Pam woke up with a hangover, not remembering much from the night before. She remembered it was the Dundies, and that Roy left early. She also remembered Angela driving her home, and the faint sound of criticism ringing in her hears. “You really shouldn’t drink that much. It’s embarrassing”, Angela had told her. Or maybe it was the Wicked Witch of the West. They sounded pretty much the same last night. What Pam couldn’t remember was what actually happened in between those two moments.

She got up out of bed, barely able to keep her balance while heading to the bathroom. On the counter she saw something that began to trigger her memory. It was her Dundie award from the previous night. She remembered the fight with Roy, about how he and Daryl wanted to go to Poor Richard’s, and being pissed that he hadn’t even so much as consulted her about it. She looked over in the bed and saw Roy wasn’t there. He apparently didn’t even bother to come home last night to check on her.

Pam couldn’t take it anymore. It was a constant struggle every day just to be happy. It hadn’t always been like this. She could think back to a happier time when she was in love with Roy. He was pretty damn attractive after all, and could be quite the charmer when he actually tried. However, whatever chemistry used to exist in their relationship fizzled a long time ago. Now it was just a long series of fights or unhappy moments punctuated by very few times where she genuinely enjoyed his company. There were only so many times he could just tickle her to make everything go away.

As Pam stood in the bathroom trying to regain her composure, memories of the previous night began to fill her head. She remembered Dwight making annoying noises with his recorder, Michael doing racist impressions, and Meredith threatening to kill her. Pam wasn’t sure how that last one came about. Finally, it came to her. She had spent the whole evening with…

Jim Halpert was busy with insomnia. He hadn’t been able to sleep all night, but couldn’t really pinpoint what the problem was. He’d been out all night at Michael’s stupid awards show, although he had to admit it was a much better night than usual, even if he did unfortunately see Dwight topless. Yikes. Nobody deserves that.

Try as he might, Jim could not deny what was really going on. He spent the whole evening with Pam, and yes he had a huge crush on her, although he would never admit it. He scored a small personal victory by successfully convincing Michael to eliminate the embarrassing Longest Engagement award, and the result was seeing his best friend perhaps the happiest she has ever been. It thrilled him to be able to do something like that for her, even though she’d probably never know about it.

His latest attempt to go to sleep was interrupted by a phone call. Looking over at the alarm clock, Jim noticed it was 8:30 in the morning. Who could possibly be calling him this early? “Hello?” Jim barely mumbled into the phone.

“Oh, hi. Sorry, did I wake you?” Pam immediately regretted calling him. What was she thinking?

This certainly wasn‘t who Jim expected. “Pam?”

“I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have called. Were you sleeping?

“Oh no, not at all. Trust me.”

“You sounded so surprised that I called.”

“Well, I’m mostly surprised that you’re still alive,” Jim teased.

“Oh really? You didn’t seem too concerned that I could possibly be dead.”

“Oh trust me, Beesley. I would’ve gone to your funeral, cried, maybe even performed a song.”

Pam giggled. “You sing? Now that I have to hear.”

“No, that was a joke. Believe me, you’ll never hear it.”

She could not be dissuaded now. “I’m gonna tell Michael. That way you can perform at next year’s Dundies!”

“Oh you will be dead if that happens!”

Eventually their laughing subsided and there was a bit of an awkward pause between then. “You know, I barely remember what happened last night.”

“Yeah, that’s not a surprise Beesley. You were pretty far gone.”

“Tell me what happened.”

“Well, you stole drinks from everyone, except Meredith.”

“That figures. What else?”

“Well, Michael made a fool out of himself as usual.”

This next award goes to somebody, who really, lights up the office. Somebody, who I think a lot of us, cannot keep, from checking out. The "Hottest in the Office" award goes to … Ryan the temp!

And the "Tight Ass" award goes to Angela. Not only because she is everybody's favorite stickler, but because she has, a great caboose. So come on down!
No.

Pam laughed. “I can’t believe he thought Angela would like that.”

“Yeah, I can’t believe he thinks anyone likes the Dundies. Though I must admit, this was one of the better ones. Watching you get drunk was pretty entertaining.”

I think those might be empty.
No, no, ’cause the ice melts and then it's like second drink!
Second drink?

It starts to become clearer for Pam. There were a couple jerks at the bar who started taunting Michael. Then they threw stuff at him. Michael tried to keep his spirits up by giving Kevin an award, but he was clearly dejected. Pam remembers feeling sorry for him (quickly reminding herself that she was drunk at the time), and boosting his spirits by chanting.

Hey, I haven't gotten one yet!
Yes, I have not gotten one either. Keep going.
More Dundies! Dundies! Dundies! Dundies! Dundies!

And this next award is going out to our own little Pam Beesley. I think we all know what award Pam is going to be getting this year. It is the Whitest Sneakers award! Because she always has the whitest tennis shoes on!

Pam realized this is when everything changed and it became a memorable night. Somehow Michael had decided to change the embarrassing Longest Engagement Award to something nicer, and this simple act completely lifted her spirits.

“Then you got up to give a speech,” Jim said.

“Oh no”, Pam said as she finally remembered.

Um, so, finally, I want to thank God. Because God gave me this Dundie. And I feel God in this Chili's tonight. WOOOOO!!!!

“Oh my god, I cannot believe I said that.”

“Yeah it was quite the spectacle. Then later you fell off a bar stool and Dwight tried to give you CPR. And if you don’t remember Dwight taking his shirt off, then I’m jealous.”

Pam started giggling again. “Anything else happen?” Pam was fishing for more.

“Well, Kevin won smelliest bowel movement, but that’s about it.”

However, Pam felt there was something else missing. Something major had happened, and she couldn’t quite pinpoint what it was. As her hand brushed across her lips, she noticed that her lips felt different. Not bad, but just different, maybe even better. Then in an instant she came to the realization of what she had done.

“So was it good?” she asked.

“Was what good?” Jim replied, having an inkling of what she might be asking, and still hoping he might have a way out of answering it.

“The kiss. When I kissed you. Was it good?”

Jim started to get nervous, and maybe even blushed. Again, not that he would admit it. “I thought you didn’t remember anything.”

“Well, some stuff is coming back to me. It’s ok, I’m sure you were a gentleman.”

“Oh yeah, I’m a real gentleman. I let a drunk woman kiss me, and then maybe kissed back a little.”

“You kissed me back?” Pam asked with surprise. She didn’t remember that part.

“Yeah, sorry about that,” Jim said, mentally kicking himself for blurting that out.

“I’m not necessarily complaining,” Pam slyly replied.

“Are you flirting with me, Beesley? Or are you still drunk?”

“Maybe both? It sounds like we had a fun time.”

“Yeah we did. Just wait until you actually remember it.”

After hanging up with Jim, Pam looked at the award some more. There was one thing she still couldn’t figure out. Why would Michael just randomly change the award this year? It was obviously one of his (and Roy’s) favorite jokes. Suddenly it began to dawn on her. She didn’t know how it happened, but she was pretty sure who was responsible.

“Hello?”

“Hi Jim. Sorry to bother you again.”

“No problem. What’s up?”

“It was you, wasn’t it?”

He really didn‘t know what she was getting at this time. “What are you talking about, Beesley?”

“The award. You did something, didn’t you?”

He had never been happier to answer a question in his life. “It was nothing. I just convinced him it wasn‘t the funniest joke anymore.”

“Jim, it’s not nothing,” she replied warmly. “That was very thoughtful of you. Thank You.”

“No problem. And by the way, it was good.”

“What?”

“The kiss. It was very good.” He couldn’t believe he was actually saying this out loud. Jim had trained himself to hide most of his emotions, especially regarding Pam.

“Jim…”, she started to say, but didn’t really know where she was going with the rest of that sentence.

“Yes?” Jim asked with anticipation.

“You sound really tired.”

“Yeah, ” Jim said, a little disappointed. “It was a long night.”

“Yeah it was. I’ll let you get back to sleep. See you at work Monday.”

“Definitely. Looking forward to it.” Jim said, and he meant it.

Jim had been Pam’s best friend for the past two years, making every inane workday seem so much brighter, thanks to the friendly games they always played or the hilarious pranks they pulled on Dwight, but maybe there was something more. After all, she did remember being very jealous when Jim went on a date with Katy. Perhaps there was a future with Jim. She didn’t know what any of this meant or where it was going, but she was certain of what needed to be done next.

“Hi, I was calling to see about the rates on your one bedroom apartments.“

“Please don’t do this, Pammy,” Roy begged.

Pam didn’t want to have this conversation today. When she told Roy it was over, Pam hoped that she could move out without much drama. Secretly she hoped that he would just go get drunk with Daryl. The fact that he was standing here fighting for her made it so much harder. In fact, it made her angry. After all these years, now he chooses to make a stand.

“Roy, stop it!” Pam shouted, then paused for a minute to regain her composure. “Look, it’s just not working out. I don’t want to marry you. We are not right for each other.”

Roy used his stupid sweet talk voice that Pam had gotten sick of a long time ago. “Come on Pammy. We’ve been together for so long.”

“That’s not a reason to stay together longer. If anything, it means we shouldn’t waste even more time. And don’t call me Pammy,” she said defiantly.

“What can I do, Pam? Whatever it is, let me know. I can change.” He was really trying now. Maybe for the first time, he realized all the crap he had put Pam through and he didn’t want to lose her.

“You shouldn’t have to change, Roy,” Pam said sincerely. “You like getting drunk with the guys and watching sports all day. You enjoy gawking at other women. And you deserve a girl who doesn’t mind that, not one that … pretends.”

“Pretend?!” Roy shouted. “What are you saying, Pam? You’ve been pretending to love me all this time?!”

Pam dropped her head. “Not all this time, Roy. I did love you at first. We just don’t belong together anymore. Now will you please let me go? You’re just making it harder.”

“You’re the one dumping me, Pam! And I’m making it harder for you?”

“Roy, I’m miserable. I have been miserable for the past two years, maybe longer. Do you really want me to be like that? If you care about me at all, then you’ll just let me go!” Pam made a mental note that this was the last time she was going to have an argument like this. She would never let herself get into a relationship like this again.

Roy was taken aback. He had never seen Pam stand up for herself like this. This wasn’t the same Pammy he knew. Roy decided that he’d have to let her go, at least for now. Dragging out this argument would just make things worse. “At least let me call Daryl to help you move. You should take some of the furniture with you.”

“That’s ok. I think a fresh start would be good for me.” With that, Pam grabbed her few remaining bags and headed out the door of their home. Roy watched her go with sadness, but was certain she would be back, and he would do whatever it takes for that to happen.

Jim Halpert arrived at work Monday morning, ready to start another weary day at the office. This day he was even more disappointed than usual, because Pam was not there to greet him. That was certainly the brightest part his day, and had gotten even better over the past couple weeks. She seemed to look at him a little bit differently now, with a smile that was certainly more flirtatious than usual. “She’s engaged, idiot,” he had to keep telling himself.

However, something in the back of Jim’s mind kept telling him something else. After all, she kissed him at the Dundies. Then when they talked about it, she didn’t seem upset or try to deny it. She wasn’t even mad when he admitted kissing her back, and actually kind of flirted with him a little. Jim had decided it was best to play it cool and see what happened. After all, he couldn’t possibly make a move while she was engaged to another man, even if that man was a jerk who didn’t treat her right.

Jim sat down and began to work. After all, there was nothing else to do when Pam wasn’t there. He had to somehow placate Michael by pretending that a dirty e-mail forward was funny. Then it was back to cold calling potential clients, which got so boring that he almost hoped Michael would come back. Then that’s when it happened. Todd Packer showed up.

There were few people on the planet that Jim liked less than Todd Packer. Todd was an immature, sexist, alcoholic sleazebag who was constantly shouting graphic and inappropriate jokes at the top of his lungs. Todd was in rare form today, telling an obnoxious story about the company CFO that got fired for sexual harassment. Jim quickly got up and volunteered a brief interview with the documentary crew to tell them his opinion of Packer. Jim always liked playing it up for the cameras, and the filmmakers certainly enjoyed showcasing him whenever they could.

After leaving the conference room feeling a little better (trashing Todd Packer was always a good stress reliever), Jim saw a familiar face walk in. He went to the reception desk to greet her. “Beesley. I was wondering when you’d show up.”

“Yeah, I was uh…staying at a friend’s place, and didn’t really time my morning departure well.”

“Oh yeah, I was just wondering. It’s not like you to be late.”

“Actually, it’s not like you to be early, which you were all last week. Are you becoming a goody two shoes, Halpert?”

Jim played dumb. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“And by the way, when is the last time you’ve pulled a prank on Dwight?”

“I don’t know. I guess I’ve just had a lot on my mind lately. No time to plan a good prank.”

“Really? Aww, that’s so sweet. You’ve become a good dorky corporate boy,” she teased.

“Wow, that’s low Beesley. Actually, I had an idea for one where everyone calls Dwight Dwayne…” but Jim couldn’t finish his sentence, because he noticed something odd about Pam’s hand. There was no engagement ring on it.

“Jim? Earth to Jim?” Then she saw where he was looking and quickly hid her hand.

“What happened to your engagement ring?” Jim asked, trying to hide his excitement and remembering that she might need a shoulder to cry on.

“Oh, um, that’s a long story,” Pam sheepishly replied.

“Well it’s a good thing we work at Dunder-Mifflin, then.” This got a laugh out of Pam. Jim gave himself a mental fist pump. He loved cheering her up even more than he liked playing it up to the cameras.

“Actually, my mom is coming today, so I’m sure she’ll want to talk me to death about it. I think she’s always kind of liked Roy, so I’m dreading that. But it‘ll be good to have you here to cheer me up.”

“Well you’ll probably need a lot of that today, because guess who stopped for a visit? Todd Packer.”

“Oh no,” Pam moaned. “Who has two thumbs and wants to kill herself?” Pam dropped her head to her desk.

“Wow, that’s a bit harsh Pam. I mean if there’s going to be any killing today, then Todd Packer should be on the receiving end, don’t you think?” She laughed again. Another victory for Jim. “Maybe we can convince Dwight that Todd is Voldemort?”

“Or Sauron. That’s a tough call.”

“Very tough call.”

Thankfully, Packer left to go on a business call so she didn’t have to deal with him for most of the day. Unfortunately, Toby announced he was going to be doing a sexual harassment seminar. Pam always hated these days, because all the guys in the office thought it was clever to harass her. She grabbed Jim’s attention with a flirty IM, using the winking face with lipstick.

“What’s up, Beesley?” he said as he made his routine trip to her desk.

“I thought of something you can do for me.”

“Anything you want.”

“Um, well you know it’s sexual harassment day. And you know how everyone is. I was just wondering if you could say something…”

“Say no more.” Jim went around to talk to each of the guys and received their assurances that they’d be respectful to Pam for the day. He would never tell her how he did it, but that Dwayne joke would now have to be put on hold. For the most part they followed through on said assurances, the lone exception being Michael, who brought in a blow up doll and tried to get Pam to enact a lesbian scene with it. Jim sighed with the realization that he couldn’t win every battle.

Pam’s day brightened up a bit when her mom showed up. She was still a little nervous about how her mom would react to the Roy situation, but at least it would give her an excuse to ignore Michael or Packer.

“So how’s the apartment holding up?”

“It’s good. Kind of lonely, but I’m getting used to it. Not a lot of furniture yet.”

“Well don’t worry about that, sweetie. I’m going to take you out shopping and get you some furniture.”

“Mom, you really don’t have to do that.”

Jim was waiting for his chance to jump up and introduce himself, but just as he was about to Roy showed up. He looked much different, wearing a sweater and sporting smoothly slicked hair.

“What are you doing here?” Pam said, obviously upset.

“I just wanted to say hi to this awesome woman,” Roy replied as he went up to hug Pam’s mom.

“Aww that’s really sweet,” Pam’s mom replied. “Can I talk to you for a minute?” She pulled Roy aside.

“Mom, what are you doing?” a bewildered Pam asked.

“Just hold on a second honey,” she replied before turning to Roy. ”Roy, I think Pam would like you to leave.”

“Oh come on. You‘ve known me for a long time. You know this is crazy what she’s doing.”

“Roy,” she said sharply. “I need you to leave.” Roy could tell she wasn’t kidding. He looked at Pam, shrugged, and walked out.

“Mom, what did you do?”

“Sweetie, there’s one thing I need you to understand,” she said tenderly.

“Yes?”

“I’ll always be on your side.”

Pam wiped away tears and they hugged. “Thank you, mom.”

She whispered to Pam, “So now, which one is Jim?”

Pam blushed and pointed in Jim’s direction. “Shhhhh. He’s right there.”

“You kissed him? Wow, he’s adorable.” Despite the whispering, Jim heard all of this and thought Pam had the most awesome mom ever.

Pam and her mom went shopping that afternoon and had a long talk. It was a surreal conversation for Pam, because now her mom only seemed to want to talk about Jim. Pam still wasn’t sure what to make of her feelings about Jim, but it was nice to have someone she could talk to about it and get stuff out in the open. When her mom left to head back home, Pam found herself staring at the phone and remembering what her mother told her.

You owe it to yourself to take a chance once in a while, Pam. Don’t wait too long or the chance could pass you by.

“Hey. How are you doing? Yeah, I was just wondering if maybe you’d like to grab a coffee?”

Jim and Pam felt like a couple of teenagers. Here they were sitting in Jim’s car in the Dunder Mifflin parking lot, making out like a couple kids who drove up to the point for a little fun. Things had been going really well between them lately. They had easily moved from friendship to a more intimate relationship, and had been able to keep their usual playful banter.

At times, Pam felt they were moving a little too fast. After all, she did just get out of a long-term relationship. But every time she thought this, it was quickly kicked to the back of her mind when she saw him with those deadly lips, penetrating eyes, and provocative smile. She just had to have him, all of him, as much as possible. While she hadn’t had all of him just yet, Pam could definitely feel that she was ready for it when the right moment came along.

Unfortunately, there was one lingering issue that sometimes made things uncomfortable. Pam was still reeling from Angela’s veiled threats last week. She really didn’t care about other people knowing about the relationship. It was going really well with Jim, so well that she was sure it would be fine even under the scrutiny of their office coworkers. The only problem was Roy’s involvement. A confrontation between Roy and Jim would not be a pleasant situation, no matter how it ended. Pam could sense that Jim was getting a little restless about the Roy situation, but she really appreciated that he was understanding enough to give her the time needed to figure out how to best handle things.

Meanwhile, Jim didn’t mind that they had to hide from everyone for now. He understood the complicated situation with Roy. After all, he remembered the moment not too long ago when Roy got a little physical with Jim when he saw him touching Pam. On the surface, he understood the logic of this situation and he wasn’t going to complain. Deep down, this bothered him just a little bit. It’s not like he wanted to shout to everyone in the office that they were dating, but now it seemed like they spent less time flirting than they did before they were even dating. It was so hard to just sit there at work and not be able to touch her, smell her hair, hold her in his arms. Still, he decided that it wasn’t best to rock the boat. He was just happy to be with her and didn’t want to do anything that would jeopardize that. For now, her wish was his command.

“I wish we had longer breaks,” Jim said as they finally came up for air.

“Much longer,” Pam replied.

“Actually, I wish we were independently wealthy. Then we could just do this all day long.”

“But why would we be here in the Dunder-Mifflin parking lot?”

“Good question. Let’s say we bought the company and we had to come here and keep an eye on Michael.”

“We bought a failing paper company? In the alternate world where we’re independently wealthy, you do not get to control our finances.”

“Really? Because I’ve never seen someone spend, spend, spend like you.

“That is not true!” Pam exclaimed with mock outrage.

“Oh yeah it is. I mean, I’m starting to think you won the Whitest Sneakers Award because you buy a new pair every day.”

Pam had a comeback ready, but was distracted by Michael running out of the building. “Uh oh,” Pam said several other coworkers following him. Jim and Pam quickly got out of the car, trying to act as casual as possible. They walked up to the group, which now included the entire office, and discovered that a small fire had started in the building.

“Is this real or is Dwight running his monthly homeland security test?” Jim asked.

“Hey, I’m just glad he doesn’t think this is Gitmo,” Oscar replied.

Phyllis walked up to Pam and whispered into her ear, causing Pam to blush. Pam quickly turned around and buttoned the top button on her shirt. Then she walked back over to Jim with a flirtatious smile. “Pretty slick move there, Halpert.”

Jim was confused. “What are you talking about?”

“One of my buttons was undone.”

“Oh, and you’re blaming me?”

“Definitely. I mean, Kevin wasn’t anywhere near me, and I don’t know who else would want to look down my shirt.”

“What makes you think I want to?” he said jokingly, but he instantly regretted it as soon as he saw her face fall. “Wait, Pam. I’m sorry. Of course that’s not true. I was just joking. I thought we had this little rapport going.”

“No, I know. It’s just that there are some things I’d rather you didn’t joke about,” she said quietly.

“I’m sorry, Pam,” he said with utmost sincerity. He always hated to see her upset.

“No, I’m sorry. I mean, I didn’t mean to make things awkward. I know you didn’t mean it. I guess I’m just a little self-conscious about that stuff.”

“You shouldn’t be,” he replied, but she shrugged it off. “Pam,” he says as he grabs her hand, “You’re beautiful.” She looked up at him and smiled, but they quickly remember where they are and let go of each other.

While waiting for the fire department to take care of things, Jim and Pam decided to pass the time by goofing off in a variety of ways. Fresh off their successful hosting stint for the office Olympics, they led the office in a series of silly games such as Desert Island, Who Would You Do?, and Would You Rather? Pam always loved how enthusiastic Jim got during these moments. She always wondered why someone with so much intelligence and charm ended up in such a dead end job like paper salesman. She’d brought up the subject a few times while they were friends, but he always tried to dodge the issue. It seemed like a sore spot for him, so she didn’t want to bring up the subject now as their relationship was just starting, but it definitely concerned her.

Jim and Pam left the game activities for a bit to check on Dwight, who was upset over Michael’s newfound attention on Ryan. They had a bit of fun teasing Dwight, giving him several suggestions on how to make Ryan jealous, but he wasn’t having any of it. They began to make their way back to the group, when they saw Roy walking over.

“Roy? What are you doing?” Pam snapped.

“Oh come on. I can’t even come over and talk to you anymore?”

Pam was about to shout something at Roy, but Jim interjected. “Hey Roy, can we talk for a second?”

Roy didn’t like the sound of that, but was willing to do anything to get away from Pam‘s angry stare. “Yeah, alright.”

Jim decided the best thing to do was reason with Roy man to man. “Look man, I know you mean well, but I think Pam just needs some time, you know? I mean, she’s obviously upset and I’m sure you don’t want to make her more upset, right?”

“Yeah, I guess that makes sense,” Roy said with obvious disappointment. He was clearly having trouble coping with Pam’s rejection, which worried Jim quite a bit. “Hey, you’re not so bad, Halpert. I still think you’re gay, though.”

Jim quickly gave one of his patented quizzical expressions to the camera. Then he just tried to say anything that would make Roy go away. “Good to know. I promise I won’t hit on you.” Roy laughed and nodded at Pam before walking back to the warehouse.

“What did you say to him?” Pam asked.

“Just used the old Halpert charm,” Jim said.

“Oh really? Well I guess I need to meet your brother to find out what that is.”

“Yeah, that’s very funny coming from someone who couldn’t keep her hands off me this morning.”

“Oh yeah that has nothing to do with you. I’m just a sucker for a guy who drives a Toyota Corolla,” Pam teased.

“Well that’s good to know, because I was about to sell it to Creed,” Jim replied and they both started cracking up.

“Thank You, Jim. Whatever you said. Thanks.”

“No problem,” he replied with a delicate smile. “Let’s get back to the games.”

When they got back, the group was in the middle of Who Would You Do? and Michael had decided to take charge. “Welcome Back, Jimbo. It’s your turn. Who would you do?”

Jim was at a loss. He couldn’t say his real answer right now, and picking anyone else would be insulting to Pam, who had already noted that she was self-conscious about such things. “Actually, can you skip me? I’ll have to think about it a bit. Let Kevin go next. I’m sure that will keep us occupied for a while.”

“Alright then, I’ll start with your mom,” Kevin retorted. “MILF.”

“Score,” Jim replied, even though he wasn’t really paying attention. Instead, he was busy fiddling with his cell phone.

After a few seconds, Pam’s cell phone started vibrating. She flipped open her phone and noticed there was an incoming text message from none other than Jim Halpert. She scrolled down and blushed as she read the message:

You