2- Jim takes the job in NYC
He wondered sometimes, at what point one earned the title of a true New Yorker. Was it surviving five years of subways and traffic and siren? Or did it have to be longer than that? Was it that he had to remain single, putting a job he quickly lost three years after accepting it first instead of a girlfriend he wasn’t completely in love with. Karen knew it. He knew it. They both tried to pretend the elephant in the room didn’t exist.
It had been five years since he’d seen her. Last he heard, she went to some other office in some other part of town. Details were irrelevant when he found out she left the company mere days after he accepted David Wallace’s offer – the ringing in his ears and the white hot nausea overtaking every other function his body could perform.
Eventually it went away, only surfacing anytime he would see someone with curly hair, or hear a song by Travis, or saw a Sudoku puzzle, or anytime he heard a phone ring.
He worked two jobs to merely support himself and keep his apartment, the money he had made in the three years as Vice President quickly dwindling as prices rose seemingly every day.
He had been in the midst of walking from one job to another, mentally calculating how much more he needed to make so he could afford car insurance and a car, when he heard laughter. He knew it was her before he turned around.
For the first time in five years, true happiness filled him.
And when he turned around in the middle of a busy city sidewalk, happiness was ripped out of his chest and replaced with the familiar white hot nausea.
All he could see before his eyes blurred were her smile directed at a pudgy guy with black hair, and a little girl perched in a stroller.
With an outstretched hand, he hailed a cab with ease, promising to skip lunch to compensate for the cost of the fare.
He caught her eye as the cab pulled away from a red light. She glanced away, focusing her attention on the baby in the stroller. It was then that he noticed she had another baby on the way.
She looked happy. He knew he could have done better. He knew he could have made her happier.
He knew he should never have thrown that pink slip of paper with the ‘gold medal’ away.
.
Chapter End Notes:
Sorry... you know if it made it's way to being a full story, this ending would have been different. But for the current body of work above, this fit best. xoxo
