My friends are jerks, Fillipelli thought as she sat in the crowded booth of the trendy bistro, squished between two pantsuits. At the present, they were all having a laugh over floppy-haired Halpert, her worthless paper-salesman boyfriend. Karen looked around the table at her fancy Sex and the City career-woman friends. She could have been like them: the merger was her chance. Instead, she decided to follow Jim, her boyfriend, to Scranton. "The Electric City" was far from electric…in fact, it was the most boring place on Earth, and her friends didn't let her forget it.
But none of that mattered anymore. Either she or Jim were shoo-ins for the job, and-they had discussed this last night-they would move with the other one to Manhattan. And they would live together, go to all the cocktail parties, experience the culture, and the energy. They would live what Karen had always wanted, and they could be done with that dry, dull town in Pennsylvania. There was nowhere for Jim to go there, and he knew it. There was nothing for him there-for either of them. But now she and Jim were going to build a new life together.
At first in the relationship, there had been some uncertainty-but Jim was over the receptionist and ready to be with her. Things were different between them-they had a bond, a connection, and she knew they would stay together for the rest of their lives. Mr. and Mrs. Halpert.
And she could rub it in her stupid friends' faces.
