“How many times can TBS show ‘Overboard’?” He flipped quickly through her channels. She only had thirty-some, a paltry sum when compared to his several hundred.

“What’s ‘Overboard’?” Karen asked, handing him a coffee mug before curling up on the couch next to him. He hated this couch. It was made of a fake leather fabric, black in color. It was slippery all the time and hot when it should be cool and cold when it should be warm.

He turned to her, certain she must be joking. How could she not know? He closed his mouth, which had dropped open slightly in shock. “Classic Kurt Russell, Goldie Hawn? She loses her memory and he convinces her they’re married so she’ll clean his house and stuff?” Jim furrowed his eyebrows at her. Did she live in a cave?

“How can you say it’s a classic and then complain that it’s always on?” Karen asked, a smirk on her ace. He knew she was just teasing him, trying to get him to smile, but he couldn’t bring himself to give in and grin. He really should, she hadn’t grilled him about the fact that he mysteriously had shown up looking like a bear had mauled him. Which is pretty much what had happened.

“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” he conceded. Flipping to ESPN, he dropped the remote, pretending to be engrossed in the World Series of Poker. He could feel her eyes on him, watching as he inattentively scratched a dry patch of skin on his jaw line.

“So,” she said finally. He half-turned toward her. She was looking at him expectantly, her lips pursed. Jim merely stared at her. She chuckled softly, pushing him playfully. “Are you going to tell me who kicked your ass, Halpert?”

“I didn’t get my ass kicked,” Jim answered, smiling down at his hands, settled in his lap. “Just punted a little.”

“Jim”, she implored, leaning down to try and catch his gaze. He looked up, and knew that he was not going to get out of this unscathed. He shifted, the couch beneath him making a slightly inappropriate noise. “Nice,” Karen said, giggling. She instantly dropped her grin, and met his gaze with one of consternation. “Tell me.”

“Um,” Jim started, unsure of how to begin. “Apparently Roy…Roy decided last night that he needed a new punching bag and the thought my face would be a suitable replacement,” he sneered, running a hand through his still damp hair.

“What?” Karen sputtered looking alarmed. “Roy? From the warehouse? The guy who’s dating Pam?”

“Uh, yeah.” He raised the coffee mug to his lips and took a sip, grimacing. Karen always made her coffee too strong for his taste.

“Why?” she asked.

“You know how I told you…” He scratched his forehead, immediately regretting it as the bruise on his face started to throb. “I told you that I’d told Pam I had a crush on her?” Karen nodded, her expression guarded. Then she was completely still, waiting for him to go on. “Well, I left out a part of the story, I guess. She was…sort of…engaged to Roy.“ Jim winced, waiting for the impending explosion from his girlfriend.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” she merely asked softly.

“I didn’t think it was important at the time,” he answered, and it was the truth. He’d been very careful to leave out small details from the tale he had told her. Everything that didn’t seem pertinent to the situation at the time had been glossed over. But then, Pam had unbelievably gone back to the moron, wiping away all the personal strength he’d slowly watched her gain. And that was when everything had gone to hell. Karen had been excited to see them dating, almost too excited quite frankly. Jim had never had the guts to ask her why she was so gung-ho on them as a couple; afraid of how close to the fire he could dance without getting burned.

“How much else did you lie to me about?” she asked, getting off the couch to pace her small living room. Jim turned the television off and rose to approach her.

“I didn’t lie to you, Karen.” He promptly wished he hadn’t said it. He hadn’t ever overtly lied to her, it was true, but there were many instances in which he had omitted part of the truth to spare her feelings, his feelings, and even Pam’s feelings.

What had prompted her to paint that teapot? Had she not realized that’s what she was creating? Jim had stared at it for a long time, letting his vision blur the way he had when he was young and his grandmother would give him and ‘Magic Eye’ book. But, if she really hadn’t seen it for herself, there was no way it meant what he wanted so desperately for it to mean anyway. He probably could have guessed that from the way she’d been acting this morning. Pam had seemed so irrationally angry with him earlier. Closed down from him, as if he hadn’t been the one who’d taken the brunt of her bad decisions as of late.

“Actually, you did, Jim.” She responded, crossing her arms over her chest. Anger flashed in her dark eyes, but her voice remained calm. Worse, it was neutral.

Jim closed his good eye momentarily. “Karen,” he started. “Okay, I’m going to tell you everything. I want- I need to. But I need you to sit down and listen, okay?” He gestured for her to return to the horrible slippery couch. She sighed and flounced to sit, tucking a leg underneath herself. Jim remained standing. “Um…” he said. “I wasn’t completely…” He stopped, not wanting to tell her he’d lied to her on purpose. “I didn’t just have crush on Pam. I…” he sighed. “I was in love with her.”

Karen stared at him, not showing any hint of surprise. “For how long?” She asked evenly.

Swallowing hard over the lump in his throat, he answered. “About three years.”

“Jim,” she said in a tone that sounded almost scolding. “You led me to believe that you were hung up on her for a few months.”

“I know,” he replied apologetically. “And I’m sorry, but I just couldn’t…couldn’t talk about it with you, with anyone.” He coughed, clearing his throat. “It just…I couldn’t do it. Please understand.”

“And, so why now are you telling me?” Karen asked biting her lower lip. Jim swallowed down the impulse to reply it was because she’d told him to when he saw the look on her face. He could tell she was hoping against hope that this was still going to end well for her.

He ignored the headache that was persistently pounding his temples. “When, when I came back, I was mad. Really mad at her. She seemed like she wanted to go back to being friends with me, and it was something that I really didn’t want.” He rubbed his hands over the back of his neck, wondering what miracle was going to get him of out this alive. “I guess you could say I’ve finally learned that anything else I was ever waiting for was stupid.” He stepped closer to her. “I just want to get this behind us, so we can be happy.”

“I have been happy,” she said softly, looking down. Glancing back up, she continued. “So, I was like your buffer”, she deduced.

The way she was painting this so black and white made Jim uneasy. Mostly because he knew she was completely right. ‘She’s smart’, he thought angrily. ‘How did you think you were ever going to get such a huge thing past her without suspicion?’ Instead of directly answering that question, Jim attempted another tack.

“I really like you, Karen.” She snorted derisively, tucking her perfect shiny hair behind her ear. All he could think for a moment was that it would be better if it were spattered with paint and frizzing at the ends. “And I think…I think that we could have b- can be great. If we had stayed in Stamford-”

“If we had stayed in Stamford,” she cut in, “you wouldn’t have needed to date me in the first place.” Her eyes narrowed. “Tell me Jim; was I just the second prize from the get-go? What was the point of dating me at all if she was the one you wanted the whole time?”

Jim felt his heart twist painfully. None of this was Karen’s fault. All she’d done was care about him. She stood up, making her way back toward her bedroom. Panicking, he followed her. “So, wait, is that it?”

“I don’t know what else we’re going to talk about here, Jim. I think you’re more scared of being around Pam without any shield than you are that we won’t be together.” She turned to face him finally, her face an amalgamation of hurt, resentment, and pain.

“Is this over?” Jim asked quietly, getting close enough to touch her, but leaving his hands at his side.

“Answer a question for me, Jim.” She diverted, standing still. “Would you have come back to Scranton if Pam had married Roy?”

His mind went blank. It was something he honestly had never lent thought to. Instantly, he knew there was no way he could have been able to face her again, knowing she had married someone so…wrong for her. His heart would not have been able to take it. Before he could search for an answer, she laughed bitterly.

“That’s what I thought.” She walked back to her bedroom, calling, “Leave your key on the coffee table on your way out.”

Jim couldn’t quite believe that she was ending it like this. Slowly walking over to the sofa, he sat down to stuff his feet into his old school Converse high tops.

The black couch squeaked under his thighs again.