Toby's True Ending

            It was the day of Pam Beesly and Jim Halpert's wedding. Toby sat patiently in the pew at the church, waiting for the bride and groom to arrive. He had to convince himself to wake up that morning. The amount of effort to get out of bed and put on his suit took more effort than usual, and that was because he was in love with Pam. But she would never be his.

He had spent his post-divorce years trying to fill the hole, only to have every single relationship burn in front of him. Pam was the leap he never took, and Toby couldn't help wondering in his mind that if he had put himself out there, if it would've been his wedding that day. His heart ached with a deep desire that he could never relieve. Why did he come? He regretted even considering it in the first place. It had only hurt him more thus far.

Hours passed. Pam and Jim were nowhere to be seen. Toby was beginning to get excited, and gossiped quietly with his coworkers – mostly Creed, who wasn't listening and yelped loudly when he woke up from a momentary sleep. Toby didn't care that he had an inattentive audience, however. He was just excited with the prospect of Pam and Jim not coming to the wedding. No wedding meant no marriage, and no marriage meant that Pam was single again. Toby told himself not to get too excited, but he couldn't help himself. The thought of him getting a chance to start over and actually pursue Pam thrilled him. But then they came back.

There she was: the girl he had been infatuated with for years. The girl who sat at reception and laughed at all of Jim's jokes. The girl who spent all her free time with Jim. And the girl who was going to marry Jim.

They were both beaming, with sunshine radiating off their faces. Then Toby knew: he was never going to get her. He leaned back in the pew and prepared himself for a long day of fake smiles and false congratulations.

That night, Toby went to the bar to lose himself. He wasn't the type to go drown himself in liquor to forget his problems, but the wedding was the perfect excuse. The girl of his dreams was gone forever, he knew that now. It continued to hit him like waves to the shore, each wave killing him more. He couldn't handle it, so he acquainted himself with whiskey. His tongue burned with the sensation and his throat seemed to close in upon itself with the presence of new liquid, but he didn't care. He had only gotten through one shot when the girl that would change his life sat next to him. She ordered a Corona, slipped a lime through the top, took a swig, then swiveled around on the chair to face him and say,

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but you seem like the kind of guy that doesn't often come to bars to hide from his problems." Dazed, Toby looked behind him and to the side, positive she must be talking to someone else. When he found no one and realized the question was directed towards him, he turned back and meekly said,

"Yeah, you're right." The brunette smiled. Her brown eyes were wide with pity, and her neatly polished nails found reached up to cover her heart. Her lips made a sad face.

"Was it a girl?" She kicked off her short black heels to the ground and put her bare feet on the bottom bar of the stool, her maroon sundress falling below her knees. Toby almost couldn't believe she was sitting there. Did she mistake him for someone else? Surely a beautiful girl like her wouldn't approach him.

"I'm sorry, do I know you?" She smiled once again, a bright smile. She adjusted the necklace around her neck and cleared her throat, suddenly a little nervous. Mildly, she put out her hand to shake and warmly said with an invitational tone,

"Not yet." Toby, finally accepting that this wasn't some sick joke, reached out his hand, only to return it to his pant leg and wipe it off before continuing up to complete the handshake.

"Toby," He managed to get out. He was so awkward around girls - around everyone, for that matter. She didn't seem to notice or care, however. She giggled and said,

"Elena."

They talked for hours. After the first thirty minutes, Toby found himself opening up more, sharing stories about himself that even he had forgotten. After an hour, he didn't speak with the same timid, stuttering voice he usually owned. After the second hour, he hadn't thought about Pam for an hour. By the third hour, Toby was in love with Elena. Everything she did was with a blinding confidence, something he had never experienced in himself. Just being around her, though, gave him that taste of self love that he hadn't felt in a long, long time. They talked about everything under the sun. They talked about his divorce and she shared all the bad relationships she'd been in. Soon, there were no more secrets to tell each other. Toby had no idea why this girl had walked up to him and started talking, but he knew that it was a sign. A sign to change his life.

Everyone at work noticed his change. He was attentive, had interesting things to say in conversation, and people actually wanted to talk to him. Toby wasn't all too concerned about his work life, however. He didn't care about what Michael thought about him (who, despite his improvements, still hated his guts. Probably because he was jealous) and didn't try to find validation in anyone's statements. He was finally able to walk past Pam's desk in the morning without speeding up his walking pace to make it back to the Annex before anyone could see him cry. He rarely thought about her anymore, but when he did, he was glad that he had never gained the courage to ask her out, because he never would've met Elena.

It was only six months into their relationship when Toby asked Elena if she would marry him. Without hesitation, she said yes. She had become so fascinated and infatuated with Toby. They were perfect together – she was the extroverted, excited side and he was the calm, decisive, and patient one. In contrast to the old Toby where he didn't care about anything in the world, the new Toby didn't care about anything in the world except his girl. She was everything to him, and he felt like the luckiest guy.

Another six months went by, and it was the wedding. Everyone in the office showed up, even Jim and Pam. Toby had a difficult time processing that only a year earlier, he had gone to Jim and Pam's wedding and had known it was all over for him. Only a year earlier, he went into the bar, and only a year earlier, a pretty girl in a maroon sundress and dark brown eyes sat down next to him and started a conversation. He had gotten the happily ever after he never thought he would get, the one he once thought he didn't deserve. As he looked down the aisle to see his one and only walking towards him with her father in a bright white dress, he knew it in his heart: it all felt like a mistake, a glitch in the Matrix, but life had been fair to him after all.

The End