“Elevator! Now!” Angela snapped. She immediately stood up and started walking in that direction, while he waited a few minutes before following her. The elevator door opened and he walked in. “What are you speaking to me for?” Angela said harshly. They had dated for several years, but she no longer wanted anything to do with him. It just wasn’t going to work.

“Monkey,” Dwight attempted to say affectionately.

“Stop that! I am not your monkey. I haven’t been for a long time,” Angela said. For the past two weeks, Dwight had made contact with her, whether through e-mail or phone calls or giving her suggestive looks as they passed each other in the office. Her anger had increased with each passing day. She was with Jim now, and certainly didn’t want him to think anything was going on. At the same time, she couldn’t tell Dwight about it, because he certainly wouldn’t believe her, and even if he did, his reaction would quite likely alert everyone in the office to the relationship.

“Don’t you miss me?” Dwight said, trying to do that smoldering eye movement that used to get her right there, but she would not meet his eyes.

“How could I possibly miss someone who always puts me second?” she said as the elevator doors opened and she quickly walked out through the lobby and to the parking lot.

“That’s not true, monkey,” Dwight said, hurrying to catch up to her.

“I told you to stop calling me that!” Angela shouted, immediately silencing him. “It was either your career or it was Michael,” she said quietly. “Twice you had, or at least thought you had, Michael’s job, and neither time did you let me help you out. No, you just cast me off to the side and basked in the stupid glory of your newfound power,” her voice beginning to waver with emotion. “Any other time, you’re sucking up to Michael left and right, even helping him pass a drug test, going against everything you believe in. You never once did anything like that for me.”

Dwight just stood there quietly taking all of this in, but he still couldn’t completely resist being himself. “But you don’t take drugs.”

She couldn’t believe she had wasted her time. This was probably the most she had ever said to him, and if he still didn’t understand, it would probably never happen. Angela quickly fixed him with an evil glare and finally decided it was best to get back to the office before anyone noticed they were gone. She had no way of knowing that Jim witnessed this conversation from the window. She also had no way of knowing that in his coat pocket was a diamond engagement ring, and that he planned to propose to her with it later that night.

Jim was really confused right now. Here he was spending a romantic evening with Angela at a nice restaurant, and he was hiding an engagement ring in his pocket. This is something he’d thought about for a long time. Sometimes he couldn’t shake the feeling that this was Angela Martin. It all felt very surreal to him. However, they had been dating for nine months and he was completely in love with her. Sure, they certainly had their fare share of differences, but there was an unmistakable connection between them that had developed through the past couple years. He knew that despite their differences, this is what he wanted, to spend the rest of his life with her.

However, something else was on his mind this evening, and try as he might, he could not shake it. What exactly did that conversation between Angela and Dwight mean? It looks pretty heated, a little too heated if you asked him. He tried to put it out of his mind. This was supposed to be a special night. Certainly he trusted Angela by now, but there was just a little sliver of doubt creeping up in his mind and he knew he wouldn’t be able to propose until he got rid of it.

“I saw you and Dwight this morning,” Jim said.

“When?” Angela asked, trying to feign innocence.

This didn’t help to ease his concern. Why was she trying to play dumb? “In the parking lot.”

“Oh. Did that bother you?” she asked, while staring down at her plate.

“Well, it didn’t seem like a friendly conversation, so...”

Angela tried to play it off in a way he would understand. “Dwight’s an idiot. That’s all.”

“Is it?” he asked with a trace of suspicion in his voice.

“I really don’t want to talk about it,” Angela said, staring down at her plate.

Dinner was mostly silent after that. There were awkward glances across the table, both of them wondering if the other was mad but neither wanted approach the subject. Dinner was almost over and Jim was about to ask for the check when something awful happened. It was the last thing either of them had expected.

“Oh my god! Jim? And Angela? What are you guys doing here?”

“Um, hi, Kelly,” Jim said as Angela shifted uncomfortably in her chair.

“You guys are dating, aren’t you?” Kelly asked, but she wasn’t waiting for an answer. “Never in a million years would I… I mean, it’s so cute, the two of you.”

“Thanks,” Jim said with an uncertain smile.

“Yeah, thanks, “Angela followed as she stabbed her food with her fork.

“Is this your first date?” Kelly excitedly asked. “That is awesome!”

“No, actually, we’ve been dating for nine months,” Jim said.

“Nine months? Jim! How could you not tell me?!” she said, punctuating each word in the sentence by playfully punching him on the arm.

“Ouch,” he said in a joking manner, although he wasn’t entirely joking.

“Oh, I can’t wait to tell everyone!” Kelly squealed. “It’ll be awesome!”

“No,” Angela said, causing Kelly to stare at her with confusion.

“What she means is…” Jim said, but was quickly cut off.

“What I mean is, we don’t want anyone else to know,” Angela said, a little more kindly, but not too much. “And we would appreciate it if you respected our privacy.”

Kelly felt a bit uncomfortable now, but obliged Angela’s request. “Oh, totally.” She eyed Jim and Angela suspiciously, noticing that neither of them looked too happy at the moment. “Are you guys fighting?” she asked.

“No, we are not fighting,” Angela said a little too sharply.

“It’s okay Kelly, we just need a little privacy.” Kelly nodded and began to walk away. “And please don’t tell anyone, because that would be horrible,” Jim sarcastically said to her as she walked away.

“I thought you agreed we should keep it a secret,” an annoyed Angela said.

“Of course I did. I guess I just wish you weren’t so adamant about it,” Jim said. “Also, it’s almost been a year. How much longer should we wait?”

“Our relationship is not the business of anyone else!” Angela said loudly, drawing the attention of people nearby.

Jim quietly said, “It doesn’t have to be, but that doesn’t mean we have to keep hiding or lying to others. It doesn’t have to be like…”

“Like what?” Angela said, having an idea where this was going and not liking it one bit.

There was a battle raging in his head over whether to finish that sentence or not. He knew that no good could come of it, but some small part of him felt it needed to be said. He would soon hate that part. “Like you and Dwight,” he said.

The reaction was exactly what he expected, as she immediately stood up and stormed off. After quickly calling for the check, Jim looked at the box in his hand. It wasn’t their first fight, and it certainly wouldn’t be their last, but the occasion was no longer right and so he slipped the ring back into his pocket.

“Well, I was a jerk last night, and you know jerks have to get up pretty early,” Jim said with a grin. “It’s a long day and we have plenty of people to treat like crap.”

“I never said you treated me like crap,” Angela said as she took the roses and a smile began to form on her face.

“Well, whatever you want to call it, I’m sorry it happened.”

Angela pondered this for a moment as she smelled the roses. “Okay, you can come in.”

“I can? So you’re giving me permission, like I’m a vampire?”

“You can be a vampire if you want,” she said, a small devilish smile appearing on her face.

“Oh really? We better get out of this sunlight then,” he said with a sly grin. “I think it might be dark enough in your bedroom, for example.”

“Yes, I believe it would. Let me put these in some water and then I can … shield you from sunlight.”

After she finished putting the roses in a vase, Jim snuck up behind her and wrapped his arms around her. “I think you might need shielding, too,” he said, before kissing her on the neck.

Unfortunately, the happiness of that morning did not completely dissuade their insecurities. Thankfully, Kelly had actually kept her promise not to tell the rest of the office about the relationship, although this disappointed Jim a bit. Surely, he could count on Kelly for something, and at least Angela would no longer be able to hide behind excuses. The next day at work, Jim got increasingly annoyed at the attention Dwight was paying to Angela. During lunch break, as Jim and Angela sat in the break room together, Dwight came up to her and asked if he could have a word.

“I really don’t want to, Dwight,” said Angela, clearly looking uncomfortable.

“Please,” he said intensely.

“I said no,” Angela replied, glancing at Jim to see how much this was bothering him.

“But monkey…” Dwight said, but he didn’t get to finish that.

“Look, Dwight, Angela and I are dating, alright?” he said, a little louder than he intended. Looking around, he could see Kevin was also in the break room, now with a confused look on his face. As Kevin hurried out, Jim turned back to Angela, who was clearly furious.

“That’s not funny, Jim!” Dwight shouted.

“It’s true,” Angela said, still with intensely angry eyes burning a hole in Jim’s face. After an obviously hurt Dwight stammered and stumbled his way out of the break room, she let him have it. “How could you do that?!”

“Do what? Let people know we’re dating? Oh no, the horror!” he said with angry sarcasm.

“You know I didn’t want that. I didn’t want people whispering and butting in to my private life!”

“Who cares what people think? Sometimes, it’s good to just to be carefree and not give a damn what others think.”

“Well, that may be how you and…” she said, trying to stop herself here but the words were coming out faster than she could think, “…Pam wanted to do it, but that’s not me!” Instantly, she regretted saying that, especially after seeing his face, which was a mixture of confusion, hurt, and anger. She quickly saw the back of him and heard the door slam shut. 

As Jim stormed out of the office, the only thing he could overhear was Kevin loudly proclaiming that Oscar owed him one hundred thousand dollars.

Later that night, Jim was sitting on the steps leading up to his apartment building when Angela approached him. She instantly noticed the black box in his hand.

“Hi,” Angela said cautiously.  Jim acknowledged this, but did not respond. “I’ve been trying to call you,” she said.

“I’ve been out here,” he said blankly.

Angela nodded and finally got up the courage to ask, “What are you holding?”

Jim looked down at it and said, “It’s an engagement ring.”

“Oh,” was all Angela could think of to say.

“Yeah,” Jim said, recognizing the awkwardness of the situation.

Angela sat down next to him. “I don’t usually apologize,” she said in an apologetic tone.

He looked at the ring and put it in his pocket. Looking at her, he softly said, “I know.”

“I love you, Jim.”

“I love you, too.”

They had said these words many times before, but this time it was different. The words were no longer filled with hope and joy, but with the sad realization that love might not be enough. Maybe they were too different after all. Jim and Angela sat there on those steps and as the night passed them by, they wondered how many more nights they’d spend together before their differences drove them apart for good.