She stares at the clock.  7:30 pm.  Yeah, that should be fine to call.  He should have had his dinner by now.  If his routine is the same as it was in Scranton, he is either washing his dishes or watching television at the moment.  Why is she agonizing over this?  It’s a simple phone call.

She had noticed his message as she was fishing the building keys from her purse this morning.  She loved carrying a large purse, but it seemed as if she always had to empty it to find what she was looking for.  As she was rummaging through to find her Dunder-Mifflin key ring, she noticed her phone was beeping.  He had replied… He wanted her to call.  Huh.

So she had spent the day thinking that she should call, wanting to call, but being afraid she would disturb him.  Okay, so she knew he wouldn’t likely mind being disturbed at work – he couldn’t have changed THAT much – but what she would say to him?  It was going to be awkward.  It was going to be weird.  Courage was slipping through her fingers as the hours passed.

Which brings her to 7:30.  Staring at the clock.  Watching the phone.  She has to call - the text message was her idea after all – and she’s run out of excuses to delay it any further.

__________________

This had kept him up all night, and she hadn’t even bothered to reply?  Great.  He decides to channel that frustration into running.  The rhythmic hitting of the pavement will do wonders for his morale.

As he jogs down Shippan Ave., he feels his cell phone vibrate in the pocket of his hoodie.  He slows down to answer.

“Hello?”

“ Hey Jim.”

That voice.

“Hey.”

“Am I catching you at a bad time?  I can call back later…”

He stops and takes a seat on a bus stop bench nearby.

“No, no, no.  It’s okay.  I was just out and about.  So what’s up?  I owe you money apparently.”

“Well, yeah… Michael proposed to Carol.  At a party in front of 150 people.”

He can hear the giddiness in her voice.  It’s not malice, just the pure joy of having being able to predict one of those surreal moments that working for Michael Scott brings into your life.  He can’t help but share a bit of her enthusiasm.

“No way!”

“Yes way, and it was as humiliating as it sounds because she didn’t even say yes.  It was mortifying.”

“Poor Michael...”

“I’d warned him not to do this though.  He just can’t help himself.”

“Still, what a way to have your heart crushed.  That’s gotta be hard to recover from.”

So there it is.  The elephant in the room.  He hears her take a deep breath.

“Well, you know… Poor Carol too.  What a position to be in.  I don’t think she meant to hurt or humiliate him.”

He thinks he is hearing an apology in her voice, but he may be dreaming it.  He needs to take this back on more solid ground.

“Anyway, you won fair and square so you’ll be getting a check in the mail.”

“You really don’t have to… I’m much more interested in bragging rights.”

“A bet’s a bet.”

“Really, it’s not necessary...  A mention in the company newsletter of my clear superior powers of perception will be sufficient.”

She giggles.  He’s really missed that laugh.

“I could do that… I could also buy you coffee.  It’s only fair.  I’m coming to Scranton to see my parents next weekend anyway…”

Will he ever learn?  Everything is going smoothly, and he has to do that.  Blame it on the endorphins from running.  Or the high he’s getting from just talking to her.

“Well…”

“I understand if you’re busy.  It’s okay.”

“It’d be nice.”

“Saturday afternoon?”

“Sure.”

“I’ll give you a call around noon on Saturday, and we can decide where to meet.”

“Sounds good.  See you then.”

“Bye.”

The run home is surprisingly easy.

____________________

 A Saturday afternoon coffee was one outcome of this phone call she didn’t see coming.  The call was a little awkward, but there was not really the anger that she thought he still carried with him.  The ease that had always existed between them was still there.  They always understood each other with few words.

That wasn’t quite true.  He didn’t get why she had said no to him in the parking lot that night so long ago.  He had placed her in an impossible situation.  She had spent years building a life, and he had expected her to drop it all for him.  You can’t make decisions like that at the drop of a hat.  But he hadn’t been willing to wait.

Truth be told, it was not like she had given him anything to wait for…  She still cared for him so much.  Okay, it was more than that.  But she thought he had moved on with his life. 

For the first time in a long time, she thinks, “Maybe not.”

Cleaning her whole apartment that night is surprisingly easy.