I haven't heard anything, but I bet Jim got the job. I mean, why wouldn't he? He's totally qualified, and smart, everyone loves him... and, if he never comes back again... that's okay. We're friends. And I'm sure we'll stay friends. We just, we never got the timing right. You know? I shot him down, and then he did the same to me, and... But you know what? It's okay. I'm totally fine. Everything is gonna be totally fine. I mean, I’ve survived almost a year here without… you know, needing to talk to him all the time… I guess it’s just finally just, time to move on.
…
As soon as he was out the door of his apartment building, Jim inhaled a big breath of crisp morning air. He loved the way the city looked in the morning, the way the sunrise glistened on the windows of the buildings that surrounded him. It was nearly the end of September, and just turning cool enough to be a bit brisk in the morning, but Jim didn’t mind. He waved to the doorman of his building and was on his way to work.
The ten-minute walk to the Dunder Mifflin corporate office was really the best commute he ever could’ve hoped for. The way the city streets slowly and easily morphed from residential to financial never ceased to amaze him, and he was to the point where he attributed his morning walk to his motivation to work, of all things. This made him laugh; he never thought in a million years that he would have the motivation to work, especially as hard as he did now.
Jim couldn’t have even imagined the outcome of his promotion a few months ago. He had always said that he could never have a career with Dunder Mifflin, and remembered the ultimatum he’d made with himself to throw himself in front of a train if paper were to ever become his career. But that was back when he was under the thumb of Michael, and thought the only top position he could ever think to reach was branch manager. Truthfully, the thought of him as a branch manager still made him want to throw himself in front of a train.
But being at corporate, where his ideas weren’t simply ignored and he could actually implement some positive changes to the company, was definitely his cup of tea. He was actually downright good at it, always bouncing ideas off of David Wallace and the other Officers, which made him realize that he probably would’ve been promoted a long time ago if he hadn’t wasted so much creative energy on annoying Dwight.
Live and learn, Jim thought to himself as he climbed the steps and went in the revolving door to the office building, finding himself mixing with the numerous legions of employees that worked in the building. Jim often thought they all might as well be cattle when they swirled around the lobby like that, running off to their various appointments and whatnot. But as soon as he stepped off the elevator and into the Dunder Mifflin corporate office, the feeling quickly subsided, and Jim was once again instilled with a sense of duty. He had his work to do, just like all the other cattle in the lobby had theirs.
“Morning Jess,” Jim greeted the brunette walking toward him. He could tell she was already frazzled; not the best way to start the day.
“Hi. So, your ten o’clock meeting with the corporate customer service team got pushed back to 11, so I moved your lunch with Mr. Willcox to 12:30 and your meeting with the Tech Team to 2.”
“Oh, thank you.”
“David also wants your proposed schedule for introducing the new technology to the branches by tomorrow, so you’re going to have to call the branch managers and set up appointments to visit.”
“Okay—”
“And I would start with Michael, because he’s called 12 times this morning.”
“Ugh. Crap.”
“Sorry,” Jess empathized, handing him a stack of paperwork. “I tried to deflect him, but…”
Jim nodded, “Yeah. He’s persistent. Good thing that meeting’s not till 11 then.”
With an encouraging smile from Jess, Jim stepped into his office and closed the glass door behind him. He hadn’t been back to the Scranton branch since his promotion, but he had been on the phone with Michael enough not to miss him too much. He realized now what must’ve made Jan go off the deep end: Michael’s incessant and downright trivial calls were enough to drive any boss crazy. And then Jan had to deal with him as a boyfriend too! No wonder she collapsed in on herself like a dying star.
Taking a deep breath, Jim picked up the phone and dialed Michael’s number.
“Jim!” Michael answered impatiently. “I’ve been trying to reach you all morning! Let me tell you, your new secretary is just… blech. She is no help at all.”
“Administrative Assistant,” Jim corrected him. “And I’m here now, so what do you need?”
“Well, I need a little treat for the gang… something to win their affections back.”
Jim rubbed his temple; he could already feel a headache coming on. “I’m afraid to ask, but… why?”
“Well…” Michael hemmed and hawed, “I ran down Meredith in my car.”
“Oh my God!” Jim gasped. “Is she okay?”
“Yes, she is fine, recovering nicely… she has a tiny crack in her pelvis, but other than that—”
“So she’s in the hospital.”
“…Yesh.”
“How on earth did you manage to run her down? You didn’t… do it on purpose, did you?”
“No!” Michael denied vehemently. “No, I was just being negligent.”
Jim could see Jess watching curiously from her desk; obviously she had never seen him react to something like this. He gave a shake of his head to her to indicate that whatever Michael needed was especially terrible, and then refocused to think of what to do next.
“Where did this happen?”
Michael stammered, “It was… on company property. But, actually, it was on company property, with company property. So, double jeopardy. We are fine.”
“That is not how jeopardy works,” Jim corrected him.
“Oh. Sorry. What is, we are fine.”
“Michael,” Jim said sternly, “you need to file an incident report with Toby.”
“What? Ugh! No. Not happening.”
“Michael,” Jim said again, his tone growing increasingly parental, “if you don’t file an incident report then the company is liable for her injuries. Meredith could sue us.”
“Are you kidding?” Michael laughed. “She was probably drunk, she won’t remember how she cracked her pelvis.”
Jim exhaled loudly, something he had heard Jan do many times over the phone before. Now he knew why she did it so frequently. “Listen, if you don’t file a incident report, you will be written up for misconduct.” The thought popped into Jim’s head, since when did I become Dwight? But he ignored it. This was serious, and he needed to treat it as such. “I’m also going to call Toby to make sure the job gets done.”
“No, no, no. Not necessary,” Michael assured him. “I will take care of it.”
“Good,” Jim replied, “so it shouldn’t be any trouble for you to fax me a copy of the report once it’s done.”
Now it was Michael’s turn to sigh. “Ohhh, all right boss. You are a toughie, you know that? Too bad I can’t just… sleep with you, get you on my side—”
As Jim tried desperately to block the mental images flooding his brain, he quickly switched the subject to more neutral territory, “So, Michael, I need to visit the branch sometime soon…”
“OH! Really? That’ll be great! We’ll throw you a welcome back party! When are you coming?—”
“Don’t say—”
“That’ what she said!” Michael blurted out, followed by childish laughter. “Oh, that is a classic. But seriously, when will you be gracing us with your presence, my liege?”
“Uh, well I need to make a presentation about some of the new technology we’re implementing, and we just have a few more pieces to set up before I can give a tutorial to all of you, so I’m thinking… two weeks from now?”
After a long pause sprinkled with erms and uhs, Michael finally responded, “So the… second of October?”
“Does that work for you? I would probably need a full day.”
“That is perfect. We at the humble, Dunder Mifflin Scranton are looking forward to it, good sir.”
“All right,” Jim chuckled. Michael did have a way of trying to suck up as much as he could. “Well I’ll see you on the second, and I’m sure I will talk to you again soon.”
“Very good.”
“And don’t forget about that incident report.”
“Aw, come on man—!”
But before Michael could protest, Jim hung up the phone, putting down the receiver as quickly as if he were holding a giant cockroach. He took a deep breath and leaned back in his chair, pausing for a moment to look out at the New York skyline lit up by sunlight.
The golden rays that danced across the city always seemed to remind him of her.
He wasn’t sure why the image had stuck with him, but one evening as they were walking to their cars, the sun was setting at just the perfect angle to catch the highlights in her curls. She practically glistened in the sunset, her eyes and her smile glowing with radiant light, and as she said goodnight to him and went on her merry way, she hadn’t even noticed that she had stopped him in his tracks, practically breathless from the sight of her.
Now whenever he saw a sunset or sunrise that was especially breathtaking, his thoughts always drifted to her that one evening in the parking lot, and he wondered if the sun danced on her curls like that every morning and early evening.
He wished with everything he had that he could be with her to witness it.
Jim rubbed his eyes as he sat there, trying to push thoughts of Pam from his head. He had been such a coward, running away to New York for a promotion instead of swallowing his pride and just… doing something. She had even told him at the beach, “I wish you would come back,” but that didn’t even seem to sway him into making a move. But, then again, running was what he knew. He ran from her after she rejected him, and he ran from her again when it looked like they couldn’t put the pieces of their friendship back together.
At least he was an equal-opportunity runner. He ran from Karen too, after all.
“Jim?” Jess called as she knocked politely on the door a couple times. “Karen Filippelli on line one for you.”
Crap.
“Thanks Jess,” Jim said, smiling meekly. He took a deep breath, gearing himself up for Karen’s level of professionalism, and picked up the phone. If there was one good thing he could say about working with Karen after he dumped her, it was that she was nothing but professional. “Hello?”
“Jim,” Karen’s voice came through the receiver. There was always something about Karen’s voice that reminded him of that song by Cake, ‘a voice that is dark like tinted glass.’ Somehow that just suited her. “Are you the man I talk to about overtime policy?”
“Uhh…”
“Because last week, two of our salesmen logged ten hours over overtime each without my approval, and they’re just now turning in a form to me about it.”
“Well that is… not good,” Jim stammered. As good as he was with some of his new duties, he was still trying to figure out a lot of stuff as he went. He quickly grabbed a binder from a bookshelf behind his desk and flipped through it frantically, trying to find the overtime policies. “Let me see here… Okay. No, the ‘Request for Overtime’ form has to be turned in and approved by you, the branch manager, before said overtime can be implemented… The only exception is if you had a verbal agreement with the employee, agreeing that the form would be submitted at a later date. Did you have a verbal agreement with these salesmen?”
“No. No I did not.”
“Okay, so… there’s your answer.”
“Thank you.”
“No problem. Glad I’m not the only one in upper management who doesn’t have all the rules down yet,” Jim chuckled, trying to be cordial.
The silence for a long moment on the other end of the line unnerved him, but what was more unsettling was what Karen said next: “Jim, I know you think you were trying to do some good by talking David into offering me the silver medal prize of branch manager in Utica, but we both know it was so breaking up with me could be a little easier on you.”
“Then… why’d you take it?” It was official, Jim was an idiot.
“Because I have worked really hard for my career!” Karen practically shrieked, then quickly regained composure. “And, this economy sucks, so why wouldn’t I take a raise and stay with the same company than quit and try to find something else when practically no one is hiring?”
“Good point,” was all Jim could muster. “Well, for what it’s worth, um… I’m sorry.”
“Apology accepted,” Karen answered coolly. “And just so you’re aware, I would never turn down a great job offer, regardless of if my ex-boyfriend was going to be my boss.”
Jim nodded his head, “All right then. Good to know… Oh, while I have you on the line, um, I need to set up a day to come to Utica to debut the technology advancements we’re implementing.”
“Ooh, fancy words for mister Vice President, North East Region.”
“And Director of New Media. Can’t forget that part,” Jim smirked.
“Oh of course,” Karen laughed in response. Finally, the icy exterior was starting to melt. Jim did a little dance in his chair to celebrate the occasion. “How about October fourth?”
After a quick look at his calendar, Jim replied, “Sounds great. Thanks Karen.”
“Sure. Talk to you later.”
“Bye.” This time when he hung up the phone, he did it with a sense of triumph. Karen had been somewhat difficult to work with in the past few months, and rightly so. It was true that Jim had talked to David about offering her a position as a branch manager, but he told himself it was to advance her career, not to make it easier for him to break up with her. That part of it was more like… a bonus. And so now, when it was finally starting to pay off and she wasn’t so mad at him, he couldn’t help but feel a little prideful.
Much to Jim’s delight, everything had worked out surprisingly well for him, aside from the few irritating calls from Michael every day. The commute was nice, he had a pretty good handle on all his responsibilities, and everyone seemed to really appreciate his innovation and enthusiasm.
The only thing he had to worry about now was seeing her again, two weeks from today.
The mere thought of it made him tremble to his very core.
Story Notes:
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
Okay, bear with me people. This is my first epic story in a reeeeeaally long time, so if I seem out of practice *cracks knuckles* it's 'cause I am.
This story is partially inspired by a story on FF.net called "City Lights" and partially inspired by the chick flick movie marathon I engaged in this past weekend. (I also kind of just like writing about cities. It is my dream to live in one someday.) It'll probably start out mostly as Jim's POV, but I'm hoping to throw a little of Pam in there as well. Hope it turns out 53% decent!
Okay, bear with me people. This is my first epic story in a reeeeeaally long time, so if I seem out of practice *cracks knuckles* it's 'cause I am.
This story is partially inspired by a story on FF.net called "City Lights" and partially inspired by the chick flick movie marathon I engaged in this past weekend. (I also kind of just like writing about cities. It is my dream to live in one someday.) It'll probably start out mostly as Jim's POV, but I'm hoping to throw a little of Pam in there as well. Hope it turns out 53% decent!
Author's Chapter Notes:
Chapter title from the song "Those to Come" by The Shins. Enjoy!
Chapter End Notes:
Up next, Jim introduces some new technology to the Scranton branch. And no, it's not Dunder Mifflin Infinity.
Reviews --> encouragement --> motivation --> another chapter. I'm sure I didn't need to spell it out for you, but I thought I nice reminder couldn't hurt. :)
Reviews --> encouragement --> motivation --> another chapter. I'm sure I didn't need to spell it out for you, but I thought I nice reminder couldn't hurt. :)
