Jim felt a slight tremor run through his stomach with each ring of the phone. He almost hoped that she wouldn’t pick up. But then again-

“Hello?”

“Hey, Karen. It’s, uh, Jim.”

“Oh hey! I just called you a little while ago. What’s going on? I thought we were supposed to meet at Cooper’s at 6:30.”

“Um, actually I was wondering if you wanted to come over and talk.”

“Uh, are you serious? Talk about what?”

“Well, I kind of want to wait until you get here, but it’s kind of important.”

He heard Karen pause and knew that it was an annoyed, if not angry, pause. “Jim, is this about Pam? Because if it is, I don’t want to hear about it. Not tonight. Please.”

He swallowed once and rubbed his hand against the back of his neck. “Karen, please. I really don’t want to argue with you on the phone. Just… please. Come over.”

“Dammit, Jim! No. I don’t want to come over so you can talk about Pam. I’m not a stupid person; I can see how you act when you’re around each other! I’ve had all I can take.”

“Karen, listen-”

“No, Jim. Just. Stop. I know that you’ve told me a thousand times that it was just a silly crush, but it’s obviously not. I’m just tired of you lying to me and me lying to myself. Look, I’ll even make it easy on you. I don’t want to see your face anymore. Ever.” Jim grimaced. Karen was a nice girl, the kind that any man could fall in love with. Just not him.

“Karen, I’m sorry that it had to end like this. You deserve so much better.” He heard Karen let out a small breath, and when she spoke again, her tone was softer and almost kind.

“You’re right Jim. I do. Look, you’re a nice guy, and Pam’s a nice girl. Go be whatever together.”

“Thanks, I guess. Karen. And I’m really sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it. I guess I kind of knew that something like this was going to happen soon.”

“I guess it’s going to be weird around you from now on, huh?”

“Nope. I was going to tell you at dinner, but I got a job working at Corporate in New York.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.” She sounded dejected, almost as if this wasn’t her choice.

“Listen, Karen. If you don’t want to leave Scranton, you don’t have to.”

“But I do. For more reasons than just you. It’s okay, Halpert. I’m a big girl.”

“Well, when do you leave?”

“This Friday. That’s my last day of work at Dunder Mifflin Scranton anyway.”

“That’s soon.”

“Yeah, I sort of asked for an expedited transfer.”

Jim chuckled despite himself. “Yeah. I know all about those.” He cleared his throat again. “Well, I guess this is goodbye.”

“Yeah. It’s been …educational.”

“Yeah. Bye Karen.”

“Bye Jim.”