Invisible String

C.3: what's a lifetime of achievement

The short tour of the White House ended at one of the larger meeting rooms.

"Wait in here. I'll go get the Deputy Chief of Staff." As they held the door open with one hand and with the other, they pointed to one of the free chairs around the table.

Madison nodded as she slipped past the previous interviewer as she tried to make herself as comfortable as possible, if that was even possible in those seemingly uncomfortable wooden chairs.

She sat there, alone once more, as the previous interviewer went out to search for the Deputy Chief of Staff. Madison thought that it was odd that she was just left on her own, with no one watching her, but the blind covered windows offered her little to no privacy as everyone passing by stole a glance into the room, looking at the woman that was vaguely familiar but not enough to place where they knew her from.

As the minutes ticked by, Madison tried to busy herself and pulled the small binder from her bag and placed it in front of herself. It held a number of important documents about herself, including a few copies of her résumé and other employment related documents.

The room was much bigger than the previous one she'd been interviewed in. Blinds covered windows lined the walls, the blinds had been left uncovered so Madison was able to watch the people outside the room, just as they were able to watch her.

Madison reached forward to grab a glass that had been left in the centre of the table, pouring herself a small glass of water in an attempt to help calm down herself as she waited for anyone else to enter the room.

The door behind her swung open as Madison was cleaning up the water from the table.

"Sorry, I can't seem to find our copy of your résumé." The man said as he didn't once look up from the file that he had in hands, as he tried to close the door behind him without looking.

"Shit," Madison swore under her breath as she immediately recognised voice, she struggled against the desire to just let the floor swallow her whole.

Thankfully he hadn't yet realised who was facing away from him.

"I'm Josh Lyman, Deputy Chief of Staff to President Bartlet," he properly introduced himself to her, title and all, as he sat down opposite her. Still not having looked up from the file.

"Shit," she swore again, before taking a second to compose herself before speaking, "I'm Madison Montgomery," she started speaking as Josh's gaze snapped up to her, "Truthfully, I prefer Maddie." She gave a half smile, trying to put them both at some sort of ease. But failing.

As Josh took a second to compose himself, as she busied herself, getting him a spare copy of her résumé.

"Here," she said as she slid the printed document over to him.

"Thank you," he muttered as he started leafing through the pages, trying to quickly familiarise himself with the professional side of the woman now sitting in front of him.

As he read through the documents, Madison shifted uncomfortably in her seat, silently begging for anyone of the people walking through the halls to come in and pull Josh away from her.

Josh occasionally stole an uncomfortable glance up at Madison as he read through the section on her education, definitely interested in how many high acclaimed colleges and universities that she'd graduated from, and graduated in the top one percent each time. Her employment history wasn't much different. Littered with many distinguished organisations.

While she attended the University of Oxford for her Masters in International Human Rights Law, she competed and was victorious at the English-Speaking Union Moot competition, this success at Moot Court was only followed by another success while at Harvard Law School.  Madison hadn't only made it to the finale of the Ames Moot Court Competition, but won it for her team, once again.