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MY GUESTBOOK
Of course, then we threw him off balance again by shanghaiing him in that meeting with Leo. Again, Leo wanted me to go hire her, but Josh pointed out that hiring and firing was technically the job of the Deputy Chief of Staff and not the Deputy Communications Director, and once again he headed off to meet with Mandy.
He kept the picture that she gave him�the one with his face scribbled over with a Magic Marker�on his desk with pictures of his mother, his father, his grandfather, and his sister, then when his desk got too cluttered he moved it off to the side. He didn�t get rid of it, though.
The night of the State Dinner I noticed that Josh was paying a lot of attention to Mandy. He said that he was worried about her, that she had just made her first real contribution in the Oval Office where the decision came down to life or death and that he was afraid that she wouldn�t be able to handle it if things went south. Which they did. The negotiator was shot and later died in surgery, and he wouldn�t have been there if it wasn�t for her suggestion. The guilt she felt over that, combined with the phone call with the Signalman who was going to die an even worse death than the negotiator, led to Mandy taking solace in Josh�s arms. She stood there, shivering slightly despite the fact that the heat was more than adequate, and Josh wrapped his arms around her, pulling Mandy�s tiny body back until it was moulded against his.
He would flatly deny it, but it was that night that they got back together.
Again.
They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.
It amazed me that Donna never called Josh on being hypocritical whenever he would lay into her about going back to Dr. Freeride.
To be honest I thought it was just a sex thing; she needed comfort and reassurance that not everything in the world had to crumble to dust at her fingertips, he needed a warm body to fill his bed in place of the woman he lusted after�maybe even loved�but couldn�t be with. Josh was familiar to Mandy; Mandy was ready and willing to be with Josh and not care that he�d rather have a leggy blonde with alabaster skin in his arms instead of a petite brunette with freckled skin that she tried daily to mask. Maybe at one time I could have respected their choice to use each other, but the truth was that Josh started to get invested in their� whatever it was� and Mandy was as unemotional as ever. Now, Mandy Hampton is great at her job, she has a top notch political mind, and she is the queen of the artful spin, but when it comes to my best friend�s heart she is the last person I want around. Inevitably he�ll get hurt and put all his time and energy into making everyone believe that he wasn�t even though everyone from the President to the UPS guy that Cathy thinks is hot can tell just how broken Josh really is.