INTERIM LOVER, ryan howard.

034 ⋮ midnight in new york

ㅤㅤㅤRachel's instinct was to call him instead of responding to Ryan's text with the fiddly keys of her Motorola. So that's what she did, sitting cross-legged in her queen-sized bed at half past eleven. She couldn't explain why, but she felt awfully nervous to call someone she had once been so close with, as if something about this exchange would have a tremendous impact on her future. Perhaps it was simply because he was her boss' boss.

The dial tones cut out and a meek hello sounded down the line. Rachel felt as if she had just fallen out of a rollercoaster and was tumbling to some imminent and decisive feeling. She felt sick.

"Hello?" he repeated. "Rachel, are you there?"

"Sorry, yes. Hi," she blurted.

"Star struck, are we?"

"Oh, don't flatter yourself, Howard," laughed Rachel, feeling herself relaxing at the sound of his laugh. It echoed around her mind for a moment, reverberating in a way reminiscent of the colour gold. Then silence settled like a calm sea under the moon, and both of them had no idea what to say next. "So..."

"So..."

"You disappear for almost half a year and you have nothing to tell me?" she teased. "C'mon, Ry. Tell me what it's like in New York. Is it really as good as they say? Is Jan's chair comfortable? And what's the deal with her assistant?"

Once again, Ryan laughed. "Hunter Raymond? Oh boy, he was bad. Seriously terrible. I had to fire him on my first day."

She was impressed by his audacity. He had truly graduated from someone who couldn't leave his girlfriend to someone with the power to fire someone as he was shaking their hand for the first time.

"Oh, and Jan's chair was pretty worn in, so I had that replaced too. And there's so much to do up here in New York. It's big, alright— we're talking, like, a thousand times bigger than Scranton."

Growing up in Los Angeles, Rachel understood what the bigger cities were like. Scranton couldn't possibly compete. But what Ryan had said had somehow made LA seem miniscule too, and she wasn't actually sure if she knew how big places could be. She could see his eyes lighting up as he described the big city, his friends at corporate, his new neighbours, the fun he had almost every night. And she had never felt so small and sheltered.

"Maybe I could come up some time," she suggested. The pause that followed made her uncomfortable, causing her to backpedal. "I mean, I would come up if I wasn't so busy..."

"Oh," responded Ryan, sounding a little defeated. "I mean, if you ever find the time, you should totally come up. That would be great. But, uh, what are you so busy with? Working at Dunder Mifflin isn't really strenuous..."

Rachel blanked. "I... have a boyfriend."

It wasn't a lie, but it certainly wasn't the right way to answer that question. God, she was embarrassing herself terribly.

"Oh, right. Of course," Ryan stammered, though he didn't quite understand why she would bring up such a detail. "I guess a lot must've happened since I left, huh? Michael told me about Andy."

Somehow, he could see her grimacing across the line, and laughed at the vision in his mind. "Shut up," Rachel mumbled, turning a shade of scarlet. "Andy and I were nothing at all."

"Tell me, did you fall for him before or after he put on his Bustopher Jones costume?"

"I'm going to let you figure that one out yourself."

"If it was after, I really hate to break it to you, but you'd be a furry."

"One, our one-time diner was before the abhorrent costume, and two, I hate you so much, Ryan Bailey Howard."