Life just goes on….

Jim looked around the room and then back down at the camera. “I’m fine with this. Now we can both move on. She said that’s what she wanted to do. But….” Jim rubbed his face.. “…I blew it.”

----

Pam put her things in storage early Monday morning. She had to pack up her little car three times to get it all into the tin storage garage on the outside of Scranton. Pam packed away extra clothes, appliances, trinkets and photo albums. She wouldn’t be needing any of those things while she was traveling the world.

She called the airport to confirm her seat and arrival time. She had to be there at ten just to load the plane at noon. Pam hated the airport security lines and the long waits at the gate. She just wanted to get it over with.

----

Pam’s phone rang for the first time all weekend as she sat in her car outside the storage unit.

“Hey, Pam!”

“Hi, Michael. What’s up?”

“I have your last check here. You left it. Do you want to come get it?”

“Um, I can’t really do that right now, I’m leaving in a few hours.

“What? You’re leaving already?”

“Yeah.”

“So, what do you want me to do with it?”

Pam thought hard. She could pick it up before she left or she could have her mother go get it and deposite it in her bank account.

“I could send Ryan to deliver it to you,” Michael said, then shouted at Ryan.

“No! Don’t make Ryan run errands. Let me call you back when I figure this out.”

“Are you sure? Ryan is standing right here and I’m sure he would love to run an errand.”

“No. If I don’t get back to you before I leave, just look up my mother’s address in my file and send it to her.”

“Alright. You have a great time in Africa.”

“Europe.”

“Oh. Well, wherever you’re going….be safe.”

“I will Michael.”

“When do you board?”

“Um, around noon.”

“Are you freaking out?”

“Sort of.”

“You should be.”

“Well, there is a huge possibility that the plane will crash and if that happens, you’ll die alone.”

“I‘m not going to die anytime soon. Thanks for the encouragement though.”

“Take care, Pam.”

“Thanks.”

“Oh, and if the plane goes down, remember to grab the floatation device under your seat.”

“I will. Bye!”

“Bye.”

Pam slapped her phone shut and sighed. She enjoyed Michael’s call. It gave her a sense of what she was leaving behind. She hated that she had to drop everything and leave, but leaving Michael behind was a breath of fresh air. She would be happy with that loss. At least for a little while.

----

After going back to her empty apartment and loading her luggage into her trunk, Pam decided to swing by the office to grab her check. She could use the extra cash for her trip and didn’t want her mother to have to worry about keeping it for a month.

As she pulled into the Dunder Mifflin parking lot, she felt sick. She had already said all her goodbyes and didn’t want to walk in there again. She had already prepared herself for going away and now she had to relive it again. Plus, she had to see Jim again.

Pam took the elevator up and entered the office in a huff. She wanted to get in there and out before everyone saw here. Luckily, people were just arriving and most of the people hadn’t shown up yet. When Pam opened the Dunder Mifflin door, she immediately noticed that Jim wasn’t sitting at his desk, and she darted into Michael’s office. He looked up with a smile.

“PAMELA! You’re back!”

“No Michael. I’m here to get my check.”

“Oh. I see,” he said, digging through the papers on his desk.

“You do have it, don’t you?”

“Angela told me on Friday that you left it and I called you when I got here this morning. You should talk with her about it since she is the head of the accounting department.”

“So, you don’t have my check?”

“Angela does.”

“Oh great. She’s here right?”

“Should be.”

“Okay. Thanks,” Pam said, walking out of his office and rolling her eyes.

Angela was sitting at her desk and Kevin was turning on his computer. Pam hurriedly walked over to Angela.

“Hey, Angela. Michael said you had my check.”

“Oh. Yeah, let me get it for you,” she said, searching through her drawer.

Pam looked around the room to see who else had arrived. When she turned to look at the door, Karen was walking in. Pam’s face flushed and she turned back around.

“Here it is,” Angela said, holding the envelope in her hand.

“Thanks Angela,” Pam said, taking the envelope and backing away from the accounting area.

“Have a safe trip!” Angela called out as Pam turned to pass by reception.

As Pam passed by reception, Karen stopped her. “I just wanted to say goodbye. I didn’t get the chance to on Friday.”

“Oh, thanks,” Pam said as she glanced down at her attire. She felt conscious since she just realized that she was wearing jeans and a cardigan. Karen always seemed to look good and Pam felt like she was looking like a slob in her casual wear.

“So, have fun and you definitely need to bring some pictures back to show us. Jim said you were going to Europe,” Karen said with a smile.

“Yeah. I’m going to Europe. It’s going to be a blast, but it probably would be better if there was someone there with me, you know?”

“You’re probably right but, you’ll have fun just seeing the sights.”

“Yeah,” Pam said, nodding.

“Well, I’ll let you go. Have fun.”

“Thanks. Take care,” Pam said, turning towards the door and tapping her check on her palm.

Pam sighed when she exited Dunder Mifflin. She had avoided seeing Jim and was almost out of the clear. She had a pretty pleasant encounter with Karen. She actually liked Karen and wished that they had been better friends. Even though Pam was jealous of Karen, she thought she was a pretty nice person and had a great personality. Pam could see why Jim liked her.

Pam hit the elevator button and the door opened up immediately. She got on and the elevator shifted and the doors opened in the lobby. Pam stepped off the elevator and rounded the corner where the security station was. She nodded at the security guard and walked towards the glass doors. As soon as she made it to the door, Jim was there pulling on the other side of it. He had his head down and she slipped past him without him noticing it was her. Pam stopped dead in her tracks and turned to see him step onto the elevator and hit the up button. Jim looked up before the doors shut and his eyes landed on Pam, who was standing outside the building peering in.

His face registered ten different emotions and his fingers fumbled to find the open button but he was too late. The doors shut and Pam turned to walk to her car. She glanced back every few steps to see if he had followed her. She got to her car and unlocked it before she saw him emerge from the building at a jogging speed.

Pam felt déjà vu from Friday’s parking lot conversation with Jim. Suddenly, every parking lot memory between the two of them exploded in her mind. She remembered the night they listened to his I-pod at almost one in the morning, and when he confessed his feelings during the casino fundraiser. She didn’t want to add to those memories unless she could make it a good one. When he jogged over to her, she put on a smile.

“Hey. You aren’t supposed to be here,” he said, holding his arms open wide.

“I had to pick up my check.”

“I thought you had already left.”

“I’m on my way to the airport right now.”

“Wow.”

“Yeah. Wow,” she said as she lifted her eyebrows.

Jim sucked in a breath and leaned against Pam’s car. “I’m actually really glad to see you. I wanted to clear something up with you.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah. Do you have a second?”

Pam looked down at her watch. “I have exactly 52 minutes before I have to check in with the ticket counter.”

“Okay, I can make this snappy.”

“Shoot,” Pam said, with a little smile on her face. Even though she had all these thoughts about leaving because of him, she was enthused to be able to share another conversation with him.

“Um, you said that you didn’t really want to keep in touch and I thought about it, and I would really like to be able to. I know that you need this time to move on and start a new life, but to keep my sanity, I would love it if we could keep in touch. What do you say?”

Pam’s heart quickened. “Uh.”

“What’s that supposed to mean? Was that a yes or a no?” Jim asked with a chuckle.

“Oh. I don’t know. Like I said before, I want to leave Scranton behind and…”

“I know that’s what you said, but I was hoping you would break the rules for me.”

“But…”

“It’s just that…we didn’t keep in touch when I left and I regret it…and I don’t want to regret this.”

“Oh.”

“So, are you willing to break some rules?”

Pam was at a loss for words. She wanted to leave Scranton behind and start over, but in all reality, she knew she wasn’t going to forget about Jim. There was no escaping him.

“This is really hard.” Pam said seriously. Then a sly smile crept across her face and she pointed at Jim. “Don’t say ‘that’s what she said.’”

Jim laughed. “I was thinking it.”

“I know. That’s why I warned you not to,” she said, laughing and playing with her keys. “Um, but seriously…” Pam said, taking in a deep breath and avoiding eye contact with him. “I thought about it too and realized that I was being kind of harsh on Friday. I mean, you were one of my closest friends and I told you that I wanted to sever all ties with you. When I got home, I realized that I was being stupid.”

“Oh, you weren’t being stupid. You were just trying to do what you needed to do and I totally respect that. But, we both know that when one of us goes away and doesn’t keep in touch, things change. I just…I would hate that to happen again, you know?”

Pam nodded. She was happy that he was trying to make this work. After all their time of being cold to one another, they were just now really talking about what they wanted. Pam looked up at Jim with tears threatening to fall from her eyes.

“I’ve tried to do the right thing here and go but, it’s so hard…” she said, putting her hand up to her forehead.

“Have you ever thought that sometimes the hardest thing and the right thing are the same?”

Pam looked up at Jim who was intently looking into her eyes. “You think?”

“I think you are doing the right thing. Despite how much I want you to stay, I really think this is a good thing for you. A while back you didn’t take that graphic design class and I honestly was disappointed. I wanted you to take a risk on something. Now, you are,” he said, grinning.

“I know,” Pam said with a sigh.

“So…where do we stand when you get on that plane in about forty-five minutes?”

“Can I get back to you on that?”

“Well, if that means you’re going to be calling me, then yeah, I’m fine with that.”

After a few moments of silence lingered between the two of them, Jim’s cell rang in his pocket. He reached in and pulled the phone out. He hit a button and it stopped ringing.

“Well, I need to get going. I have to catch a plane,” Pam said, pulling on her car door.

“Yeah, you do. And, I need to get to work. They are probably wondering where I’m at.”

Pam nodded and threw her check into the car. Jim pulled himself off the car. Pam wasn’t sure if he was going to want a hug before she slipped into her car so she just stood there waiting for him to leave.

“So…”

“Um, will you be getting back to me on that offer anytime soon?”

“I don’t know. I haven’t even left yet,” she said, laughing.

“This is true.”

“I mean, does Karen mind if I call you?”

“Oh, no. We kind of talked about it.”

Pam’s heart sank into her stomach. “You did?”

“Yeah. When you left on Friday, I guess she noticed I was upset and we had another all-nighter.”

“She’s okay with me then?”

“She actually thinks you’re really great. The only thing she’s skeptical of is our relationship. Which, I assured her was…nothing.”

All of Pam’s hopes of them being together one day were now crushed. She had known when she decided to leave that there was a possibility that they wouldn’t ever end up together. But now, his words had sealed their fate. He was completely over her now.

“Oh. Well…I guess I could call later and let you know what my final decision is on….us.”

“Great. I’ll be looking forward to it.”

“Okay. Um, bye then,” she said.

“Alright. Take care and be safe.”

“I will, Jim.”

“Bye.”

“Bye,” Pam said, slipping into her car.

----