Jim knows going into it that the school district is a huge contract, mainly because Dwight's made sure to tell him that exactly fourteen times since he'd walked into work that morning.

"Jim," Dwight says, "this is probably the most important sale of your career and mine. Do you realize," his voice dropping to a whisper, looking around, "what this could do for us? " He smiles.

"Um," Jim looks up, thinking. "No, what?" he whispers back.

"When Michael finds out that we made this sale, I can almost guarantee that I'll be promoted to his assistant."

"Right." Jim nods. Like you've been saying for the past year. "So what's in it for me?" he jokes.

"Well, you'll get your normal commission, of course. But when I get the promotion, I'll let you be my second in command." Dwight looks at Jim with his chin lowered and his eyebrows raised.  "Technically you'll be third in command, but you'll be second to me."

Jim stares at him, not really sure of what to say, but he's almost positive that if Dwight ever tries to make him his second in command, he'll request a transfer to work in the warehouse. Still, he keeps these thoughts to himself. There's no use getting into it right before the biggest sale he's ever tried to make.

He's been with the company for twelve months now. Twelve months, and he's about twelve times more creeped out by Dwight than he was when he first started.

"I can see it now, Jim," Dwight says.

Jim sighs. "Dwight, I don't want to be a downer, or anything, but don't you think that maybe you're getting a little bit ahead of yourself?" He goes back to reading through the client's file.

Dwight shakes his head. "You new guys are all the same," he huffs, typing loudly on his keyboard.

Jim doesn't point out that he's been employed there for a year, so he doesn't exactly qualify as a new guy anymore. He knows that not making this sale would let Dwight down in a big way, and he figures he's already said enough today to make things weird between them, and that they'll need to be as in synch as possible when they meet with the client.

He tries to pretend that it's okay that Dwight doesn't talk to him for the rest of the morning.

* * * * *

Dwight storms through the parking lot, his trench coat blowing out behind him, doing the best he can to ignore Jim who's not even trying to keep up with him.

Once he gets back upstairs to his desk, he begins making phone calls, not even glancing in Jim's direction when he sits down. Never in Dwight's five years of employment has he come across such a display of vast ineptitude. He slams the handset of his phone down and turns to glare at Jim.

Jim looks up, quickly, and seems to realize that Dwight's trying to stare him down. "Dwight, I really don't know what to say. Okay? I mean, we did everything the way we went over it, and there's no point in being angry with me. I'm not the only one who lost the sale."

This puts Dwight over the edge and he presses his lips into a thin line. "Oh yeah, okay, Jim. That's really easy for you to say when you're not the one who has to go in there and tell Michael." He points towards Michael's office. "You're not going to have to watch the disappointed look on his face when he finds out we've failed him."

Jim does look pretty regretful, but it doesn't matter, because there's nothing he can say right now that could possibly make Dwight feel better. They'd lost the sale, their commission, and Michael will never make him assistant regional manager, and basically it's all Jim's fault. And Jim needs to know that.

"You know what, Jim? This all your fault."

Jim squints his eyes. "Wait. How is this my fault?"

"Uh, maybe because you didn't pay any kind of attention to what I was saying during the entire pitch, and you went off on your own tangent half the time. That is not the mark of the team that we were supposed to be." He's more disappointed than angry at this point, because Jim just doesn't seem to understand the intricacies of being on his team. They were supposed to be unstoppable.

Jim sighs. "Listen, Dwight. It wasn't us. I may not have been here as long as you or sold paper for as long as you have, but I really don't think there was anything we could have done to make that sale. We were fine together. We did great together, and I think you know that." He shrugs. "It was just one failure. It happens sometimes."

Dwight lets himself look at Jim, and while Jim's statement is a typical failure-speech, he is right about the fact that they did work pretty well together. Excellent together, as a matter of fact. Regardless, it's still going take Dwight a while before he begins to trust Jim again.