“Hey.” She says as she walks into the kitchen holding her new teapot. Although she’s not willing to admit it, she’s trying to flaunt it. It was such a beautiful teapot—with smooth turquoise curves, shiny and beautiful. Plus, he had put so much thought into the gift that it just felt right to show it off.
“Hey.” He says, looking up. She’s holding the teapot. He can’t help but smile as she is so endearing towards his present. Something he had bought for her. The only thing Roy had ever gotten her that she seemed proud of was...an engagement ring. “So, let me guess. You’re making tea.”
“No, actually I’m smuggling drugs into the girl’s bathroom. The teapot is my cover.”
“I always knew the girls bathroom was the more interesting place to be.”
“We used to have a couch.”
“I knew that, Beesley. I have seen movies before.”
She finds herself breathless after this exchange. She hadn’t seen him since the Christmas party, and it was really nice to be back in the kitchen with him. She lets the teapot slowly fill with warm water, and they watch each other in silence. He chews slowly on his ham and cheese sandwich, and she puts her teapot in the microwave.
“So, do you think I can get a cup of your drugged-up tea?” He asks, trying to break the silence between them. “Or do you only deal with people you know?”
“Well, I think I can give you a sample. And if you like, I’ll consider cutting you in.” She goes back to her desk, and grabs two coffee mugs. The one she brought for herself; it’s dark green with white letters on it from when she and Roy went New Jersey four years ago. The other one, a spare, was a much more artistic one. The inside was painted faint brown like the tea, and the outside was a faded yellow. She brought an extra just in case Dwight broke one like he had done last week. She was also hoping Jim was going to ask for a cup. It had been a long break, and she had a lot to catch up on.
He took the yellow mug because even though it wasn’t his favorite color, it was hers. That was why he did yellow jell-o, and spent four hours in the store trying to find a yellow teapot for her.
She spends her lunch hour sipping on tea in the kitchen with him, talking about his family Christmas. She tells him embarrassing stories of how she burnt the sugar cookies at her mom, and he breaks his promise of not laughing when she finishes the story. He makes another ham and cheese sandwich for her between stories. She has to make another teapot because they drink through the first one in fifteen minutes. He sits across from her, clutching that yellow coffee mug. Somehow, it seems to suit him. Her things (coffee mugs, jelly beans, pencils) always seemed to fit intermingled with his things. He pretends that they are in the kitchen of the house they share. That she’s wearing his engagement ring, and she bears his last name.
The fantasy is a nice distraction from the day.
Somehow the tea seems to taste better when she uses that teapot.
The art teacher emails everybody the morning before their second class begins, saying they have to bring something in to draw that reminds them of something special. In theory, it sounds like a ridiculous idea. But Pam knows exactly what she wants to bring.
Then she realizes that she left the teapot at home.
She doesn’t have time to run to her apartment before class starts.
The yellow coffee mug. Dwight broke the New Jersey mug the day she broke up with Roy. It seemed like an omen at the time, but she’s starting to wonder if Dwight has a thing against her coffee mugs. So the yellow one just sits there, staring at her as a reminder of him.
It just might work.
***
She’s flipping through her sketches and paintings, trying to decide which to put up. Jim is still stuck in her mind, and every single painting she has reminds her of him. It’s between a cartoon she drew of him and the coffee mug. The same yellow mug she’s sipping out of. Its just water, and it doesn’t taste quite as good. She brought it home after the merger. Holding the yellow ceramic was just another piece of him when he was gone. Now he was back, with another girl, and it felt weird having her own little piece of him.
The thought of Jim laughing with Karen descends over her as she stares at the blank wall. The image of his hand entwined with her, or rising up and down her skin, as they whisper absolutely nothing to each other, is all too overwhelming for her.
She can almost taste Jim’s kiss again.
She misses it a lot.
It doesn’t sink in how far she’s lost in her memories until the mug hits the floor with a loud crash. It breaks into exactly 27 yellow pieces on the floor. She snaps out of her reverie and just stares at it, hoping that sheer positive thinking will erase all of it. That making this mug reassemble itself will somehow bring Jim back into her life that way. It feels stupid to get so worked up over a stupid coffee mug. But it was one of the few things she still had left.
After she carefully picks up the broken shards, she puts the painting of the mug on the yes pile.
Chapter End Notes:
You know what to do now....
