𝐏𝐀𝐏𝐄𝐑 𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐒| ryan howard

➳dunder mifflin infinity

emilia sat at her desk, tapping her pen against a blank sheet of paper, the noise a steady reminder of her spiraling thoughts. she hadn't spoken to ryan since that night—since the rain, the kiss, the confession. it was weird now, the silence between them, like something unspoken still lingered in the air. she'd seen him in passing since his return to the scranton branch, but they hadn't exchanged more than a brief, awkward nod. there was a palpable tension that seemed to grow with each day, and today was no different.

the buzz around the office was electric. dunder mifflin was diving headfirst into the digital age, launching their new website, dunder mifflin infinity. ryan was back from corporate, of course, overseeing the whole thing. emilia couldn't avoid him forever.

"we are going fully digital!" michael exclaimed as he burst out of his office, holding a small presentation pointer like it was a sword. "this is the future, people! no more paper—well, actually, we'll still have paper, because that's our product, but we'll also have... not paper!"

emilia let out a soft sigh, staring at her blank sheet of paper. ironic.

karen nudged her from the desk beside her. "you okay? you seem... off."

emilia shook her head. "i'm fine. just a lot on my mind, you know?"

karen glanced over at ryan, who was now addressing the whole office about the website launch, his voice calm, professional. different than before, more polished, but still very much ryan. "you guys still haven't talked, huh?" she asked quietly.

"nope," emilia said, keeping her voice low, her eyes fixed on the paper in front of her. "it's just... complicated. and now he's back here, in charge of this big thing, and it's like—where do i even start?"

"well, you better figure it out soon because he's heading this way," karen whispered, leaning back in her chair as ryan walked towards them.

emilia felt her heart thud in her chest as ryan approached, his eyes scanning the office before they landed on her. he stopped a few feet from her desk, looking momentarily unsure of himself. then, in typical ryan fashion, he pushed forward with an air of confidence.

"emilia, i need you to meet with me and dwight later," ryan said, his tone all business. "we need to go over some logistics for the website launch."

emilia nodded, not trusting herself to speak. she couldn't tell if ryan was purposely keeping things professional or if he just didn't want to acknowledge what happened between them. either way, it stung.

"sure. just let me know when."

ryan hesitated for a second, as if he wanted to say something more, but then nodded and walked off towards dwight's desk.

"this is ridiculous," karen said under her breath. "you guys need to talk. it's obvious there's something there."

"i know," emilia admitted, sinking deeper into her chair. "but i don't know if i can handle it right now."

later that day, emilia found herself in the conference room with dwight and ryan. dwight was talking in his usual hyper-focused way, rattling off numbers and statistics about the website and the "infallibility" of technology, but emilia couldn't focus. her mind was on ryan, sitting across the table from her, looking as composed as ever.

"emilia?" ryan's voice cut through her thoughts, pulling her back into the moment. "are you with us?"

she blinked, realizing she'd been staring at the table. "yeah, sorry. just a lot to process."

dwight, sensing a lull in the meeting, took the opportunity to launch into another monologue about how paper would never truly be obsolete, no matter what ryan said. but emilia barely heard him. ryan's eyes were on her, intense, questioning.