Chapter Text
Ryan was grasping for straws.
The website barely got any traffic (when it worked) and he was pretty sure David Wallace was onto him at this point. During his presentations, the CFO’s stare became more and more menacing. He was just waiting for a chance to get rid of him, it was obvious. If Ryan had a life outside of work he could maybe write it off, but right now, this was everything he had. His wild New York nights were, for the most part, fiction. He couldn’t even get it up half the time, let alone compete against the other finance guys.
Yeah, in theory there were lots of places in New York where one could find someone to hook up with, but the last time Ryan had had sex was months ago. Sometime between having settled in and the start of his coke habit.
Usually he held off getting high until 8 p.m., when he got back from work to his cramped one-bedroom apartment and argued with himself whether or not he should go out again. The first bump to give him courage, the second to get going.
Those cheesy folk songs about feeling alone in the city made him cry nowadays.
He visited Scranton a lot, he had to check in on those fuckwits after all, and swing by his mom’s place so he could do laundry. His building didn’t have a dryer. Or washing machine. Or detergent that made his clothes smell normal again after being soaked through from coke sweat.
His mom was annoying as usual, complaining that he put in too many hours, that he was constantly on the road, that he lived in that filthy hole where dreams go to die, but Ryan knew better. Youngest VP in the history of the company. Living in New York. He made it, he could only go up.
The Scranton branch was a mess as usual. Michael had to be supervised closely, Jim was a backstabber, the rest barely did their work.
Ryan had to keep coming back.
Everything could work out, he just had to keep his head above water for a few more weeks and then the board would be convinced of the website’s success. Fudging the numbers was just a necessity for now, he could stop it soon if Michael played along. All according to his plan. Streamlined.
Ryan didn’t miss anyone.
His old branch was a mess, sure, but he only had to do about two hours of actual work there, the rest of the time he spent telling stories about the city and letting his old colleagues keep him company. It was the closest he could get to being relaxed these days. Kelly’s attempts to make him jealous freed his mind for a moment and Toby’s voice was better than a white noise machine. Michael didn’t make advances anymore like he used to.
~
“You gotta help me out here.”
“Sure, Ry. Anything you want.”
Michael gave him a smile and played with his pen.
“The website’s had some problems. Our IT guy tried to fix it and, somehow, deleted all the sale’s data from last month.”
“Oh, that sounds terrible.”
“It is, it is. Anyway, I need you to tell your staff to log their sales from last month again as sales from the website. Just so we have some numbers as a reference. Think you could do that for me?”
“Absolutely, no problemo! It is done!”
Ryan felt a wave of relief and even laughed as Michael made an ‘American Pie’ reference.
Apparently encouraged by this, Michael leaned forward on his desk with a nervous grin.
“Could I ask you something?”
Ryan shrugged his shoulders and nodded. Nothing could ruin his mood today.
“Last time you were here you told that incredible story about how you went into a gay bar to flirt with the straight women who go there…”
Michael let out a strained giggle.
“And that you got hit on so often, you couldn’t even make it through to the girls, which I completely understand, so I wanted to ask you….how was it?”
“Getting hit on by guys? Very flattering, I got compliments about everything from my eyes to my ass. They bought me so many drinks I didn’t even mind not getting laid that night.”
Michael listened and nodded. If Ryan didn’t know better, he’d think this was the most focused he’d ever seen him.
“So they didn’t do, uhm, y’know, with you?”
Michael made a convoluted gesture that was hard to interpret.
“Are you asking me if I had sex with another man?”
“Hey, I don’t mean to pry, it’s just…a gorgeous guy in a New York gay bar?! I’d think they’d be all over you!”
Ryan sighed and shook his head. Be careful what you wish for.
“Let’s keep it to work talk, alright? Send out a memo to the sales staff about logging their numbers into the database again and I’ll check up on the annex.”
“Will do, boss hoss, the bossman."
Ryan was already closing the door on him and looking over the bullpen. It was pretty quiet compared to the high energy atmosphere he’d gotten used to on the executive floor, but he enjoyed every moment of low chatter, ceramic cups being set down and ringing phones.