'Good morning, sir. I hope you had a great weekend', Ashley greeted Joe on Monday morning when he arrived at the Oval Office.
He walked around and took his place behind his desk. 'It was lovely thanks', he smiled. He opened his mouth to ask after her weekend too but she began to speak before he did.
'Here you go, sir', she said.
His eyes followed as she turned, her arms full of files. He watched as a he laid the first one on his desk.
'This is the update on the troop movements in Ukraine since Friday. Then we have the update on the budget negotiations. The details for the speech this afternoon. Your remarks for the fundraiser tonight. The document you asked for from Homeland Security. The presidential decree you asked for. The Details for the overnight trip to Utah and Colorado Wednesday and Thursday. Here's the itinerary. Umm, the remarks, and the hotel information are all here for you too', Ashley said, piling one file atop another with every sentence.
Joe ran his eyes over the stack. He noticed that she seemed to have another pile now. 'What are those?' he asked.
'The remarks for the G7 preparation meeting on Friday morning. Remarks for the Invest in America speech on Friday afternoon and then just some details that you requested form the DOD about the hidden houses' she said looking at him. 'You said you would look over them today', she reminded him, 'before your meeting tomorrow. Dr. Biden is also attending so it's scheduled in the late afternoon when she's back from school'.
He sat down in his chair and looked again at the two piles. He took a deep breath. 'Well, ok, happy Monday to us all then I guess', he said, thankful for the beautiful and restful weekend he and Jill had spent together.
'When you're done with those I have a collection of Bills for you to sign and various memorandums and reports from other departments for you to look over but these are the most important ones for now', Ashley said gesturing towards the collection. I'll let you get to it, sir. I'll be at my desk if you need anything', she told him.
He nodded his thanks to her and, when she looked back as she crossed the threshold, he was already reading through the first page of the first file. Vacation my ass she thought, thinking about how the MAGA folks called every time he went home to Delaware a holiday. The man did more work in a morning than most of them would ever do in a month. She closed the door softly and let him work in peace.
Back at his desk Joe was reading deeply into the update on the war. Halfways through he reached for one of his notecards and made some notes. Placing the notecard in the file he closed it and reached for the phone. 'Ashley, can you get Glen on the line please, find out if he's in DC. If he is, I want to talk to him, in person if possible', he asked.
'I'll get right on it, sir', she replied.
He replaced the phone and reached for his remarks written for the afternoon and evening. 'Ok, leave that until Glen has been, get these marked up first', he muttered to himself, taking the speeches for the coming day and putting them front and center. 'Then the houses stuff and the decree, I can do later with Jill. Ummm, G7 next, then I'll look over the details for the trip', he decided, rearranging everything into an order that made most sense to him. He stood up, removed his jacket and then settled down to mark up the speeches.
He was surprised when he heard a knock on the door and Ashley appeared with an usher behind her carrying a silver tray. 'It's 11.00am, sir, I thought you'd like some coffee', she said, hovering while it was poured. She waited for the man to leave before updating him on her conversation with Glen.
'He was just getting on a plane, sir, he said he'd meet you back here after the event if that's ok? He said he'd make it anytime after 3.00pm', she explained, waiting for an answer.
