Saturday morning came way too early and with a vengeance.  Jim tried to pry his eyes open while he blindly reached for the alarm clock.  He and Mark had stayed out late drinking beer and he was paying for it now.  Jane had joined them after she left work, and once she got wind of the fight with Roy there was no deterring her questions about Jim’s messed up love life.  He winced a little remembering that he may have said more about his feelings than he generally liked to admit in public, much less to himself.  At least Mark was every bit as plastered as he was and may not remember it all.  In fact, Jim barely remembered anything.  He slowly hauled himself out of bed and turned on the shower to steaming hot. 

He looked in the mirror and groaned.  He looked like he may have been hit by a small truck over night, hair sticking out in every direction, crease marks on his face, serious stubble.  He peeled his tongue off the roof of his mouth and realized that it was possible that something had died in his mouth over night, probably of dehydration since his mouth had never seemed so dry.  He took a huge drink of water right out of the tap and then reached for the Advil. 

After a very long shower and two cups of coffee, he was finally convinced that he may live after all.  His cell phone split the silence, and his headache throbbed in response.

 “Hello?”  His voice was gruff and gravely.

“Morning honey, it’s Jane.  I take it you feel as bad as my idiot boyfriend does?”

Jane’s voice was way too bright for his ears this morning, so he adjusted the volume on his phone and sat down on his bed for a minute. 

“Yeah, it’s pretty ugly.  But you know he was the one that wanted to do car bombs.  This is not my fault.”

“Yeah yeah whatever.  So you’re gonna talk to her right?”

“Huh?  Talk to who?”  Jim was legitimately confused, thought he feared he knew exactly who Jane was talking about.

“Oh don’t tell me you don’t remember?  Hello?  Pam.  Somewhere between the second pitcher and the first car bomb you decided that you were going to talk to her, find out about what happened with Roy.”

Jim flopped back on the bed.   He was relieved if this was all he said to Jane, usually he said a lot more.  “Did I?  Well we’ll see.”  Jim paused for a moment rubbing his knuckles into his eyes to try to erase the last 24 hours.  “Jane?  I didn’t say anything else right?”

He felt like he could feel the smirk coming through the phone.  “Nah.”  He let out a relieved breath.  “Unless you count the pathetic rambling about how you love her and want to marry her, want her to bear your children, the usual.” 

Jim shot straight up horrified.  “No….. I didn’t…. Did I?”

Jane giggled, “Yep, you sure did lover-boy.  That was after the second car bomb when I drove you home.  Mark was unintelligible in the back seat singing Freebird, ring a bell?”

“I don’t suppose I was talking about Karen.”

She paused.  “What do you think?”

Jim flopped back on the bed.  “Fuck it.  I need to move to Guam.”

“No you need to talk to her.  So grow a pair and get to it.”

Jim laughed picturing Mark’s diminutive southern girlfriend using the phrase ‘grow a pair’.  “Jane, who talks like that?”

“You know I’m right upstairs during those poker games right?

“Right.”

“So you’re gonna try right?” 

“Yeah, I’m gonna try.”

“Monday, you’ll try Monday.”

Jim felt his stomach knot up at the idea of approaching Pam about the fact that Roy had tried to kill him.  Actually he was nervous at the prospect of actually discussing anything of substance with Pam.  He hadn’t really done that in weeks, not since Phyllis’s wedding, and he wasn’t entirely sure he was ready for it.  But knowing that Jane was used to getting her way, he reluctantly agreed,

“I’ll try on Monday.”