Disclaimer: I do not own the Office or the characters mentioned herein. I do not intend to profit from the submission and no copyright infringement is intended. Of course, if Greg wants to loan me his characters I know exactly how next Thursday will go...

Jim had spent most of the weekend trying to unravel the tangle of emotions in his mind. He knew, now more than ever, that he loved Pam, but he also knew that he was right back where he started with her all those years ago. Except one thing was different; she wasn’t with Roy anymore. He still didn’t know if that meant that he had any chance with her, but Jane seemed more than confident that he did. Of course, Jane had been known to leave her debit card in the ATM machine, so maybe she wasn’t the most reliable source.

When Sunday finally rolled around he was excited to see Karen. She represented something normal in his life. He always knew where he stood with her and things were much easier with her these days. She had called early and asked him to meet her at a diner for brunch. He had gotten there first and was seated in a booth with a cup of coffee when she arrived. She always looked very put together, even on the weekends. Her casual black pants and white top looked very business like and were in sharp contrast to Jim’s jeans and a t-shirt.

“Hey, you look nice this morning.” Jim got up and gave her a hug, but she seemed to stiffen in his arms. He thought that something was clearly not right with her, but he assumed she was mad about his night out with Pam. He would apologize over their food.

“I just got back. You know I always try to look nice when I’m traveling, just in case.”

‘In case of what?’ was all Jim could think, but then again, he was clearly the slouch in this relationship. “Oh …yeah, did you have a good trip?”

“Uh-huh. New York is so amazing, I keep forgetting that.” She had a faraway look on her face, like she was remembering something or someone special. She turned from him to order coffee.

“Want to order food?” Jim handed her a menu.

“Not really,” she paused, “We…, well, we need to talk about something.”

If there ever were a more clichéd phrase than “we need to talk” Jim couldn’t think of it, unless it was “we’ll always be friends”. Jim put down the menu suspecting that in about five seconds he wasn’t going to have much of an appetite. He started to open his mouth to ask what she wanted to talk about, but she beat him to the punch.

“I was in New York interviewing for a new job.” Karen had a way of cutting right to the point. Jim wondered if he was supposed to know that she was interviewing. Did she tell him and he forgot?

“Ok-ay.” Jim said it slow hoping this would make more sense to him in a minute.

“A friend of mine works with this publishing company, and he set up an interview for me in their public relations department. It’s a major step up.” She said all of this quickly, like ripping off a band-aid.

“I,…uh…” he let out a quick breath that sounded almost like laughter, except it was purely out of frustration, “I didn’t know you were looking for a new job. I thought you were happy with Dunder-Mifflin.” Jim knew that was a ridiculous thought before he even said it, but he was stunned. He had not seen this coming at all. He had expected to be the one dumping her at some point, although he had not worked up the courage to do so yet.

“Jim, there’s just…no future here for me. You know that.” She said it mechanically like she had practiced this speech.

She had already made up her mind. He couldn’t help but feel a little angry at this sudden shift, though in a more rational moment he would feel relieved. His voice had a sharp edge to it, “Ok, so you’re taking it.”

“Yes, I am.”

“So…wow Karen. I mean… what does that mean for …us?” He couldn’t quite get the whole sentence out. He had no idea what he was feeling in this moment, in fact he was experiencing so many emotions that they all just short circuited leaving him feeling numb.

She sighed and looked down into her coffee. “Is there really an ‘us’ to be worried about?”

“Well, …yes” He wasn’t sure why he said it when he was contemplating breaking up with her just yesterday. But somehow he wasn’t ready to admit that all this had been a mistake. He wasn’t ready to be alone again. She made him feel needed and loved, and when she looked at him he could forget the mistakes he had made with Pam. Besides, fighting to stay with Karen had become sort of second nature to him. He didn’t know how to walk away after trying so hard to stay.

“Jim, tell me you want to leave Dunder Mifflin, that you want to move up the corporate ladder. Tell me you have a single goal for next week other than pranking Dwight…..”

He lowered his eyes like he was being scolded by his second grade teacher. He couldn’t believe this, he was getting dumped in a diner. He would have least dumped her in a private place.

She cleared her throat, “Jim, I did move here to be with you, and I do…care…about you. But I’ve realized, this just can’t be my life, I…” She searched for the words, “I don’t want to sell paper in a dead end job in a nowhere town. I don’t want to feel like I’m the only one in this relationship that wants to succeed. And I don’t want to have to constantly feel like..” She stopped short as if she were holding back tears, “I don’t want to feel like I’m struggling to keep your affection anymore.” She took a heavy breath and sniffled into her napkin. The façade had started to crumble, but as usual she pulled herself together quickly. “I deserve…I want…” she struggled again to find the right words, “I want more than that.”

Jim narrowed his eyes, hearing his own words being thrown back at him. He was ashamed to say that he felt tears pricking at his own eyes. He didn’t know if they were tears of sadness or anger or humiliation or relief, but his answer for Karen was obvious. He smiled sadly at the irony as he carefully said, “I can’t.”

She looked up at him with a strange calm settling over her features, “I know.”

They sat in silence for a while, drinking coffee and trying to figure out how to leave the table, and their relationship, behind. Karen didn’t say anything else about New York and Jim didn’t ask. Jim picked up the check; somehow it seemed the right thing to do after everything they had been through.

They got up and walked out together, so close but already miles apart emotionally. Jim was amazed at the emptiness he felt standing in the parking lot with Karen, as opposed to the excitement he felt last night with Pam. He felt like such a jerk; he had done everything wrong with Karen, and with Pam.

He drove home in a daze. He desperately wanted to call Pam, to ask her to pick up the pieces of his life, but he didn’t want to selfishly unload everything on her when she seemed to be so upset about Roy. Besides, thinking back on it, he had never really talked to Pam about things like this, even before. There had always been topics that were mentioned in vague terms, that you never confronted head on. He didn’t tell her exactly what he thought about Roy; she didn’t ask about Katy; they only talked once about Karen, and that was an awkward conversation. There were rules about how much they shared, and he had always followed them, except for that one time. Pam had shared so much more on Friday than ever before, but that didn’t mean he was ready to do the same.

Jim slinked home and went for a long run hoping to clear his mind. When that didn’t work he gave up and shut the blinds, spending the rest of his Sunday on the couch, eating left over Chinese, drinking beer and watching ESPN.