Day 61
Even 61 days later, Her voice still run in his ears.
"How Could you Cheat on Me, Jim? How could you?!"
She took his daughter from him. Oh god, they took Cece...
"Pam, this is all a misunderstanding! Kathy tried to sleep with me, but nothing happened!"
He had worked too hard for all of this, spent too many hours at the reception desk, he had spent almost 10 years as a paper salesman, for god's sake. ..
"Pam, I promise in a couple months we'll laugh-"
His cheek still burned where she slapped him.
It had all been ruined, destroyed, obliterated, by a fucking misunderstanding.
Fuck.
"Jim?"
Jim ignored his coworker and continued to stare at the picture of him, Pam and Cece he had taken to carrying in his back pocket.
"Hey, Big Tuna? Plannin' on gettin' of ye ole elevator anytime soon?"
Jim glanced at Andy Bernard, his bungling, tone-deaf coworker and nodded, taking a single step out of the elevator. Andy furrowed his brow, smiling akwardly, glancing at the camera and then making hi way into the office.
Jim followed a few minutes later, his heart still pounding as he tried with all of his might to push invasive thoughts out of his head. He spared the receptionist, Erin, a nod before hanging his coat up and moving too his desk.
Choosing to ignore Dwight, who was staring at him intently, Jim opened his door and pulled out some client information, scanning to find the customer he wanted and then went to pick up his phone.
However, the whole device came up with it. It had been glued together.
"HA!" Dwight cried, clapping and than pointing at Jim. "I suppose that will trigger your abnormaly active human capacity for revenge, thus pranking me back and humiliating me in front of the whole office!"
Jim glanced at the camera, everyone in the office who was also staring at him, waiting for a reaction, and then Dwight.
"Good one, Dwight." He muttered, prying the phone apart.
Dwight's face fell into a scowl. "Fine, Idiot." And he went back to typing furiously on his computer.
Jim completed this call and a few others, none of his lackluster sales pitches working very well. By lunch break, the only thing he had managed to accomplish was renew one of his older accounts and piss off a lot of people for wasting their time.
"Yeah, Dwight does it about once a week. He does some really simple prank in order to coax me out of retirement.."
If Pam had been here, Dwight's glasses would be lensless right now, or his chair would be permenantly stuck in the lowest position so that his chin barely reached the desk. But what was the point?
"Jim?" He snapped out of it, looking at the Director and blinking.
"Don't you think pranking would help you feel better?" He asked, reading from his clipboard.
"Yeah, no." He said, standing up and opening the door. "I think im going to lunch now, thanks guys."
He cut out of the conference room and accross the hall, grabbing his coat off the rack and leaving, one of the cameramen following him.
Erin watched Jim leave, a contored look of worry on her face. Than she too stood up and rushed after him.
"Jim! Jim!" JIm sighed, actually really tired of people saying his name today. He was surprised to find, however, that it was Erin who was hailing him.
He held the door for her and she rushed in, beaming at him.
"Hey," He said, looking at her expectantly. She stood there for a moment, still smiling, before realizing that she ought to say something.
Putting on her "serious" face, she reached out her hand to shake his and said, "My name is Erin."
JIm gave her an odd look. Did he really interact with this girl that infrequently? "I know, Erin... We've worked together for almost 2 years now."
"Oh." She said, her face burning red as they stepped off the elevator. "Well it's just you never really talk to me,"
"Didn't you babysit for me like 4 months ago?" He said, raising an eyebrow.
She wrung her hands nervously, staring at the floor. This was not how she wanted this conversation to go. "Yeah.." She eluded.
Jim stood there for a moment, but when it became apparant that she was not going to say anything else, he gave her an akward half smle and turned to leave.
" Wait!" She said, trying to regain some bravado. "Can I tell you something?"
Jim gave the camera a look before turning back to her. "Uh, yeah."
Erin took a deep breathe and stepped forward. "I just really miss when you were always in a good mood. It made the office way more fun."
Jim raised his eyebrows, pursing his lips slightly. This was a very strange conversation indeed.
"Um, alright cool. Thanks for letting me now," He realized how harsh he sounded when Erin's face fell. Adopting a lighter tone, he offered her a classic, albeit small, 'Jim' smile, "I should go. I only have 40 minutes left of my 30 minute lunch break."
Erin's face brightened at his joke and he turned away, speedwalking to his car.
BREAK
The next day, Jim arrived to work a little later than normal, having gone to bed at 4 am after an all night 'MInecraft' marathon, during which he just kept building bigger and bigger houses.
Minecraft. The only reason he spent 20 dollars on that game was because Pam insisted.
It's sooooo fun! It's like painting, but in 3d! Or like playing legos!"
Pam. Stupid, bitchy Pam. What did she know? Stupid Pam. Wonderful, beuatiful Pam..
He meandered into the office, nodding at Erin and sitting down.
"Hey, Erin?"
"Yes?" She called, beaming.
"Where is everyone?"
She pointed to the conference room. He turned to see Michael having one of his usual hissy fits, although he could not hear what he was ranting about through the closed door.
He immediatly got up and moved back towards the reception desk, lest he be forced to join in too. "Yeah, Michael called an emergency meeting because he stapled his finger and started crying, and some people started laughing." Erin explained.
"Ah." Said Jim, not at all surprised. "And why aren't you in there?"
"I just hid behind my desk until he closed the door and he didn't notice me!" Erin proclaimed, clearly proud of her rebellious behavior.
"Clever girl." He said, popping one of her desk candies into his mouth. She beamed even wider at this, sitting straighter.
"Well, I'm gonna go get some breakfast. You better leave, too." He added, heading for the door. "It'll only be a matter of time before he notices."
Erin nodded and jumped up,rushing after him., A cameraman chased after her.
They remained silent in the elevator and then Jim rushed out to his car, eager to get some food in him.
But as he was pulling away, he sighed heavily as he noticed Erin, sitting alone at the curb, playing with her hair.
Most people would have been okay with just driving away. She was a grown woman, she could find her own thing to do. But no matter how hard he tried, something just wouldn't let him press on the gas.
Sighing heavily, he rolled his window down, calling her name.
She perked up immediatly, running over to his door.
"Do you want to come get pancakes with me?" He offered, gesturing to his empty seat.
She shook her head. "No. I'd like to get waffles, but i hate pancakes."
Jim smirked and unlocked his doors. "I'm sure we can work something out."
She squealed and rushed to the passenger side.
a half an hour later, Erin was finishing her 9th waffle at an IHOP, Jim staring at her in bewilderment. His own stack of 3 pancakes was only half finished.
"Wow." was all he could say as she finished it. Erin beamed and pulled out her wallet, but Jim had beaten her too it, pulling out his own credit card.
"I got it."
"You dont't have to..."
"Nah, it's just something my dad drilled into my head when I was younger. Never let a girl pay for food."
"Oh." She beamed, tucking her walled away and smiling.
Once the bill was payed they made their way back out to Jim's car.
"Where to now, Breakfast Buddy?" She said cheerfully, pulling on her seatbelt as Jim backed out of the parking space.
Jim gave her a funny look as he slowly backed up. "Work."
Her face fell and she folded her arms, turning to look out her window.
"Oh, c'mon," Jim said as he pulled out onto the street, using the same voice he would use on a pouting Cece Halpert. "I think we've played enough hooky today."
She murmed something into the glass and Jim sighed. "What?"
"I don't wanna go back."
"I thought you loved Dunder Mifflin."
"Not anymore."
Jim, starting to feel a bit uncomfortable, chose not to answer.
Se wasn't done yet, however, and she continued. "I liked it a lot better when Pam worked here."
JIm silently agreed, although he chose to remain silent again, hoping Erin would take the hin that he definetly did not want to talk about that.
"Not really because I loved Pam, just cuz when she was here you and Dwight were Best Friends! Always pulling hilarious pranks on each other!" She said, grinning. "And Michael would always say something funny, then you would say something funny, and then wabam! A whole day wasted!"
JIm nodded, running a hand through his unkempt hair.
"Michael still says funny things, but they're over a lot quicker without you encouraging him."
Jim deflty moved forward to turn on some music and Erin finally took the hint, rubbing her hands and looking out her window again.
They arrived at the Dunder Mifflin parking lot and they entered the building, Erin hanging back in the lobby to talk to the cameras while Jim pressed the button to call the impossibly slow elevator.
"Breakfast with Jim was great!" She said earnestly, beaming. "I really really hope he thinks so, too!"
They finally found themselves back in the office, the meeting over and the regular buzz resumed. Erin scurried over to her desk and began checking for messages.
Before Jim could make it to his, however, he cringed internally as an all too familiar voice called him.
"Jimbo!" Michael called, rushing out from his office and stopping in front of JIm, breathing heavily.
"Erin, Jim, I was wondering why you both are so late?"
"Are you really panting?" Jim asked, staring down at his boss.
"I..I forgot to (Pant) stretch beforehand." Michael said.
"Well if you were waiting for us, you had plenty of time.." Jim said, trying to make his way past him.
"That's not the point, now please tell me why."
Before Jim coud answer, Oscar spoke up. "Isn't it obvious?"
The whole office looked at him expectantly. "Really? None of you are getting this?" Oscar pressed, leaning forward. "It's Jim, guys. Jim and a receptionist."
There was a collective "Ohhhh" as they all put the peices together.
"No!" Jim said, shaking his head and pointing at oscar. "There is nothing going on between me and Erin!"
One of the cameramen zoomed in on Erin, who was staring at her keyboard.
"Good, cuz then I'd have to kill ya," Andy piped up from his desk, chewing on a pen.
Jim gave Andy a weird look, who seemd to have just realized what he had said. "Because-well-I- Erin's a sweet girl, and you cheated on your wife and all.." He puttered, attempting to play it off.
Jim flared up, now pointing angrily at Andy. "I did not-"
He was cut off by Michael wrapping his arm around him, excitedly looking at the camera. "Scandelous! Erin and Jim! Jerin!"
Erin now turned bright red as Jim tried to get his boss off of him. "No Jerin, Michael-"
"Be careful, Erin!" Michael continued, clearly pissing himself with glee over a chance at making the office laugh. "Better keep this dog on a tight leash, or he might stray, if you know what I mean!'
That was it. Jim shoved Michael off of him roughly. "Shut the Fuck up, Michael!"
The whole office fell dead silent, everyone now hanging on the edge of their seats, staring at Michael, who was now staring intently at anything but the taller man towering over him. For once, he seemed to have realized that he had just crossed a line.
"C'mon, Jim," He said, an awkward smile plastered on his face, "Just a friendly joke between two best friends."
"That is no joke, And i'm not your best friend!"
"I'll be your best friend, Michael." Dwight piped up from his chair.
"I'm not even your friend you dilusional..." He trailed off upon realizing where he was who he was talking to.
And in a moment's notice, he was out of the workplace, the rest of the office going back to buisiness, but Michael, still standing their stunned and Erin, staring at the door.