He took a deep breath as he walked out of corporate, shoving his hands in his pants. He knew he should go find Karen right now, try to explain. She was going to hate him. That was a given. Up until about 15 minutes ago, they were making plans, moving forward. He merged with the crowd on the sidewalk and started to walk.
Yeah, he knew the subway would be faster. She had told him how to get from corporate to where she was meeting her friends, but he couldn’t do it, not yet. Plus, she would immediately try to make him regret what he had done by walking out of the interview. Not that he would. Walking out on David Wallace was the first honest thing he had done in over a year. He sure as hell wasn’t going to take that back.
The only thing he was going to regret was dragging her into this. She didn’t deserve this. She deserved better than to have been his Pam-buffer for the last 6 months. In another time, another place, he would have been in love with her instantly. She was sassy and smart and beautiful, for sure. If he could go back and time and do that moment over, he would have been honest with her, told her all about why he really left Scranton.
Jim stopped for a moment to look at a sidewalk artist painting the hustle and bustle. “Why didn’t any of you come to my art show? I invited all of you. That really sucked.”
That he regretted. It was an epic battle, that night. He wanted to go. He knew she needed the support, but Karen fought him and fought him until she had broken him. His mind was screaming at him then that this wasn’t working, that he was starting to sacrifice himself. The real Jim would have never ditched a friend in need. Never. But this new evolved Jim… Real Jim didn’t like him very much, with his new car and expensive suits and corporate title.
As he walked through the streets of New York City, he knew that this was going to be hard, but pretending to be this guy was exhausting and frustrating. He just wanted to be back, to be him again. “I wish you would.” Those four words had been resonating with him for a week.
He turned the corner and looked through the window of the trendy little coffee shop Karen told him to meet him at when texted him earlier. He sat there, watching her with her friends drinking their venti triple non-fat mocha lattes, knowing that living with regrets only made living harder. With a deep breath, he pushed through the doors.
