Sam took a swig of his beer and glanced over at Josh. He'd called his friend for a drink and some laughs about old times. Josh had agreed to meet him, but instead of being slapped on the back and regaled with tales of triumph from the West Wing, Sam ended up watching him get completely sloshed and increasingly depressed with each drink.

Still, he mused, the evening didn't have to be a total loss. They could at least catch up. "How's work?" he asked.

"The world may or may not be ending," Josh mumbled, staring into his drink as though he thought he might be able to drown himself in it.

Okay. Maybe the subject of work wasn't quite the upper he was looking for. He cast his mind about for something that could be counted on to make Josh happy.

"How's Donna?" he asked.

"I get stuck in her teeth," Josh said morosely. "But not in a good way."

Sam really hadn't expected that answer and didn't know quite what to make of it. "Huh?"

"I used to dream about getting stuck in her teeth... in the good way," he said sadly. "But she didn't want to be stuck in my teeth."

Sam didn't really understand how you could get stuck in someone's teeth in a good way, but he decided not to dwell on it.

"Even though she didn't want to be stuck in my teeth, I never stopped wanting to be stuck in hers. And now I'm stuck in her teeth in a way which she finds irritating. Isn't that sad? I'm finally stuck in her teeth, and she doesn't like it."

Sam agreed that it was sad.

"You know what, though? I'm not even stuck in her teeth anymore. She didn't want me. She got me out of her teeth."

Sam loved Josh like a brother, but had to admit that he was making very little sense right now. "Josh? Buddy? I'm cool with listening, but I gotta tell you I don't know what you're talking about."

Josh looked startled. "You don't?"

Sam shook his head. "Why are you talking about being stuck in Donna's teeth?"

Josh lay his head down on the bar. "I'm peppermint," he moaned.

Well, that made even less sense. "Oh? That's... nice," Sam said bewildered.

"No, it's not," Josh said sadly. "No one likes peppermint. Peppermint is something people only tolerate out of the goodness of their hearts, once a year, at Christmas time."

"I like peppermint," Sam mused.

Josh peered at him. "That's because you're nice. I bet you just feel sorry for peppermint because nobody else likes it."

"No, I really just like peppermint," Sam said honestly.

"Yeah, but you don't love peppermint, do you?"

Sam thought. "No, I can't say I love it. I just like it."

"That's okay. No one loves peppermint."

"I'm sure some people do," Sam said comfortingly.

"She did. She used to love peppermint. She said so. But not anymore."

"Why not?"

"I don't know."

"Josh? What's going on?"

Josh stared at his drink darkly. "Monday. Monday is a bad day. Can't trust Monday. I said Monday was good to me, but it wasn't. Monday was bad to me."

Josh was babbling. Sam was having trouble following the whole teeth/peppermint thing without adding days of the week to the mix, but he sighed and asked gamely, "What happened?"

Josh didn't appear to be paying attention to him. "How could she leave and not take me? She gave me no warnin' of what was to be," he said tunelessly.

Sam realized things must have come to a sorry pass if his friend had begun to speak in rhyme.

Josh stared into space. "She was singing. We were singing. Together. It was so nice. But she didn't finish the song."

"She didn't?"

He sighed heavily. "No. All I wanted to do was keep singing. But she didn't want to, and then I found out the world may or may not be ending. But even if the world was ending, I would want to keep singing. With her."

"Listen, Josh, I know you fell in love with Donna in like, the first five minutes you met her, but–"

"Three," Josh mumbled.

Great, now he was adding random numbers to his weird Donna code. "Huh?"

"It wasn't the first two minutes. It was the third minute."

Sam stared at him. "You- you have it pinned down to the minute?"

Josh nodded miserably. "The first minute I thought she was nuts. The second minute I thought she was a dupe for her freeloading ex-boyfriend. The third minute I thought... The third minute was when she told me she was valuable."

"Seriously, you know the exact minute you fell in love with her?"

Josh blinked. "Sure. I mean, I'd never been in love before. I took notice."

"You had tons of girlfriends before you met Donna," Sam protested.

"So?"

"You were never in love before that?"

"No." Josh drained the last of his drink and signaled for another.

Sam looked at him appraisingly. "So, you guys had a fight?"

Josh shrank away from him. "We didn't have a fight."

"You didn't?" Sam asked gently.

Josh shook his head violently. "No. We didn't have a fight. She... she's been mad at me for about a year. I guess she finally had enough. She quit."

Sam choked on his drink. "Donna– Donna quit?"

Josh nodded.

"When?" Sam said in disbelief.

"Today."

"Why?"

"She doesn't like peppermint anymore," Josh said miserably. "She says it gets stuck in her teeth."

He frowned. "You know what?" he said. "I think I need to talk to her."

Sam took a swig of his drink. "I think you're right."

"Maybe once I'm out of her teeth, she'll let me be near them, at least," Josh said pensively. He turned to Sam. "If you got peppermint out of your teeth, would you let it be, you know, in the general proximity of your teeth, if it promised not to touch them?"

Sam considered this. "I don't see why not."

"And maybe one day, once you got used to having peppermint around a lot, would you maybe consider letting it get stuck in your teeth again?" he said hopefully.

"Sure," Sam said magnanimously.

"I promise, stuck in a good way, not in an irritating way," Josh assured him.

Sam drained the last of his drink. "All right, then."

Josh tossed back the rest of his drink, as well. "All right, then. Let's go."

Sam blinked at him. "Go where?"

"To Donna's," Josh announced.

"Good idea," Sam declared. "I don't know what the hell all this peppermint business is about, but you can't lose Donna over it."

"So you think it's a good idea?" Josh pressed. "You don't think it's too much to overcome?"

"Josh, I've known you and Donna a long time; I am certain she would never quit because of peppermint," he said confidently.

Apparently this was the right thing to say, because Josh brightened. "Really?"

He nodded. "Absolutely."

"Okay, then. Let's go," Josh declared. He wobbled a bit when he got off the bar stool.

Sam reached out an arm to steady him. "Let's take a cab," he decided.

Josh had become slightly more sober by the time Sam dropped him off at Donna's apartment, but not much more. Sam patted him on the shoulder as he climbed out of the cab, wishing him luck and assuring him that peppermint really wasn't as bad as it was made out to be.

Thus fortified, Josh climbed up to her second level apartment and banged on the door.

"Donna!" he shouted.

She opened the door, took a look at him, and sighed. "Josh, what do you want?"

"I don't want to be stuck in your teeth." He stopped. "Wait. No, I don't. I mean, I do. I mean, I want to be stuck in your teeth in the good way."

"Josh, go home," she said tiredly.

"Can't."

She raised her eyebrows. "Why not?"

"I need to be here, with you."

"No, you don't."

"Yes, I do."

"Josh, really– "

"I need to talk to you," he interrupted her.

She sighed. "About what?"

"I need to talk to you about peppermint."

Her brow furrowed in confusion. "About peppermint?"

He scrubbed his hand over his face. "Yes. I know your issues with peppermint go a long way back. Peppermint was scared of letting you go, and that's why– " he sighed. "Anyway, I know why you left, and I don't blame you. Mostly. But I don't want you to leave without knowing the truth about peppermint."

"Josh, what are you talking about?"

He looked at her sadly. "Peppermint loves you, you know. Just because you don't love peppermint anymore, doesn't mean peppermint stopped loving you. Peppermint didn't stop loving you for one minute. Peppermint will never stop loving you. Ever. In his whole life."

Donna stared at him. "Peppermint loves me?" she said faintly.

Josh nodded. "Yeah. Always has."

He sat down heavily on her couch and buried his face in his hands. "I know you hate peppermint. But I thought you should know that peppermint has never been indifferent to you."

Donna sat down next to him. "Josh. I don't hate peppermint," she said softly. "I never hated peppermint." She was quiet for a moment. "And I'm really, really glad peppermint came over tonight. Because I would have been really sad if he had just let me walk away."

He looked up. "Really?"

She laid her hand lightly on his wrist. "Really. I was angry and frustrated with peppermint, but I didn't hate it. Mostly, I was disappointed."

"Because you counted on peppermint and it let you down," Josh said sadly.

She sighed. "It wasn't all peppermint's fault. I had too high of expectations of peppermint."

"Peppermint should have worked to meet them, however high they were," he insisted. He paused. "Why do you think you had too high of expectations?"

She smiled wryly. "Because peppermint was the one I loved the most."

Josh was stunned. "Really?"

She nodded. "I never disliked peppermint. I was just mad that peppermint still expected me to pick up his dry cleaning after all these years when I wanted to try new things."

"Peppermint was afraid of you trying new things and liking them better than him," Josh whispered.

"That could never happen, Josh."

"How do you know?"

She sighed. "Because I've tried new... flavors... in the past. And whenever I try something new, thinking I'll like it better, I always come back to the inevitable conclusion that nothing is ever going to surpass peppermint in my list of favorites."

"So... you think you might be able to give peppermint a second chance?" he said tentatively.

She nodded. "I think so. I mean, even if peppermint is irritating sometimes, I would miss it if it wasn't around."

"Peppermint would be heartbroken if you weren't around," Josh confessed. "I'm so sorry peppermint got stuck in your teeth."

"Josh, those little pieces of candy... they were the dry cleaning, the phones. I'm ready for something new... professionally. I still want peppermint in my life. I still like the ice cream underneath."

"Do you still love the ice cream underneath?" he asked timidly.

"Yes."

He looked at her for a long moment. Then a smile broke out over his face. "I like strawberry ice cream," he announced.

She raised her eyebrows. "You like it?"

"I love it," he clarified. "Can't get enough of it."

His eyes settled on her mouth. "In fact, I could really go for some right now."

She smiled. "Funny, I'm actually craving some peppermint at the moment."

She leaned forward and kissed him softly.

It was a nice kiss, amazing even. But when he tried to deepen it, she pulled back, an odd look on her face. "How much did you have to drink tonight?"

"A lot," he admitted guiltily. "I'm sorry. I'm kinda drunk."

She kissed him again lightly. "It's okay. I like Scotch, too."

He frowned. "Too?"

"Yeah. I don't mind it mixed with peppermint."

"Oh, good," he said, relieved. "I thought you might be mad."

"I'm not mad." She looked at him appraisingly. "It's too bad, though."

"What's too bad?"

"It's too bad you're drunk. I can't take advantage of you while you're drunk."

His eyes widened. "What? No, no, no. You can take advantage of me. Seriously, I'm totally cool with being taken advantage of. You can have your evil way with me, do naughty things to me, whatever. I'm yours for the taking advantage of."

She shook her head, laughing. "Josh. No."

"You don't want to take advantage of me?" he asked, disappointed.

"Not tonight."

"Why not?"

"Because you're exhausted."

"I'm not that exhausted," he said with a leer.

"And I'm exhausted too," she said, ignoring him. "It's been an emotionally exhausting day for both of us. And you're drunk, and we have yet to have a complete and honest discussion about our relationship that hasn't been veiled in ice cream metaphors."

"Fine," he said, defeated. She kissed him again, and that made him feel better. "Okay, well, if I'm so tired and drunk tonight, I think we should talk about this tomorrow," he said with a pout.

She smiled. "Come on," she said, standing up and tugging him by the hand. "Let's go to bed."

He perked up. "We're going to bed?"

"Just to sleep, Josh," she said, leading him into the bedroom and then pulling him towards her so she could undo his tie.

"I get to sleep with you?" he asked, amazed. "Like, next to you, in a bed and everything?"

"Yes, next to me and in a bed and everything."

He looked down at the bed, and then at her, holding his hand and smiling. He leaned forward and kissed her. "I may not have mentioned this before, but you're pretty amazing at the kissing thing."

"Thank you," she said modestly. She pointed to the bed. "Get in."

He hastened to get his clothes off (save boxers and a t-shirt), and climbed into bed with her. He immediately rolled to his side and pulled her towards him, hooking his chin over her shoulder and holding her to him with a hand on her stomach. "This is fun," he declared.

She turned and kissed him on the forehead. "Go to sleep," she whispered.

He snuggled even closer to her. "Do you have any candy canes?" he asked into her hair.

She turned slightly. "Why?"

"Maybe we could have some in the morning..." he muttered sleepily.

"Okay..." She yawned. "Hey, Josh?"

"Yeah?"

"How do you get stuck in someone's teeth in a good way?"

He nibbled her ear and she thought she knew. He smiled into her neck. "I'll tell you tomorrow."