Chapter XXXVII

A Little Love Letter

You're a red string,

Tied to my finger,

A little love letter I carry with me.

- "Tip of My Tongue" by The Civil Wars.

"Michael Scott, front and center!"

"Michael, come eat with us!"

"In a minute!" Michael called back into the hallway while spinning his chair slowly, eyes stuck down on his phone. "I'm finishing up some work!"

From down the hall, Heather made a noise of mock-annoyance, while Ginny left it at that.

Wednesday had made a light day for everyone at the office, but especially for Michael. Ginny had been strangely on top of things and Zach strangely not, leaving him lots of space to work hard and get a head start on the weekend's reports.

Of course, he didn't really do that. That would be a waste of a good Wednesday. Instead, he'd played a few games, counted all the black and red and white cars in the parking lot outside his window, and come lunchtime, received a cute text from a cute blonde, which had now spiraled into a whole conversation.

His phone buzzed, and he looked down to find another text:

Holly Pocket

Wait so how about: Courage the Cowardly Dog vs Scooby Doo…

Michael smiled, and replied:

You:

scooby always!

You:

beethoven versus clifford?

He didn't know how they'd gotten on the subject of pitting fictional dogs against each other, but things were heating up now that they'd gotten Underdog and Doug from Up out of the way…

Holly Pocket

I think that one's obvious.

You:

clifford

Holly Pocket

Clifford.

Holly Pocket

Mind reader!

Michael chuckled, by now smiling like an idiot.

You:

I AM a mind reader. give me your palm — i will tell you your future…

Holly Pocket

*gives you my hand*

You:

GAH! take it away!

Holly Pocket

Oh god what

You:

it's too bright! my eyes!

"Working, huh?"

Michael jolted, bringing his spinning chair to an abrupt halt at the sound of Heather's disapproval. He turned back around, to find Heather standing in the doorway with a sarcastic expression on her face. His eyebrows shot up.

"I'm coming," he said as he glanced down at the phone. Holly was typing. "Gimme just a minute."

"That's a goofy grin," Heather pointed out. "Must be texting your fiancee."

Hearing this from down the hall, Ginny called out, "Oh, his fiancee."

"Hopelessly romantic man is hopelessly romantic," Heather added teasingly as she leaned against the wall. "I should apply at The Onion."

Michael tried to hide his smile at that, and shrugged his shoulders. Heather's mock-irritation vanished when she winked at him; and he smiled a bit wider.

Then his phone vibrated.

Holly Pocket

Oh smooth ;)

And the heat came to his cheeks as he responded:

You:

I can be rough too… *wink wink wink*

Holly Pocket

Don't get me hot.

You:

SEX

Holly Pocket

So hot.

"That's it, all right," Heather interrupted, now much closer and spinning Michael's chair back toward her. He looked up from the screen with a small smile, which he could not wipe off his face, and raised his eyebrows.

"Yes?" he asked, having forgotten what they were discussing.

"Come eat!" she insisted. "You can text your fiancee at the table."

"Oh, do I have your permission?" Michael questioned smartly, though he was already on his feet. Heather barely looked back at him as she headed for the door, and sent him a seemingly-mock glare while motioning for him to follow her. He dropped his phone in his pocket, and followed her out.

For the past few days, he and Holly had been talking more during lunch, mainly because she had to go out to eat and so she'd have no one to keep her company. And Michael, having already made a few friends at his new job, felt bad for her. Her coworkers were so sucky.

He tried to tell her it was because she needed to become a teacher now, but she didn't go for that.

Up ahead, Heather stopped at the break room, where Ginny sat on her phone. "I finally tore him away," Heather announced, sounding proud of herself. She dropped to her usual seat, with empty chairs on either side. "Too busy sexting."

"We aren't sexting," Michael clarified as he approached the table, going around to the refrigerator. He opened it up and bent down to peek inside — and he might have forgotten both what he'd packed and where he'd put it, but he had faith he would find it.

"Then why do you keep smiling like that?"

Michael retracted his head from the fridge to look back at her indignantly. "I'm not smiling."

Heather simply chewed her food in silence, studying his face for a moment. After a moment, she made a little huff through her nose, a grin pressing on her upper lip. She looked down at her food smugly. "Aw."

"Aw, what?" Michael asked before turning back to the fridge. Finally, he spotted his lunch bag, all squished down behind someone else's. He pulled it out.

In a small voice, Heather crooned, "You're in love. It's cute."

He straightened up, ready to argue that he was not cute — but then his phone buzzed in his pocket, and excitement came over him. He forced the smile to go away.

"Aww," Ginny said, in that same exact voice — the voice every woman was programmed to use when they saw a puppy or a baby or something too insanely adorable. "I ship it."

"I envy it," Heather remarked, as Michael pulled out the chair beside her and took a seat.

"Okay, okay, okay," he said, waving his hand at them. "Yes, I am in love. I also may be cute, if you think so. I am a little cute. I mean, she's cute, and I'm cute, which makes us a cute couple. But I won't rub it in," Michael insisted. "I, as a happily-engaged man, am still sensitive to the lonely single life. I lived it many times. So I won't talk about it anymore."

"But I'm living vicariously through you, you see," Heather protested with a groan. "Tell me about your true love. Tell me about your sexting. Give me something."

"How are things going with her now?" Ginny asked, calmly joining in on the pestering. "With the whole… fight, and everything."

"Ooh, yes," Heather agreed, nodding widely. "Tell us."

Finally, Michael sighed, and gave in. "Well, we talked about it, weekend before last. It was kind of unexpected, but uh, I brought it up, and she got mad… and then we talked, and we kinda bonded over it. I mean, I was in a pretty similar spot a while ago, so we just… talked it out," he finished. Then, looking at Heather, he added, "And we did other stuff."

Heather seemed surprised, but offered her hand for smacking. "Nice."

Michael high-fived her.

Ginny, meanwhile, smiled quietly. "That's really great," she said, nodding. "I'm happy for you."

His expression softened slightly. "Thank you, Ginny. You are quite the sweetheart." Raising his eyebrows, he added, "The office sweetheart. That's your title."

Ginny just shrugged, hiding her grin.

Then Heather added, "So when's the big move?"

That was something he hadn't thought about in a few days. Holly had been really eager to go apartment-shopping again last weekend; he could tell she felt really guilty about the whole thing with the last apartment, so she was jumping at every opportunity to find another one. Also, she was getting sick of her parents.

"Uh, well, that has yet to be determined," Michael finally said, as he took a big bite out of his sandwich. With a full mouth he added, "We kinda lost the apartment."

Oswald suddenly looked up from his phone, seeming interested. Beside him, Ginny frowned. Beside her, Heather's brow furrowed. "Oh, that stinks. What happened?" she asked.

Michael shook his head. "We just weren't fast enough. And now, it's looking like we might not be able to get one in the next little bit, because she's probably about to lose her job."

"Damn," Heather said. "What happened?"

"Her boss is an ass," he reasoned simply, shrugging. "And they hate each other — and they're kinda in this standoff now, because she won't quit, but he won't fire her and give her severance — but she thinks she at least deserves severance for all that she's been through, so…"

Heather groaned, and Michael's voice trailed off.

"Bosses can be the worst," she complained, leaning back in her chair as she blinked up at the ceiling. "I had a boss when I worked at the bank downtown, and he was always riding me about presenting a 'sunny disposition' to the customer. When you have a kid in the Terrible Twos and you're not sleeping more than three hours a night, you come talk to me about your 'sunny disposition,' asshat."

"Yeah," Michael mumbled in mindless agreement. He sighed quietly, looking up at the two of them, and added, "I keep waiting for her to text me and say she quit, or she got fired — either way, I don't care. I just want it out of the way."

"She should just quit," Ginny advised as she crinkled up her wrapper. "It's not worth the struggle."

Heather shook her head passionately. "It damn well is. She needs to make a point to the man."

"But is it really gonna make a difference?"

Heather shrugged. "It might. Besides, money is money, and I'd hang onto severance before I'd…"

Suddenly, Heather's voice trailed off, replaced by a large groaning noise. Michael looked back at her, and followed her eyes toward the hallway — and there, Zach approached with a paper bag in hand, some kind of smirk on his face.

"Hey, Zach," Ginny greeted him as he reached the table.

"Hiya, Ginny," Zach said in response, and sent a little look at Heather before adding, "Mind if I sit here?"

She leaned over on her hand, head tilted to glare at him pointedly. "There are other tables."

"And yet," he said, "you own none of them."

Heather rolled her eyes. "Ooh, you got me! Go sit somewhere else."

"I have the right to sit where I want," Zach shot back without eye contact as he pulled his chair out. "And you have the right to get over it."

"You never want to sit with us," Heather protested, sitting up straight. "Why now?"

"I don't know," he said, shrugging. "Maybe just to bug you."

Michael then caught Ginny's eye in passing, and inhaled deeply, raising his eyebrows at her. She seemed to be fighting a smile, shooting her eyes toward Heather, and then toward Zach. Then she winked.

Maybe Ginny was onto something.

"-then don't look at me!"

"I'm not even looking at you."

Then he got another text, to his surprise. He sat up straight to pull his phone out of his pocket, and turned it on.

Holly Pocket

I'm heading back to work. Love you 3

Michael grinned to himself, and replied:

You:

love you more :* I wish you lots of luck!

After a moment, Holly answered:

Holly Pocket

I'm gonna need it.

What the fuck was I talking about this whole chapter