Pilot
The cameras made her feel nervous. She felt as though they were catching her at something.

Diversity Day
She was less embarrassed than surprised that it had taken this long. Still, she couldn’t quite meet his eye the next day.

Health Care
She might have felt mean if it weren’t for his smile. Her ideas spilled onto the backside of the paper and she felt oddly creative.

The Alliance
Something like guilt clenched her heart as she shoved them apart. Not because he was touching her but because she wanted him to.

Basketball
She climbed, laughing, into the shower with a man she knew inside out. Still, all she could think of was a pair of legs and a trickle of sweat sliding down an unfamiliar neck.

Hot Girl
The drive home was silent and unspectacular. That night she lay right on the edge of the mattress so that their familiar bodies wouldn’t touch and wondered if he always pulled the car door open for his dates. She hoped he didn’t.

The Dundies
She hadn’t gotten drunk in years but she was angry and tired and a part of her wanted to pretend that it was okay to kiss him. At midnight she was sitting on the closed toilet lid willing herself not to cry.

Sexual Harassment
Her cheeks reddened with embarrassment and she glanced at him. She was flustered but something in her wondered if he’d ever mentioned her to his mother.

Office Olympics
She folded a slightly crushed white paper dove and a crinkled yogurt lid into a box in her nightstand labeled “Work Memories.” She knew the label was slightly inaccurate.

The Fire
Roy never wore ties so she had to settle for tugging at his collar. It wasn’t the same and she knew it.

Halloween
He tapped her blackened nose playfully and she had to look away. She was remembering his large hand in hers and fiddling with her ring.

The Fight
She ate every chip in the bag as slowly as she could, sitting at her desk in thoughtful silence. She wasn’t thinking about expense reports.

The Client
As soon as she got home she got in the shower, knowing she smelled like citronella and something warm she couldn’t quite place. The citronella washed away easily but nothing else did.

Performance Review
He asked why she was grinning as she climbed into the truck and she enthusiastically detailed another fun office prank. He didn’t really laugh and she looked away, waving at Jim across the parking lot and feeling her smile falter.

Email Surveillance
He hated Dolly Parton but he was singing anyway. The thought filled her stomach with strange, unwanted butterflies that wouldn’t settle for hours.

Christmas Party
She was unapologetic about swapping an iPod for a cheap teapot. The teapot went on the stove, the jokes went in the box in her nightstand and her simple elation went in the corner of her heart he was slowly carving out for himself.

Booze Cruise
She hadn’t had a single snorkel shot but she felt drunk and loose. One look at his face and she tightened, escaping back inside to a comfortable lie rather than get enveloped in his messy, drunken truth.

The Injury
He wasn’t acting any different around her. She had wanted him to be different and she hated herself for it.

The Secret
The elevator ride seemed to last centuries. Every moment broke her heart a tiny bit more and at his casually spoken “good night” she felt the last little piece shatter.

The Carpet
She was determined to be happy with what she had. Still, the day felt empty and wrong with him out of reach and she sent her thoughts to him rather than the man getting drunk in Michael’s office.

Boys and Girls
She told them that she wanted a husband that she loved and murmured a name they’d understand. It felt something like a lie.

Valentine’s Day
Afterwards, she stumbled towards the bathroom and stared at herself in the mirror. She’d never felt more disappointed—in herself, in Roy, and in the sting she felt at the lack of anything new to add to her shoebox.

Dwight’s Speech
She realized that she didn’t want Jim to see her in a white dress she was wearing for someone else. Something ugly inside her was relieved that he wouldn’t be there.

Take Your Daughter to Work Day
He always made things look so easy and she couldn’t hide a smile. Bonding with a juvenile delinquent, she could feel her life stretching out before her like a ragged, endless ribbon and she’d never been more stricken with sadness.

Michael’s Birthday
She hadn’t ice skated since the sixth grade but he helped her keep her balance. She’d felt more wobbly and unsteady in the drugstore.

Drug Testing
His silence was unnerving. Her thoughts were screaming at her and she could finally hear them.

Conflict Resolution
Michael begged them to smile for the eighth time but she couldn’t get the corners of her mouth to lift. She was unraveling and, once again, it was Jim that was her undoing.

Casino Night
At the touch of their lips she finally let herself tumble over a terrifying cliff. She was shocked to find that she had wings just like the crushed paper dove in her nightstand drawer. She let herself soar for a few glorious moments before landing back on solid ground with a resounding thud. The crash landing broke her wings and her heart and his heart all at once.

Gay Witch Hunt
He left a horrible, gaping hole when he left. She tried desperately to fill it up but nothing was working quite like his smile always could.

The Convention
It was an awkward, uncomfortable evening and something in her felt guilty for going on a date at all. It was as though she was cheating on a man she’d never even been with.

The Coup
She studied her reflection, not feeling like herself but not really feeling bad either. That evening she hung the shirt up in her closet and fingered a blue silk dress hanging at the back.

Grief Counseling
It was the bizarre kind of day that actually made her glad to work at Dunder Mifflin. It was just that…she felt as though she was attending a funeral for something other than a bird.

Initiation
Her heart awoke the moment she heard his voice. She begged it to stay awake as she walked to her car but she felt it drift off again and she choked on nothing.

Diwali
What exactly had she been expecting? Certainly not driving Michael home with an empty voicemail mailbox glaring at her from the passenger seat.

Branch Closing
The prospect of Jim returning both thrilled and terrified her. Would he look at her and see only a bird with broken wings?

The Merger
It was the same parking lot. All she could think was that it was the same parking lot and that nothing was ever going to work out like she had thought it might.

The Convict
She felt aglow with happiness. He had joked with her and it was like recapturing something she was sure had been buried right next to a dead bird and her own innocence.

A Benihana Christmas
The day was beautiful and complicated and sort of happy and sort of sad. She went home feeling restless and made herself tea in a little teal teapot.

Back from Vacation
There was a violent turbulence inside her that poured out of her eyes and down her cheeks. If this is what he had felt like for years and years she suddenly loved him even more.

Traveling Salesmen
She couldn’t quite explain why it didn’t feel like an accomplishment until he acknowledged it. His obvious selfless joy reminded her of a day of gold medals and blossoming love.

The Return
Working together on a joke was wonderful, but she was sure it was laughter in sombreros that she would remember weeks and months later. It made everything feel much simpler than it actually was.

Ben Franklin
She mourned the loss of the ease with which she used to talk to him. How many things had been lost in one fearful, confused moment?

Phyllis’ Wedding
A dance outside with someone familiar and comfortable reminded her that she didn’t have to feel as broken as she did most days. She left with him and caught her breath, feeling better and worse all at once.

Business School
She hadn’t felt like a liar in a long time. She heard herself telling him that she loved him and wondered if anyone actually believed her.

Cocktails
She leaned her back against her front door and breathed deeply. Her mind was racing with thoughts of Roy and broken glass but her heart was pounding Jim Jim Jim Jim.

The Negotiation
Some great fire had burned up her relationships with both Roy and Jim. She had no idea what to do with the ashes.

Safety Training
For a fleeting instant, things felt real and normal and natural. She wrapped the moment in gauze and packed it away in her heart before it slipped away, as they all eventually did.

Product Recall
They didn’t speak at all for an entire day and it was a terrible reminder of days when he hadn’t been there at all. She smiled at him feebly when he left for the day and his returning grin felt like a small victory.

Women’s Appreciation
She felt strong and capable at the end of the day but she couldn’t seem to forget a piece of lime green lingerie. She watched reality television on the loudest volume to try to blur the edges of her jealousy.

Beach Games
It was a beautiful, truthful day and she finally felt like she could give everything he might want. She was a bird in flight.

The Job
It was like falling in love all over again. She thought of a shoebox filled with memories tucked beside her bed and blurted a “yes” into the air. He looked different, but also the same, and she knew there was nothing broken that couldn’t be mended.

Fun Run
She didn’t think she could be happier. But then he took her hand and the sun was shining and he was there and she proved herself wrong.

Dunder Mifflin Infinity
The obvious joy Michael felt for them was mirrored in her own heart. She glanced at Jim and had never been more thankful for PDA.

Launch Party
It wasn’t like the last time they’d been up on the roof. She didn’t go home fearing that her lover would smell something wrong on her; she snuggled closer.

Money
Kissing in public didn’t even feel wrong. She had spent the night on a beet farm and this was her reward.

Local Ad
She ate breakfast off a paper plate at her desk and beamed at him. Everything was right with the world.

Branch Wars
Familiar creeping jealousy twisted its way into her heart but she had nothing to worry about. He walked back in the door and was undeniably hers.

Survivor Man
She could tell that he was beginning to feel a bit trapped and she tried to cheer him up a bit. But looking at him sometimes at night she knew that this wasn’t going to be an easy fix.

The Deposition
She liked that he could find a way to wedge fun into every day at this job. She watched him play, a grin on his face, and wanted to be with him forever.

Dinner Party
It was the most uncomfortable evening she had ever lived. Hamburgers and crappy music turned it into a night worth remembering.

Chair Model
She walked through the kitchen and into the bathroom, not meeting Phyllis’ eye as she passed. Locking herself in the stall, she covered her beaming grin with excited fingers and thought about forever.

Night Out
The mistakes of the night become fuzzy, unimportant footnotes as soon as his fingers glided over her bare thighs. She sighed his name and his troubled frown lifted.

Did I Stutter?
She stumbled going down the stairs but his hands were steady and strong on her arm and back. She fell into his blurry outline with grateful abandon, making out his features the closer she pulled him in.

Job Fair
They’d kissed to music before. It had never been unskillfully hummed porno music but she decided that his kisses were beautiful no matter the soundtrack.

Goodbye, Toby
She didn’t really want the fireworks or the spectacle or a round of applause. She wanted him every morning and every night and children’s drawings on the refrigerator. He kissed her in apology and regret as soon as they got home and she pulled away to ask him for the beginning she’d been waiting for. He fumbled in his pocket and gave it to her.