Chapter Text
They’ve been dating (well, breaking up, making up) for about three months when Maggie finds out about the other dates, the ones Don has decided are completely acceptable to have when they’re mid-break up without ever maybe checking in with her. Not that she would have been likely to approve of them anyway, but it wouldn’t have made her feel sucker punched the moment flowers were delivered to ACN, for Don, not from her, had she known.
They argued for a good fifteen minutes inside his office, no doubt morbidly entertaining the entire staff, never reaching any conclusion per se, but Maggie figured there was still something she could take away from it all: If Don thought it was okay to hook up when they were broken up, then Maggie could hook up too.
That night, she skips Don’s place entirely and heads for a nearby bar. She sits at the counter, looking like she's just waiting for someone else, and gives a look around.
There's a good-looking guy sitting alone about two seats away from her. He has a cute, kind of dorky look about him, with his tie sloppy and a little loose and his shirt sleeves pulled back. The laptop open, probably with work, only adds to the geeky impression.
He’ll do very well, she thinks, waiting for a good opportunity to catch his attention. She knows she’s in when, from the corner of her eye, she sees him quickly glance at her, only to then slowly look again and subtly stare.
She pretends she wants a napkin, the container of which happens to be on the other side of him, and they strike a conversation. The night ends with them going back to his hotel room.
By the time there’s a peek of the sun, she’s putting on her clothes and marching back to her place, with no awkward goodbyes or explanations.
By the end of the week, Maggie and Don are back together, and Maggie’s hookup never gets brought up.
***
After she hangs up, after having lied to her dad, the tears she’s been keeping at bay force their way out and she tries to hide them, but MacKenzie’s way more savvy and just takes her small breakdown in stride. She asks if Maggie’s going with Don, but of course she isn’t, she’s Will’s assistant, no matter how she got there.
MacKenzie gets all starry-eyed as Maggie explains, and before she knows it, she’s promoted to associate producer. Maggie can't quite believe it, too stunned to answer, but MacKenzie continues, smiling all pleased, and says, “You’ll report to—
“Mac!”
—him!”
At that moment, after he spots them but before he trips over MacKenzie’s bags, their eyes, widening with recognition, meet. That’s when he falls and her ingrained politeness kicks in.
“Oh my god, are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” he says, wincing, though from the pain or the circumstances, she can’t be completely sure. Their eyes meet again as Mackenzie introduces them.
“Jim Harper, this is Margaret—“
“Maggie,” they both say, and both freeze at the same time.
“You know each other?” asks Mackenzie.
“We spoke briefly on the phone,” Jim lies, and Maggie’s grateful for his quick thinking. If she’d tried to come up with anything but we had sex a month ago and I left without saying goodbye, MacKenzie would have suspected. “Maggie, nice to see you.”
“Likewise,” she says, hoping she doesn’t sound as nervous as she feels.
“Can I talk to you for a second?” Jim says, this time to MacKenzie, and they move away from Maggie’s desk to talk about Will’s reaction to the whole situation, most likely.
She sits back down and keeps her focus entirely on the computer screen, definitely not on her hookup-turned-boss.
***
“Oh, my god! She’s the girl you saw last month!”
“Sh!”
“You hooked up with Maggie!?”
“Don’t scream it!” Jim hisses. It’s not like there’s really anyone around to hear them, but Mac gets weirdly loud when she gossips, and Maggie’s seriously not that far away.
“It’s just so cute! Aw, Jim, it’s fate! You didn’t even need my amazing Cupid skills to help you this time,” Mac says, as if she’d ever actually been any good at matchmaking. “You’re even in luck! We were talking about her boyfriend before you came in, and I’m not really sure he’s right for her,” she whispers at the end. “All you need is a little patience and you’ll be back in the race in no time.”
“Please stop talking.”
“I’m so happy for you.” She squeezes his shoulders and smiles suspiciously big. “Just like you’ll be for me when you hear a few job details I didn’t know earlier.”
***
He goes over to her desk once the broadcast is over. Just to tell her good job, of course, not because he might still kinda like her despite the fact she seemed absolutely terrified every time they spoke as the broadcast was being produced. He appreciates that she could still do a good job regardless. It's a valuable skill.
He approaches her as she's finishing packing up her stuff and tries to be friendly and not awkward. "Hey."
From Maggie's reaction, his plan is off to a bad start. "Hey," she says before quickly looking to the side and then at her fidgety hands.
"You did a great job today."
"Thank you."
Neither speaks for a good 15 seconds, and he thinks he should have made some contingency plans. At least an idea of how to go about this conversation really would have helped break this awkward atmosphere.
"I just wanted to say…"
“I’m sorry, I never thought…"
They both stop at the same time, but Maggie starts again. "You never said you were staying in New York."
"I didn't know at the time," he replies. More seconds in silence pass before he asks, "How long have you been dating Don?"
She licks her lips nervously. "Technically about four months? We broke up for a while."
He nods, relaxing a little. At least it hadn't been cheating. That takes away some of the anxiety from Don's presence, though not completely. Don didn't seem to appreciate him meddling and pushing them to run the story, no matter how well it turned out in the end. He'd probably appreciate it even less if he knew about the thing with his girlfriend. He has the feeling it hasn't been brought up yet.
Before it can get any more awkward, Maggie looks at him and steels herself. "Look, I don't want our work relationship to start on the wrong foot."
“Don’t worry. I won’t say anything," he says, getting confirmation of what he'd already suspected. No one leaves someone else's apartment without saying goodbye because they think it's something they'd like to pursue for the long term. He's gotten over the hurt already. He has. "It can stay in the past.”
“Thank you,” she says, relief on her face. Then, Don shows up and the conversation is over.
***
Turns out it’s not him who can’t leave the past behind.
“I’m sorry, I don’t know why I’m being so mean to you,” she says, but she doesn’t 100% believe it. She has a few hints why, and they’re all standing right in front of her.
It’s just… hard. Don and her have been fighting about her staying on Newsweek lately, and Jim’s been obnoxious but also kind of sweet, and he had even agreed to let her do the interview alone, defending her even when she'd fucked it up in the end. Every day, every time she's seen him, the image of their first meeting flashed by her mind, how cute he'd been, how he'd looked at her like he couldn't believe she was giving him her attention, how easy to tease he'd been, how good she'd felt that night at his hotel room. All that remains intact in Jim. Worse, she's gotten to see other sides of him as the early days of Newsweek pass, which are just as alluring.
When Don breaks up with her at the bar and Jim comforts her, waits for a taxi with her, she reaches her limit. The fact she’s drunk doesn’t help her assessment or her verbal filter.
“Look, we just need to get it out of our system,” she says off-handedly.
He looks at her like he has no idea what she means, like he’s done every time they’ve spoken today. It’s almost funny but irritatingly so. “What?”
“I can’t see you at the office without thinking about it, and you clearly have a weird thing about me, so let’s just do it again, and then it’s done. It’ll be simple, a business transaction at most.”
“Such smooth talk you have.”
She rolls her eyes before facing him properly. “Don’t you want to feel normal when we work instead of this?”
“Wait, what 'weird thing'?"
“Like a normal senior producer wouldn’t have let me fall under the bus like I should have today. Especially when I treated you like I have.”
He stares at Maggie. “What about Don?”
“We broke up.”
“So I’m your rebound?”
“I don’t think it qualifies when I’ve been wanting to do something for three days.”
That makes him blush, poor thing. “Fine. But afterwards you stop being mean to me.”
“Deal.”
The kiss was long coming if the intensity they go at it with has anything to say.