The dress hangs in the back of her closet, longing to be forgotten. It had taken her weeks to pick out the dress for her cousin Jenny’s wedding a year and a half ago, and right before that casino thing in the warehouse, she couldn’t find anything to wear. There it was, in a heap under her bed. She had thrown it there after catching the bouquet and Roy simply saying, "Well, we know that whole bouquet wedding thing is a lie now." Somehow, that dress always brought her sadness. She told herself she would never wear it again because if she did, it would not disappoint.

"He’ll come back," she thinks.

Every time she looks up, instead of seeing the mess of light hair that she tangled her fingers through so long ago on a face that would look at her with love and sincerity, she sees brushed black hair on a face that looks at her with only annoyance and confusion. Every time she looks up, another part of her dies.

"He’ll come back," she thinks.

He starts jumping around his desk and walks up to reception. "Looks like your little prank buddy is gone, huh? Everyone here knows he left because of you, and even when you called off your wedding he didn’t--" He fell silent with guilt and sympathy as he looked at her and saw tears running down her face.

"He’ll come back," she thinks.

"Michael, where’s Jim?" She had praticed all weekend how to tell him. "I called off my wedding. I’m in love with you, too."

"You didn’t hear, Pam-o-rama? Jimbo got transferred to Stamford. His last day before Australia was his last day ever. Ughh. I mean, seriously, what does Josh have that I don’t? Did I do something to make him leave?"

The words played through her mind as Michael kept on talking. Transfer, Stamford, Australia, Last Day, Ever.

She was the one who did something to make him leave, she thought. She lied to him. She told him she was going to get married.

"Excuse me," she said to Michael as she left for the stairwell, praying that the tears wouldn’t start falling until she was out of his sight.

"He’ll come back," she thinks.

It had been only one day since she called off her wedding, and she sat down at her computer to tell Jim.

She grabs her coat and takes her Prism Duro Sport out of her purse. She puts it on shuffle and begins to head for the door. A man’s voice takes over the mp3 player and she stops dead in her tracks. She begins to reminisce of grilled cheese sandwiches, of someone making her dinner, of fireworks, and of feeling like she was actually loved. She swears she won’t cry, but her eyes begin to defy her.

"He’ll come back," she thinks.

Colder, crying over your shoulder,

Hold her, tell her everything's gonna be fine.

Surely, you've been going too early,

Hurry 'cos no-one's gonna be stopped.

Na na na na...

The Parking lot is empty except for her tiny blue Yaris that pulls in her normal spot. She looks over at the spots next to her and see that they are empty. She usually wouldn’t mind, but today is different. Today is the first day she realizes that his spot won’t be empty anymore. Someone else might fill his spot and that’s just not okay with her. She fakes a cough, calls Michael, and drives back home to open up a tub of chocolate ice cream and start her grief session over the car that used to park in that spot.

She’s thirsty. She can’t help it. She walks over to the vending machine, pulls out her money, and then stops. It all comes back to her.

There would always be something here to remind her of him, she was just going to have to face the facts.

"He’ll come back," she thinks.

She wanders around the parking lot, wondering why no one is showing up for work. She forgot her key today and she’s waiting for Hank to come. She could wait in her car, but it’s a nice day and she doesn’t feel like wasting gas and money by just letting the engine run. Suddenly, she can see herself 2 parking spaces over, and Jim is standing right next to her. She sees herself joking around and sees Jim stammer for a moment, then confess. "I’m in love with you." She wants to shout out at herself, to tell her not to say it. But she can’t control her past and the Pam she’s watching rejects Jim just like she knew she would. Pam closes her eyes for as long as she can, opens them again, and the Pam she saw out there is gone. So is Jim. She pulls out her phone, ready to call her sister and ask what exactly is wrong with her when she looks at the day on her phone and realizes it’s a Saturday. She’s been so caught up in Jim that she doesn’t even know what day it is. She sighs, gets back in her car, and heads back to her lonely apartment. "He’ll come back," she thinks.

She heads to the break room to make herself a pot of tea. She hasn’t drunken anything all day and she really needs something. She already can’t talk, she lost her voice when she got sick on Tuesday. She gets water in the pot and freezes. She realizes it’s his teapot. The one he gave her. The one she traded an iPod for. Best trade she ever made, she thinks. She drops the teapot and is ready to cry when she realizes that not one piece has broken off. There is one tiny crack in the lid, but just barely noticeable. She smiles and takes it as a sign. "He’ll come back," she thinks.

He’s coming back today. He’s coming back and everything will be back to normal. No, better than normal. She’s single, he’s single, they’ve been waiting for this since the day they met. He walks in the door and she has never been happier in her life.

- - -

The day hasn’t gone at all how she thought it would. It’s been awkward. Every time she tries to talk to him, he brushes her away. What is going on?

He’s seeing someone. He’s seeing her. She walks to her car and worries about driving. She can’t see through the salty tears running down her face. She’d been waiting for him to come back for ages and today he was going to. But he didn’t.

"He’s never coming back," she thinks, praying that she’s wrong and knowing that she’s right.