3.

What had she been thinking?  Did she really think that this wild-hair impulse of hers would turn out okay?  Did she really think that Jim would have forgotten the way she had rejected him….the way she hurt him? Did she really think that she was not too late?

It was June 20th. Ten days after she was supposed to have gotten married. She had finished moving out, sent back all of the gifts she could and sold her wedding dress on eBay. She had been sitting in her apartment that morning, surrounded by cardboard boxes and crinkled up newspapers and all she could think about was that she needed to talk to Jim. She needed to see him.  She needed to hear him tell her that it would all be okay. She wanted him to tell her again that he loved her, because this time she knew that she could say what he wanted to hear.  She wanted to go to Stamford.

She didn’t have a car yet. She was working on detangling her finances from Roy’s and until they did so, she didn’t have enough for a down-payment. Angela had been driving her back and forth to work and Kelly had taken her shopping a couple of times.  She could have rented a car for this trip, but she wanted time to mentally prepare and she was secretly hoping that she’d be staying for at least a few days. So, she bought herself an open-ended bus ticket and told Michael she was taking vacation and headed off to Connecticut.

She had spent the trip rehearsing her speech…how she’d tell him that she was in love with him too and that she and Roy were over…because of him.  She was hoping for another kiss, but she’d settle for a hug if he needed time. She would give him time.

When the bus pulled into the Stamford station, she caught a cab and had the driver take her to the Dunder-Mifflin offices. It was 4:30, so she figured she’d catch Jim coming out of work.

They had run into a little rush-hour traffic and were just pulling into the parking lot at quitting time. She was afraid that she had missed him, as she didn’t see is Toyota in the parking lot.

At  5:10, though, she realized she wasn’t too late. Her breath caught in her throat when she saw him walk out of the building. He looked….good. His suit was new and he was smiling. She was about to hop out of the cab when she noticed that he was talking with someone…..he was laughing with someone and she was gorgeous.  She had forgotten just how big Jim’s smile could grow, but there it was, directed at someone who wasn’t her. She felt a wave of jealousy rise from her gut and for the first time, she understood Angela’s impulse to call someone a hussy.

Maybe she was wrong to come here. Maybe she wasn't. Maybe this person was Jim’s friend. Maybe she was more. They were making finger guns and pretending to shoot each other. Maybe…..maybe she wasn’t too late.

She realized that she should have thought this through better. She pulled out her cell phone and found the number that she’d gotten from Toby before she left. She had decided now that she’d call him, let him know that she was in town and ask to have dinner or coffee or something...anything.  She dialed the number and watched as Jim pulled his phone from his pocket. She watched as he flipped it open, read the caller ID information. In just a second he’d be smiling and she’d be talking with him like old times.

Then she saw him close the phone. She read his lips as he told the hussy, “Nothing.”  Saw him keep laughing with her and follow her into her car.

Wow.

Seriously bad idea.

That’s why she was now locked in the bathroom of a Greyhound, somewhere between Stamford and Philadelphia, sobbing her heart out.

She was too late.