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MY GUESTBOOK
�So those people screaming at each other on cable really can�t help it.� Finally a glimpse of the Josh I was used to.
�And guys like you and me are quantifiably a little nuts. And so could benefit from the occasional break. You people don�t take office for ten weeks. I think you could afford to spend one of them lying on a beach somewhere.� I was very careful to say �you people� instead of �we�. Even if he wasn�t at his best I knew that Josh would latch on to any hint of my desire to work for Santos and I would never have the choice of leaving. Josh would grab on to any chance that would stay because that would mean he had won. If there was anything that Josh Lyman loved it was winning.
Josh�s phone beeped and someone let him know that he had to get to a meeting. �Yeah. Yep,� he said into the phone. He hung up and looked at me as he grabbed his jacket. �I�ve got a thing. I�ve starred which are meetings, I�ve ex-ed out which are blow-offs.�
�I haven�t officially said I�m in,� I reminded Josh.
�Yeah, no absolutely,� Josh said before looking up and addressing the entire staff. �Ladies and gentlemen, Sam Seaborn, our new Deputy Chief of Staff.� The group started applauding, somewhat half-heartedly, and Josh patted me on the back. �Knock �em dead, tiger,� he said before taking off.
At first no one really seemed to know what to do or say, which was fine because I was stuck between amusement and fury and would not have been very responsive had anyone spoken to me in the first few minutes after Josh rushed out. Josh was being Josh, I knew that, and he had skipped over that annoying first step and gone straight to the second step, the way Andie always did with Toby.
The thought of Toby brought me back. He would kick my ass back to California if he found out that such a classic Josh move had left me speechless. Of course he�d probably kick my ass across the continent if I started making a speech, too, though I know he would listen, like he always did, even if it seemed he would rather go bungee jumping or something equally anti-Toby.
�It�s an honour to meet you, Mr. Seaborn,� a kid in an ill-fitting blue suit and a five-dollar haircut said, his voice sounding painfully youthful. I hope to do that I didn�t make Leo and President Bartlet feel so ancient nine years ago.
�Sam,� I corrected. I have a feeling that I�ll be having the �we call the President sir, everyone else is hey when am I going to get that thing I asked for' conversation a couple of times in the near future.
The kid nodded. �The speech you wrote for President Bartlet when he spoke at the DNC fundraiser at the Capital Hilton during his second campaign� the night after the pipe bomb at Kennison State� what you wrote that night made me want to be a speechwriter.�