Last night, Phyllis was once again reminded that one of the things she loved about Bob Vance was that he was a romantic at heart. So when she told him about her date with Jim, he was more than happy to help out.
As she walked to her desk, Phyllis noticed that the candy dish at the reception desk was now filled with the Hershey's kisses Jim had given Pam despite not fulfilling her task with Dwight's prank. Phyllis smiled. Her plan was going to work. Everything was going to be perfect.
She sat down at her desk and gave a curt hello to Karen, who was not looking pleased.
"Phyllis?"
She turned to see Eric standing next to her. "Hey. How are you?" she said, trying to seem as normal as possible.
"Oh, good," he replied. "Listen...I'm going to be at the restaurant tonight filming your dinner with Jim if that's OK."
Phyllis gave him a sly smile. "That sounds like a good idea."
Eric looked back at her with a bit of bewilderment in his voice. "Um...OK. So to just get an idea about camera filters and lighting, can you tell me what color you'll be wearing tonight?"
"Color?"
"Yeah, you know how it is," Eric explained. "Since it's not the normal office, we have to adjust because we're shooting somewhere unfamiliar."
"Oh right," she replied. "Um...I'll probably be wearing...red."
Karen's head snapped up from her desk as she stared at Phyllis.
"Red?" Eric said, his voice breaking a little. "Good. That um...that sounds really great, Phyllis." He gave her a suspicious look and then a huge smile spread across his face. He quickly covered it with a fake cough. "So yeah...good. I'll see you tonight then."
"Yes. Tonight," Phyllis answered.
Eric walked away and Phyllis made eye contact with Karen. She was still staring, but quickly averted her eyes.
Phyllis felt kind of bad in that moment for beating Karen the day before. Then she heard Pam's voice drift across the office as she answered phones and the guilt quickly disappeared.
*** *** ***
Phyllis waited until the afternoon, after Jim had left for the day to go on some sales calls, before putting things in motion. It was around 4 o'clock when she finally approached the receptionist's desk.
"Pam?" she asked quietly. "I have a bit of a problem that I'm hoping you can help me out with."
"Sure," Pam replied.
"Well, something has come up and I won't be able to make it to dinner with Jim. I've tried calling him on his cell phone to let him know, but he's not answering."
"Oh," Pam said. "Well, I can try to reach him if you want."
"No! No, no, that's OK," Phyllis stammered. "I know you want to get your work done to get out of here. So, well, I thought maybe you could take my place instead."
"Is Karen busy tonight?"
Why are you being so difficult, Pam? "Well, I thought of that, but I won and it would be a little weird for the loser to get my prize, don't you think?"
Pam looked down at her hands and got quiet. "I guess. Yeah...that makes sense."
"So can you go instead?"
"Sure," Pam said, nodding her head. "Yeah, I can go."
Phyllis looked down and smiled. "Oh good! Thank you so much for helping me out, Pam. So...the reservation is at 7 o'clock at Anthony's. Maybe you can wear that dress I gave you earlier this week."
Pam looked a bit taken aback. "Um...I don't know."
"Oh, you should. It looked so good on you."
Phyllis saw something change in Pam's expression -- it looked like a wave of confidence had finally started to take over. "You know, I might do that. Thanks."
"No problem."
"Um, Phyllis, just out of curiosity. Why won't you be able to make it tonight?"
"Well, I kind of ruined the surprise with this whole prize thing, but Bob Vance is taking me out for a romantic dinner."
Pam gave her a giddy look. "That sounds so nice! You're so lucky you found Bob Vance."
"You'll find someone like that soon enough, Pam."
Pam's smile faded a bit. "Yeah, maybe I will."
"Thanks again for helping me out tonight."
"Sure."
Phyllis turned back toward her desk and saw Eric in the corner with his camera. She could see he was smiling at her.
*** *** ***
"Phyllis, you have to stop sticking your head out or he's going to see you."
She turned to look at her husband sitting across the table from her. "You be quiet. I just want to make sure this works out. I'm so nervous!"
Bob Vance smiled at her. "I'm sure it'll be fine," he said.
Sitting in the farthest back corner of Anthony's was her idea. The good thing was there a tall fern right by their table so no one could see them. The bad thing was that it obstructed her view of the table she told the hostess to seat Jim at, so she was straining her neck to see it. She looked to her left again and saw Eric on the other side of the restaurant with his camera. She wasn't sure if he knew she was there, but that was fine with her since she wasn't the story tonight.
She craned her neck again to see Jim walking over to the table. He was wearing the black suit he wore to her wedding with a white shirt and grey tie. Then she saw the bouquet of roses in his hand -- reds and pinks and whites with baby's breath sticking through the sides.
"Oh no," she whispered.
Bob Vance looked at her quizzically. "What's wrong?"
"I feel so bad for standing Jim up. He wore a nice suit and brought me flowers and everything."
"You mean, he brought Pam flowers."
Phyllis smiled at her husband. "Yes, he brought Pam flowers. I take back feeling sorry for him."
"I don't know about that. I mean, Jim is having dinner with the second prettiest woman in the room," Bob Vance said, grabbing Phyllis's hand from across the table.
She could feel herself blushing and once again reminded herself that she was the luckiest girl in the world. She was so wrapped up in Bob Vance that she almost didn't notice Pam's arrival. Then she saw a flash of red out of the corner of her eye.
Pam was standing just behind Jim in her red dress and strappy sandals with a black pashmina covering her arms. She looked like she was debating whether to tell Jim she was there or to just turn around and go home before he noticed her.
Don't leave, Pam. Don't leave, Phyllis thought.
And at that moment, Phyllis saw Pam walk forward. She turned to face Jim so Phyllis couldn't see her face. All she saw was Jim look up as if Pam had said his name. He stared at her for several seconds as Pam fidgeted with the pashmina around her arms. Phyllis figured she was explaining why she wasn't the dinner companion Jim expected.
Jim kept staring at Pam, then he looked her up and down and gave her one of those warm, electric smiles of his that even made Phyllis weak in the knees. He stood up and walked behind Pam, letting his right hand linger on the small of her back as he pulled her chair out. She sat down and he pushed it in for her, his hands briefly resting on her bare shoulders before reaching around and handing her the bouquet of roses. Pam turned as smiled up at him as she took them in her hands. Then he sat down in his seat and smiled across the table.
"Phyllis?"
"What?" She had almost forgotten she was at Anthony's with a date.
"How's it going?" Bob Vance whispered.
She couldn't control the huge smile on her face. "Perfect," she said.
Phyllis watched Jim order a bottle of wine for him and his date. She could see the smile on his face as he listened to Pam talk, could see his eyes light up as he responded to her. She could see Pam's animated hands as she told a story that made Jim laugh. And when their dinners arrived, she even caught Jim quickly glance at Pam's breasts when she wasn't looking.
And in between all of that, Phyllis had her own conversations with Bob Vance, watched him laugh at her run-in today with Michael, asked him questions as he talked about how business went this week. She even caught herself glancing at him as she ate, thinking how lucky she was to have found him.
They waited until Pam and Jim left their table before they got up and headed out for the night. As they walked out of the restaurant, Phyllis saw Jim and Pam sitting at the bar -- still talking and still seeming to have a good time in each other's company.
*** *** ***
She had decided to wait for Karen to show up before she would go over to talk to Jim, but Karen never showed. By the afternoon, Phyllis couldn't take it anymore.
"Jim? Hi."
"Hey, Phyllis," Jim replied as his eyes narrowed. "I hope you're here to apologize for standing me up."
She smiled at him. "I am, but in my defense, Bob Vance had a romantic dinner planned for us so I think I sent a suitable replacement."
Jim's features softened a bit. "You did," he said quietly.
"Oh good," she replied. "By the way, I haven't seen Karen all day. Is she alright?"
"Um...what?"
"Your girlfriend? She's not here."
Jim looked down at his desk and started fidgeting in his chair. "She's not...really...anymore."
"Oh," Phyllis said, trying to sound sympathetic despite the fact that she was about to burst with happiness.
"Yeah."
"I'm sorry, Jim."
He looked up at her and gave her a bit of a laugh. "Really? Because I don't think you are," he said, smirking at her.
"I just want you to be happy," she said, gently squeezing his shoulder.
"I know you do."
"Phyllis?" She looked up to see Pam standing behind the reception desk with a card in her hand and a vase full of spring flowers. "These are for you."
Phyllis walked over and grabbed the card from Pam's hand.
"To Our Mole --
We got our distributor! Thanks for your help."
The card wasn't signed, but she knew exactly who it was from. She was almost jumping out of her skin, wishing she could tell someone, but she quickly regained her composure. The deal with Eric, the kiss between Jim and Pam, the dress and the dinner -- those were going to be her secrets for a little while longer.
Phyllis heard a voice, but was so wrapped up in her thoughts that she didn't understand it. "What?"
"I said, you and Bob Vance must have had a very romantic dinner if you're getting flowers like that at work," Pam said.
"Yeah," Phyllis replied, realizing Pam was assuming the bouquet came from someone else. It was the perfect cover, she thought, before deciding to put one last thought in Pam's head. "Usually, a girl just knows she's loved, but sometimes she needs a dinner and flowers to be reminded."
She looked up at Pam, who gave her a broken smile in return. Phyllis could see her eyes getting a bit watery. She turned to see Jim smiling at Pam as he got up to try and casually grab a Hershey's kiss from the desk.
She grabbed the vase and started walking back to her desk; she knew when she wasn't needed anymore. The flowers were placed in an open spot just to the left of Phyllis's keyboard -- the perfect place to block Karen from her view if she ever came back. Phyllis doubted that would be happening anytime soon.
Author's Chapter Notes:
This is it! Thanks to everyone who has been following it.
Oh, and in case I forget, I don't own a mole or a television studio or a video camera so none of these people are mine.
sharky is the author of 26 other stories.
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