It had been three months.  He was in awe that he hadn’t thrown himself off the roof yet, but he was still here, still trucking along, going to work everyday.

It was the same, but it was so different.  The setup of the desks took him at least two weeks to get used to.  He struggled to read these people – he assumed that it was because he had been in Scranton for so long.  He had just stopped talking to Rachel after she rolled her eyes at him when he was telling her a joke one afternoon.  Andy, on the other hand… well, Andy was…”

“Hey Big Tuna.  Do you ever Google Google?  What do you think would happen?”

“Let’s find out.”  Jim typed away on the keyboard.  “Ah, lots of results.”

Jim just stared at Andy, who seemed to be annoyed with him.  “I didn’t mean you should do it.  You were supposed to ponder it.  You removed the fun.  Thanks a lot Big Tuna.”

Jim stared at the back of Andy’s head, wondering just how long it would be before he felt comfortable here, before he had the rapport that he had had in Scranton.  A part of his brain kept screaming at him that it would never happen, that he had messed up by leaving Scranton, but he was usually able to drown that part of his brain out with 5 beers.

Jim sighed and turned his chair to look out the window, staring into the sky.  It was times like this, when he felt like he could die of boredom that he missed her, missed all of them, but her in particular. 

 It wasn’t like he didn’t know… he knew.  He would never forget that Thursday for the rest of his life.  He had worked late on Wednesday and was early on Thursday, which why he was surprised to see his voice mail light blinking. He punched in his code and sat up a little straighter when he heard her voice on the other end of the line. 

“Jim, listen… I know you aren’t going to hear this till the morning and that’s fine.  I just wanted you to know… I called off the wedding.  I guess you can call it cold feet… at least that’s what I’m telling everyone around here, but I’m sure that you…  Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that I couldn’t… I couldn’t do it.  I’m going to get my own apartment and maybe look into a couple of art classes.  I just… well, I thought you should know and I didn’t want you to hear it from Michael.  Hope things are well for you up there.” 

He had listened to the message 5 times in a row.  She hadn’t asked for him to call her back and she hadn’t left him a number, but she wasn’t getting married, and that helped him heal more than anything. 

“What in the world are you looking at?”  Jim turned back to see Rachel staring at him.

“Oh… umm… nothing.”  Jim whipped back around and picked up his cold call sheet.  Rachel rolled her eyes and turned back to her computer. 

“Weirdo” she whispered under her breath.

+++

“Hope this helps.  Jim.”  Pam’s head snapped up when she heard Dwight say his name.  No one had really mentioned him since he left, at least not to her.  Hell, the last time was about three months ago, when Michael had informed her that Ryan was taking Jim’s old desk.  They hadn’t talked since she told him that she was going to marry Roy.  She had left him that message after she called off the wedding, but she hadn’t heard back from, not that she expected to.  It was like a silent agreement between the two of them – respecting what the other had to do and just see.  It’s why he hadn’t pushed her that night, why he had just walked away.  It’s why she didn’t beg him to stay when he walked out on his last day, why she didn’t get in her car and drive up there.  It’s what they needed to do.

She looked down and laughed to herself as Dwight used the “GayDar” on Oscar and then himself.  The joke was perfectly… him.  Watching Dwight freak out made her heart ache just a little bit more than it already did, so she did the only thing she could think of.  She grabbed her cell phone.

+++

Jim grabbed his coat off the back of his chair and was about to grab his cell phone off his desk when it started to rattle around.  He glanced over his shoulder and was glad to see Rachel was already gone.  He didn’t think anyone could be much more of a hard ass than Angela, but was he wrong.

His display screen read “one new text message”.  He flipped his phone open and accessed his inbox.  He laughed loudly as the picture of Dwight carrying around the metal detector came up on his screen.  He didn’t even have to look and see who the message was from – he knew.  He looked out the window one last time before saving the message and snapping his phone shut.  It may be baby steps, but they were adjusting, and that’s all that mattered to him at this point.