“You know.”

“Hmm?”

“I said we could go to eat any place you wanted tonight.”

“Yes.”

“Any place. Even if it was expensive.”

“Mmhmm.”

“Then why are we eating take-out in my apartment, exactly?”

She bites her lip to keep from smiling, digging her toes a little deeper underneath his thigh. He’s got his feet up on the tiny coffee table next to his couch, the TV in front of them playing some old show on TV Land. It’s been three hours since they came home from work and she came over to hang out, and they’ve done nothing but hang out. It’s not exactly the romantic evening Jim had envisioned when he asked her before the end of the day if she wanted to go somewhere.

“This is very fancy,” she corrects him, getting a grip on the lo mein she is eating out of the little tub. After she eats the mouthful, she points out, “There’s even chopsticks.”

“Which you can buy in bulk for less than five dollars,” he points out, smirking.

“But these have the address of the place on it. Makes them rarer,” she nods, and she can’t stop the smile from breaking out now. “Seriously, though. I really felt like this stuff today. I still can’t believe you eat sushi.”

“Have you ever tried sushi?”

She makes a face and shakes her head. “Raw fish? No thanks.”

“Oh, see? Now you have to try it,” he decides, picking up one he had already half eaten. “Just half of one. And if you don’t like it, you can spit it out. Just…on your plate, not mine.”

She grimaces, staring at the offending food. “Are you serious?”

“One bite and I’ll leave you alone.”

She hesitates before rolling her eyes and nodding. He leans forward, holding it out carefully for her, and she lets him feed her it. He sits back as she chews on it slowly – thoughtfully, even – and eventually swallows what he had given her. He watches her, expectantly.

“Well?”

“Not bad,” she finally admits, glancing down at his plate of food. “Give me a full one.”

His grin is triumphant, and he puts one at the edge of his plate for her to grab when she wants it. He’s getting full, anyway. “If you like this stuff, we should go to the sushi bar one day. They let you use the fancy kind of chopsticks there.”

“We’ll see,” she replies, grinning. Jim accepts that as an answer – for now.

The rest of the meal is spent in comfortable silence. Jim finishes first, laying his plate down onto the coffee table and changes his position so he’s leaning against the armrest. Instead of watching the show on TV, he closes his eyes, exhaling slowly. It’d been one hell of a long day – a long week, really, considering everything that’s happened.

He feels the shifting of the couch first, and then, after a moment, a weight on him. He opens his eyes to see her settling on top of him, cheek resting on his chest. He smiles slowly, wrapping an arm around her waist.

“How bad do you think it’s going to get?”

“What?”

“Michael and Ryan,” she clarifies. Jim snorts, tilting his head up to look at the ceiling.

“Things are going to get really interesting,” he says, and really, he gets a feeling even that’s an understatement. It was the closest he’d ever seen Michael about to go to war with someone. It’s the first time in a long time Jim remembers seeing their boss so upset about something.

“Yeah,” she agrees, softly, and falls silent for a long moment. She shifts, then, just as Jim’s about to break the silence, to press her face closer to his neck. “He’s so different now.”

“Ryan?” he asks.

“Yeah,” she replies. “I don’t know…I was never that comfortable around him, but now he’s just…”

“An ass?” Jim supplies, before he can stop himself. He can’t really lie; between how he was treating most of the people in the office, and the thing he pulled on Pam – he isn’t very impressed, to say the least. He hears her chuckle softly, and it brings him out of his thoughts.

“Something like that, yeah,” she agrees, pressing a kiss against his jaw. She gets quiet again, and he can’t really tell why.

“What’s wrong?” he asks, and he feels her shift again, until she’s pulled away and sitting up enough to look him in the face.

“Do you regret not taking the job?”

It’s the first time they’ve ever talked about this. She knows he turned down the offer when he left New York that day. He hadn’t really thought about it, to be honest, since he settled back down in Scranton and Pam and he started dating. He can’t help but be a little surprised she’s even asking the question.

“Of course I don’t regret it,” he replies, with no hesitation at all. No matter how much people think he’s crazy, it’s an easy answer. Truth be told, seeing Ryan earlier in the day just confirmed his belief he didn’t want to be that kind of person – the type that lets money and power get to his head. It’s everything he’s always been against. “Why would you even think that?”

“I don’t know,” she admits, sounding embarrassed. “It’s just – you heard all his stories. Big parties and meeting celebrities and having so much money…it’s a lot different than what you have here, and you would have been so good at the job. A lot better than Ryan would ever be.”

He lifts her chin slightly so she’s looking at him, a serious expression crossing his face. “Staying here was probably the best decision I’ve made in a long time. Money is nice, but it isn’t everything.”

She smiles, albeit a bit tentatively. “I guess so.”

“Besides,” he adds, his smile softening. “I have something he doesn’t have, right?”

He can see her cheeks redden immediately and she ducks her head again. A few seconds later, though, a giggle bubbled up. When she realizes he’s staring at her in surprise, she bites her lip, obviously trying to get herself to stop. “I’m sorry. I just – I can’t believe he asked me out like that! And he tried to be so smooth about it, too, and all I could think about was Dwight singing about him starting the fire.”

Jim broke out into a grin, having a hard time keeping himself from laughing, too. “Do you think we should warn the corporate office?”

“Obviously,” she nods, and if not for the amused smile, she might’ve even looked serious. “He could be a hazard to the company. One microwaveable meal and the whole building might go up in flames.”

Their laughter only dies down when she leans in and kisses him. She holds his face between her palms, fingers stroking his jaw, and he just watches her, fingers curled in the hem of her shirt. She smiles slowly, resting her forehead against his for a moment.

“I’m glad you didn’t take it,” she says, her voice soft now.

He smiles at her, tilting his head up to kiss her temple when she seems to be nervous that he might take what she just said the wrong way.

“Yeah. Me too.”