“I was just … um … I’m in love with you”

“What?”

 “I’m really sorry if that’s weird for you to hear, but I needed you to hear it. Probably not good timing. I know that, I just …”

 “What are you doing? What do you expect me to say to that?”

 “I just needed you to know. Once.”

 “Well, I um … I … I can’t?”

“Yeah.”

 “You have no idea …”

 “Don’t do that.”

“: … what your friendship means to me.”

“C’mon. I don’t want to do that. I want to be more than that.”

 “I can’t. I’m really sorry … if you misinterpreted things. It’s probably my fault.”

 “Not your fault. I’m sorry I misinterpreted our friendship.”

And with that he walked away. Walked away from his best friend who had just turned him down. He looked around the room. He saw Michael talking with Carol. He knew that Michael was in the most dysfunctional relationship there ever was, but for a moment he wanted exactly what Michael had. A girl who he loved. Or at least someone who wanted to be more than a friend.

He looked around for Pam. He didn’t see her anywhere. He walked out to the parking lot to see if she was still out there. She wasn’t. He did see Jan outside her car smoking a cigarette.

He walked over to her. She offered him a cigarette and he refused. Jim was never much of a smoker.

“So, have you given any thought to the transfer yet?” Jan asked. Jim paused. And then he knew what he was doing. H ewas running away. Running away from his problems doesn’t solve them. As much as he didn’t want to see Pam marry that bastard he knew that what he was going to do wasn’t the right thing.

“Actually, I’ve decided against it”, Jim said softly.

Jan was surprised. “Well, OK, but if you change your mind, the position will still be open. Apparently, no one wants this job.” She sighed.

“Thanks, but I think I’ll be just fine in Scranton. Sorry to inconvenience you with all the paperwork and stuff”.

“It’s no problem Jim. Anytime.” She walked back inside.

Jim headed for the building. He knew he wasn’t leaving for Stamford, and he was also aware that he had just told his best friend that he was in love with her. We’ve been best friends for years, maybe I could just tell her that I was drunk and that I wasn’t serious and it didn’t mean a thing.

“Who the fuck am I kidding?” he muttered to himself.

He did decide that it could all blow over in time. Maybe if he started over, their friendship could be like it was before at some point. He did decide that he would have to start pulling some major pranks on Dwight to break the ice that was going to be between them come Monday morning. Now was the perfect time to go into the office and formulate a plan. He decided he would steal all of Dwight’s bobbleheads and hide them in various places in the office, and let Dwight guess where they were until he found them all.

He took the elevator and started to walk into the office. He heard a voice. He peered ever so slightly into the office to see who it was. It was Pam. On the phone. Crying.

A couple of years ago, Jim found away to listen in on any phone call that was going on in the office. All he had to do was pick up the phone in the lobby, punch in 081 and then the extension number of the office member he wanted to spy on. This would be perfect because accessing the phone at this moment would mean a) he could listen in on Pam and see how she really felt and b) Pam couldn’t see him in the lobby from where she was talking on his phone at his desk.

He quickly dialed in 081 and then his extension, 213. He heard Pam talking to her Mother, he knew it was her because he remembered her voice from that day she came into the office.

He heard pretty much the whole conversation.

“Are you in love with him?”

That was all Jim needed to hear. She had told her mom before that she had feelings for him too and this told Jim there couldn’t have possibly been a misinterpretation. He hung up the phone and walked over to her. Pam jumped a little when she saw him, and ended the conversation with her mom.

She started to preface the conversation. “Listen, Jim….”

But before she knew it his lips were on hers and her hands were in his hair and it felt like nothing else she had felt before. No kiss with Roy was even close to this.

They both pulled away and caught their breath.

“You have no idea how long I’ve wanted to do that”

Again he had been rejected. It’s been twice now. He didn’t want to bring up the fact that he had heard Pam on the phone telling her mother how much she really did love him. Jim walked out to his car and drove home. He pulled a six pack of Bud Lite out of his fridge. By now it was around 11PM, and he started to drink every beer in the fridge while watching infomercials on TV.

Jim took out his cell phone and made a call.

“Hey Jonathan”

“Jim? Why are you calling so late?”

“I kissed her.”

“Who?”

“Who the fuck do you think?”

“Oh my God. You kissed Pam. Wait, are you drunk?”

“Not when I kissed her. But now I am. Six beers will do ya in.”

“OK, slow down. What happened?”

“Well, I told her how I felt, told her I loved her, and she said, and I quote “I Can’t”. Understandable, but she still ripped my God damn heart out. So I walked away and told her I was sorry I misinterpreted our friendship. Then, I go up to the office about 10 minutes later, and she was at my desk on my phone talking to her mother. She didn’t know I was there so I listened in on her conversation and it turns out she loved me too. So I went to her and I kissed her. And you know what? She kissed me back. And when we pulled away, she said she was still gonna marry that asshole.”

“Wow. I’m so sorry.”

“Well, I’m not giving up yet Jon. I got one more thing up my sleeve. I’ll treat her so cold that by the time of her wedding she’ll be begging for me and not that assface Roy.”

“I hope it works out for you bro. I gotta get some sleep. Night Jim.”

“Night Jon”.

Jim hung up the phone. The beer was starting to have an affect on him. He went into his bedroom, and passed out. Every couple nights he would have the same dream. It always ended like this:

And then he’d always wake up, wanting more, but his dream always ended there. He had that dream again. He woke up sweating. It was well past 9AM, but it was Saturday so he could sleep as late as he wanted too. He poured himself a bowl of cereal. It was only enough to fill half the bowl.

“Screw it; I’ll go to Denny’s”.

Denny’s was only 10 minutes away. When he walked in he saw that it was busy.

“Welcome to Denny’s, sir. Let me seat you. Booth or table?”

“Booth please.”

He sat down. The waitress came over and he ordered Coffee and Eggs Benedict, his favorite breakfast. Whenever Jim was at a restaurant, he always liked to look around at all the families surrounding him. When he looked straight in front of him he saw a husky, muscular man with his back to him.

Ha. Kinda looks like Roy, he thought to himself. He then looked at the woman sitting across from the man. She had curly brown hair and was drinking tea. She had a cardigan on. And she was staring at him. Jim stared right back.

Of all the people in Scranton, of all the people he had to be seated right across from, why did it have to be Pam?

Jim’s coffee came. He really didn’t want to be in the situation he was in right now. Pam was the last person he really wanted to be dealing with. But then again, he actually wanted to see her, wanted to start his plan. Maybe if he wouldn’t be her best friend anymore, she’d see how great he was and want to be with him. It was a long shot, but that’s all he had left.

It seemed like years, the both of them just staring each other down. Finally, Roy noticed Pam was staring at something behind him.

“Pam? What are you looking at?” Pam jumped.

“Nothing. Nobody”

Roy turned around. “Hey Halpert! What a coincidence!”

“Hello, Roy” Jim kept his game face on. He had to be stern; he couldn’t fall into his old self again.

“How’s everything goin’ Halpert? Did you take care of Pam like I asked you to last night?”

Jim shrugged his shoulders. As if Roy had any clue what he and Pam did last night.

“Well, I guess I did. I dunno, maybe you should ask Pam what happened last night.”

Roy turned around. “Pammy, what did you guys do last night? Did you have fun?”

Pam looked startled. “Well, um, I uh, we played poker and I guess he’s mad about me taking his money.” Jim noticed she was shaking.

Roy chuckled. “Yeah, she is good at poker.”

Then, a slightly heavyset man walked into Denny’s.

“Roy! Pam! Sorry I’m late!”

“It’s OK Kenny. We’ve been waiting for a long time though.” Roy gave his brother a hug.

“Hey Pammy, since Jim is here, why don’t you guys talk a little while me and Kenny go to the counter and catch up.”

“Um, well, I guess, umm ok.” Pam was so nervous. Nervous about what? Does she think I would actually tell Roy about what happened? Maybe she doesn’t know me as well as I thought she did.”

Roy and Kenny walked up to the counter. Jim looked down at his coffee while Pam moved into his booth.

“Listen, Jim. I think we need to talk.”

“Talk about what?” Jim never looked up from his coffee.

“Well, let’s start about what happened last night. I-“ Jim interrupted her.

“There’s nothing to talk about.”

“What do you mean there’s nothing to talk about?”

Jim’s breakfast came. He thanked the waitress. He started cutting his Eggs Benedict. After a minute of silence went by that felt like days, Pam interjected:

“Please, Jim-talk to me, we’re best friends.”

Jim’s nostrils flared. He was furious

“First of all, I think you said everything last night. Second of all, best friends don’t break each other’s hearts.”

And with that, Jim paid his bill and walked out.

Monday 

It had been a long weekend. Lots of pain and crying for Jim. He was a sensitive guy and it hurt him so much that he had to treat Pam the way that he did but it was what he had to do.

He walked into work. Pam was already there. He hung his jacket up and stared at his shoes on the way to his desk so he wouldn’t look at her. She was looking that him though, and after 10 minutes of her burning a hole in the side of his cheek with her eyes he turned to face her. He gave her a cold stare. Not an angry stare, just a stare. No expression on his face. She could usually tell what he was thinking and how he was feeling, but not this time. It bothered her.

A couple hours passed. Pam played Sudoku while Jim made some sales. Then, at 11AM, an IM popped up on Jim’s screen:

PBeesley: Did you really mean what you said?

JHalpert: I don’t have time for you anymore.

PBeesley: Just tell me. Did you mean it? Do you really feel that way about me?

Jim closed out the IM box. He turned his chair ever so slightly to face the reception desk. And Jim looked at her until she looked up. And even though he didn’t say a single word, she knew he was saying yes.