sure I�m going to take the position, Trace,� I said honestly.
�What did Sara say?� she asked.