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I smiled. �Not at all,� I said. The morning before Election Day was the last time he bathed and, with all the stress�and all the sex�Josh is beginning to get a little on the rank side. �Give me your key, I�ll run to your room and get you a change of clothes so you don�t have to get into that suit again,� I said, casting a glance over at the discarded clothing that, I feared, would never be the same again. Which is sad because it�s a good suit. One of Josh�s better ones, really. Hopefully Zuzu will be able to work his magic on it when we get back to DC�a thought that reminds me to tell whoever Josh ends up hiring as his assistant about Zuzu the miracle dry-cleaner who can get an entire suit cleaned and pressed in half an hour, less if you get there between ten and twelve since he doesn�t get really busy until people start dropping their dry cleaning off until their lunch breaks. When I quit I left a two-inch binder with Margaret, lime green and carefully indexed and organized into everything from his favourite foods to what the different glints in his eyes mean to how to prevent disaster in the press�for example, don�t let Josh brief the Press Corps�to things that certain people know about him and things he knows about certain people�or things I know about certain people that Josh never had a need to be informed of�that would help or hinder depending on the legislation at hand. An in depth How-To on dealing with Josh for whoever took over after I left�I actually started compiling it during the campaign for my own use but I soon realized that I didn�t need the cheat sheet to know what was going on in the head of Josh Lyman, and over the years I added to it. All of his doctors numbers are on the first page, along with his mother�s name and number in Florida, and I also left my personal cell phone number there in case there was anything that Josh needed me and only me for.
I know, I know, I suck at cutting the cord.
We managed to get checked out of the hotel without much problem. Mallory had one of the interns pack up Leo�s room, saying that she couldn�t be in that room. I would have offered to help her but the truth was that I was pretty sure that I couldn�t be in that room, either.
The majority of the staff was staying in Houston to wrap things up. Edie was going to take care of the Congressional office and Ronna was going to come to DC in a few days after she finished clearing out the war room. Bram was going with us right away, as was Otto, and Lou was headed off to parts unknown because, as she told us many times, she campaigned, she didn�t govern. No one was entirely sure what Annabeth was going to do, but she was coming to DC with us and would stick around at least until after the funeral.
Helen opted to come with us, leaving the kids with their grandmother so they wouldn�t miss school. She mentioned that they didn�t really understand why Leo wasn�t going to be around anymore. I nodded when she told me that, remembering when I was little and my parents tried to explain to me why we weren�t making our usual mid-July trip to visit Grandma Mary in Miami anymore.
�Last time we�ll have to fly on anything but Air Force One for a while,� Josh commented as we buckled ourselves into our seats on the Santos for America plane that still looked like a disaster area from being our war room for the past two weeks. |
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