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    She was always up before the sun on her days off. She opened her window and felt the cool summer breeze on her cheeks. There was something about today. She could feel it in the air. For some reason today, she wanted to start her morning with a jog on the beach. She loved the sound of the waves crashing. She would’ve never been able to do this in Scranton. One day she’d had enough. She packed up her worldly possessions and just left. She’d gotten a job offer at the Art Institute of Chicago, and decided this was her chance to escape. She got a small lakeside apartment with a beautiful view and she could’ve been happier. She’d been living in Chicago for almost 7 years now. The only thing she regretted was not saying good-bye to anyone. Well, just one person to be exact. She found herself the perfect spot and watched the sunrise over the lake. She hadn’t done that since she first moved. Everything looked particularly lovely today, like she was looking at it for the first time. This was going to be a good day. She grabbed a cup of coffee, and headed back home. Sidewalk traffic was strangely busy today. Mostly corporate so-and-so’s carried brief cases and fooling around with their PDA’s. She probably should’ve been paying closer attention or maybe he wasn’t paying enough attention, but she collided with a man causing her coffee to spill down the front of her shirt.
    “Why don’t you watch where you’re going, asshole!” she yelled, trying her best to ring the coffee out of her shirt.
    “Sorry. I wasn’t paying attention. Can I…Pam?” the stranger said to her.
    “Jim?”
    “Oh my god. Pam Beesly, how the hell are you?”
    “Well, I was fine until you spilled coffee all over me.”
    “Sorry about that. Do you still live here?”
    “Yeah. I work at the Art Institute actually. What are you doing here?”
    “I live here, too. I just got a job here a few weeks ago, and it’s my day off. Hey, why don’t we get out of everyone’s way here? Did you eat yet?”
    “Not yet.”
    “Ok then let me buy you breakfast. It’s the least I can do after ruining your shirt.”
    “I may have to take you up on that offer.” The went to a diner not far from where they collided and caught up.
    “So, broke away from Dunder-Mifflin I’m assuming?” she asked him.
    “Don‘t I wish. I co-manage the Chicago branch. I was just headed there to make sure the place didn‘t burn down. This is the first time I’ve left Dwight by himself,” he responded.
    “Schrute?”
    “Yeah. We both got promoted to manager. Corporate decided we worked well together. And they were afraid to put Dwight in charge of an entire branch by himself,”
    “Do you still talk to anyone from Scranton? How is everyone doing?”
    “Well, Angela actually married Dwight and they’re expecting their third demon seed in September. Kelly and Ryan got married in Vegas 2 years ago and moved to New York, where Ryan works for corporate now and Kelly stays at home with their daughter. Michael and Jan are surprisingly still together with no end in sight. He’s still in Scranton, with everyone else as far as I know.”
    “Wow. I just can’t believe Dwight reproduced.”
    “I know. Scary, isn’t it? And, um, how’s Roy?”
    “He’s good.  Really good. He went back to school and got a new job. He manages a construction company. He’s really happy.”
    “That’s good to hear. Any kids?”
    “Yes, well on the way. His wife Laura is expecting their first.”
    “Oh. I thought that you guys…well you left at the same time…”
    “No. He wanted to come with me, but I needed a clean break.”
    “Well in that case who’s the lucky man in your life?”
    “No one. I’m happily single. And what about you? Married? Kids?”
    “Neither. Divorced actually.”
    “Oh, Jim, I’m so sorry.”
    “It’s fine. It just wasn’t meant to be.”
    “But it still sucks. How long ago? Oh jeez. I‘m sorry. That‘s a little too personal, isn‘t it?”
    “Of course not. There’s nothing you could ask me that would be too personal. Hell, I’ll even tell you the whole story if you want.”
    “Um. Okay. Let‘s start by you telling me who the lucky lady is.”
    “Karen. I married Karen 5 years ago.”
    “Wow. Karen. Now I know why I wasn‘t invited to the wedding.”
    “Everything was fine for the first few years. Then one day it wasn’t. She wanted kids and I wasn’t ready. I wanted to move and she didn’t. So many things were just going wrong. And then she found out about us sleeping together on your last day. She threw her wedding rings at my forehead and told me to get out. And that was almost a year ago.”
    “How did she find out about that? I didn’t think anyone knew.”
    “I told Ryan. I needed to get it off my chest and I knew he wouldn’t say anything.”
    “You took a serious risk there. If he so much as mentioned it to Kelly, it would’ve been in the National Enquirer.”
    “Well he managed to keep his mouth shut, but he mentioned it in a phone conversation and Karen overheard. I tried to play dumb but it didn’t work, and I ended up having to tell her.”
    “That was so long ago. I imagine she would be mad, but not mad enough to divorce you.”
    “Any other girl and she probably wouldn’t have.”
    “Can I ask you something?”
    “Anything.”
    “Why didn’t you try and stop me from leaving? Especially after we had sex.”
    “I used to ask myself that question every day. Then I…wow. I’ve never told anyone about this. But I’m going to tell you because you should know.”
    “What is it?”
    “A week after you left, I went after you.”
    “You did?”
    “Yeah, I did. I found you, too. You looked so happy and I figured, if you wanted to be with me then you would’ve stayed or asked me to come with you. So I went back.”
    “I…I really don’t know what to say to that.”
    “It’s okay. It was a long time ago, right?”
    “I thought what happened between us was just a fluke or something. When you didn’t ask me to stay or anything, I just assumed you still wanted to be with Karen.”
    “I guess we were both pretty stupid. Honesty was never our strong point.”
    “It was yours, but it sure as hell wasn’t mine. You at least told me how you felt.”
    “You did, too.”
    “Yeah in subtle ways, but I never just came out and said it.”
    “Yes. You did. The night we had sex you told me you loved me, but sometimes you say shit you don’t mean during sex so I put it on the back burner.”
    “You remember everything, don’t you?”
    “No. Just everything about you.”
    “And you’ve still got plenty of that Halpert charm.”
    “I try.”
    “I’m so glad we ran into each other. I missed this.”
    “What?”
    “Us talking like this. I have great friends and everything, but I still haven’t had time to break in a new Jim.”
    “Well now you don’t need to. And I can cancel the interviews for a new Pam,” he made her laugh. He missed her laugh, “Listen I need to get going. What’s your number?”
    “773-555-3284. That‘s my cell phone.”
    “Ok I’m calling you phone right now.” Her phone rang and he hung up. “Now you have my number.”
    “I’ll give you a call later today, if that’s all right.”
    “That’s great. It was good seeing you, Pam.”
    “You too.” They hugged each other and said their good byes. She didn’t make it to the end of the block before she heard him calling her name. She turned to see him running towards her. She chuckled. As soon as he caught up to her, he cupped her face in his hands and kissed her.
    “I’m sorry. I’ve been holding that in for about 7 years now.”
    “I know how you feel.”
    “Dinner tonight?”
    “Thought you’d never ask.”
Chapter End Notes:
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bigtuna86 is the author of 4 other stories.



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