All I find are souvenirs from better times.
- "Title and Registration" by Death Cab for Cutie
"Hey, so Counting Crows is coming to the city," Michael told Holly as they sat in a deli eating lunch one Saturday.
Holly's face lit up, "Yeah, I saw that."
Michael smiled. He pulled an envelope out of his pocked and pushed it toward her.
Holly raised an eyebrow and opened it. She pulled out the contents, revealing them to be two tickets to the concert they had just been discussing.
"Michael…oh, wow. This is great, but I don't know if – "
"Nonsensical, milady," he replied, "Of course you can. I've already bought them, and I can't think of anyone I'd rather go with. Besides, I owe them to you, in a way."
"Really?" Suddenly, she grinned again, "Is this another Scranton story?"
"More like a Michael-is-an-idiot story," he replied, "But yeah, it's a Scranton story."
"So did we see Counting Crows then?"
"Not exactly," Michael began, "There was a yoga teacher…I think Oscar introduced you guys…and yoga man was an idiot with poor taste and never returned your calls about a second date. So, you were left with an extra ticket for Counting Crows. And then I was completely clueless and didn't pick up on the fact that you wanted to give me your extra ticket until you told me. But that was much, much later. Anyway, I was trying to make things better, even though I was completely oblivious to what you wanted…I may or may not have bought the tickets from you and tore them up. Like I said, Hollypop, story of idiots."
"Nah," Holly replied, "I think it's more of a story of friendship."
Michael smiled, "I like that."
"Did we go to a lot of concerts?" Holly asked. She had always been a fan of live music, but they hadn't been AJ's favorite way to spend an evening. He'd found them to be too loud and felt that they were a little old for that kind of thing. They had gone to a few together, and although she could tell that he had tried to like them for her, it was clear that they were not his cup of tea.
"We did once in a while. Third Eye Blind. Alicia Keys. Black Eyed Peas. "
"Sounds like this wasn't too rare of an occurrence," Holly replied with a smile.
Michael's face matched hers, "Yeah. Well, you and I both liked concerts. One time we saw Kevin's band, too."
"The-one-Dwight-had-me-convinced-was-slow-Kevin?" she asked, blushing.
"Yeppers, the one and only. Hey, don't feel bad."
"I don't even remember it, but I still get embarrassment for myself."
"It wasn't your fault, though, Holly."
She smiled slightly, "Yeah. Well, I suppose I wasn't too awful about it, seeing as you guys kept me around."
"I would never have even heard of anything else. Like I said once, you're the best thing that happened to the company since World War II."
Andy stared at the file. A. Bernard and K. Kapoor stared back at him fiercely. Ever since he had discovered it in his bag, Andy had been unable to open the file. He was caught between being fascinated and horrified at what he would find, and his actions had been dominated by the latter sentiment. This feeling had also caused him to call in sick to work ever since the discovery. He didn't want to think about whatever was in that file, nor did he want to consider the effect that the knowledge of this would have on his present day life He didn't want to wrap his mind around the concept of having erased someone from his own life, losing a piece of his own past. It was something he helped others to do on a daily basis, but this was much too close to home. He didn't want to think about Zeke betraying him, Zeke lying to him.
He took another gulp of beer. He had hardly left his spot on the living room couch since making this discovery several days ago. He surveyed the clutter around him and his days old outfit. He sighed.
He was a wreck.
Teddy Wallace scanned the attic to find his father.
"Hey Dad, I think this box has some of your stuff," he said.
"Thanks," David replied. He sat down to sort through the box.
This year, he and his wife had taken the phrase "spring cleaning" literally. He and Teddy were tackling the attic while Rachel worked downstairs. David opened the box and examined its contents. It was dull of things from his time at Dunder Mifflin. There was a small collection of tiny odds and ends that had decorated his desk while he'd been at corporate. He saw several certificates of appreciation. Then his eyes wandered to a pile of photographs. Curious, he began to look through them.
There was a group shot of regional supervisors and corporate employees. He scanned the picture, remembering faces and names. He saw Jan Levinson and wondered what she had ended up doing. Several years ago, he'd heard through the grapevine that she was pregnant by a sperm donor after a failed venture into the candle business.
As he put that photo aside, two familiar faces greeted him. The next picture was a shot of Holly Flax and Michael Scott at the company picnic several years ago. David stared at the picture for a while. He'd always felt guilty about transferring Holly away from Michael, practically from the instant that he'd done it. On a technical level, his reasoning for doing it still stood strong, but it had felt like a heartless decision. Michael had finally been happy, and he had taken that away from him. Honestly, it had felt a bit like betrayal, and after he'd received a particular phone call from Michael a few years ago, the feeling had been confirmed. And Holly. He'd seen how happy she'd been when she was with Michael, and he had put a stop to that. He had ruined them all for the sake of company policy. What did that make him? Some kind of heartless Scrooge?
Thus, he had been motivated to hire Holly by guilt. Well, at least in part. He knew she was competent and would likely be a good fit for the job. He might not have been so quick to make that decision, however, if it were not for his role in causing the downfall in her relationship with Michael. He wanted to make up for that, to be able to apologize in some sort of way. He had caused one negative event in her life, and now he wanted to be the source of a positive one. He had offered her the job. And he had hoped that it would be a way to set things right.
