He’s thinking about a first date the minute she walks in the room.
She’s modestly dressed and her hair is pulled back, her pink jacket and white Keds a shining ray of normalcy in an otherwise dim and crazed environment. He smiles as he watches her listen to Michael talk, and he genuinely laughs at her reaction to meeting Dwight for the first time. He introduces himself and throws a joke or two in, and is delighted when he realizes he is actually going to be working with someone who understands his sense of humor, speaks his language, and was born on the same planet.
He’s thinking about a second date after she agrees to a first.
She’s setting up her voice mail and smiling at the opportunity to escape this place at lunch time. He tells her he knows a pizza place down the road and she pretends to hesitate before accepting his offer. He plays with the jelly beans on the counter as an excuse to stay and talk with her, absentmindedly eating a black one and subsequently recoiling in disgust. She laughs as he spits it out and he returns to thinking to himself. He's thinking about Italian food, and if she likes Cugino's, he knows of a nicer place he can take her to. It has candles and violins and is way out of his price range, but for the girl who has provided him an escape from his own personal hell, he can splurge.
He’s thinking about a third date as he walks her to his car.
She’s talking about nothing in particular and he can’t help but laugh. He decides that if the nice Italian restaurant goes well, he will have to take her somewhere farther away, outside of Scranton, just to enjoy a longer car ride in her company. She mentions something on the side of the road and he enjoys the random conversation about nothing in particular. There is no awkward silence, only constant banter in it’s place. He has known her for hours but it feels like years, and he wants it to be.
He’s thinking about a fourth date as soon as they get their menus.
She’s teasing him because he doesn’t want to order a whole pizza, so he does anyways to humor her after she’s called him a wuss. She tells him she’ll split it with him, and the waitress takes their menus away. He thinks about all of the girls that he’s taken to Cugino’s, and how many of them ordered a garden salad. He decides that one night they can order in pizza and sit on the couch with a couple of beers, enjoy a television show or just each other.
He’s thinking about a fifth date as they wait.
She’s talking about movies and how she can’t handle scary ones. He laughs and schemes to make her watch one just so she can bury her head in his chest when she gets scared. By then she’ll know he can protect her, and he can prove it. She talks about her apartment and he talks about his roommate. She doesn’t mention if she has one or not, and he doesn’t ask.
He’s thinking about a sixth date once their food comes.
She’s making some cute, excited face and he beams with a smile he can feel throughout his whole body. He’s fallen hard and doesn’t want to pick himself up. He thinks about the relationship getting serious and it doesn’t scare him at all.
He’s thinking about a first date again when she slaps at his hand.
She’s jokingly batting at him as he reaches for a slice from her side of the pizza and he catches a glimpse of the reflection from her ring finger. His mouth goes dry and he feels like he’s going to pass out as she sets her hand back down on the table and he sees the engagement ring that can’t be mistaken for anything else. His world breaks and he loses his appetite as she continues to talk and laugh in the background. He’s making plans for a future that she has planned with someone else. He’s building them a house when she has already built one across the street.
He’s thinking about a first date again and how it never was.
She’s talking about Roy and he wonders if she mentioned his name earlier but he was too busy thinking about grandkids. She pushes pizza at him and he forces himself to eat it, but he’s fallen hard and he can’t pick himself back up.
Story Notes:
I've been trying to write this forever, so I'm SO glad I finally finished it, my original vision was impossible to execute, but I'm happy with how this turned out.
Author's Chapter Notes:
I don't own the Office, just taking what I know from deleted scenes, borrowing these wonderful characters, and writing my own story from it.
Chapter End Notes:
Thanks so much for reading. I appreciate ratings/reviews like you wouldn't believe!
nightskiesfading is the author of 5 other stories.
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