Jim's eyes darted downward briefly, but he didn't need visual confirmation of the betrayal that Jim Jr. had just inflicted on him. Reactively, defensively, he looked back up at Karen. Her body still quivering from having been sat on by Phyllis, she froze in place. For the second time in under a minute, her lungs stopped working. Her eyes shot wide open and locked on the bulging mass that was now cruelly pointed at her. Not two feet to his left was Pam, still sitting. Despite the fact that time was moving so agonizingly slowly, Jim was aware that she had gasped sharply and covered her mouth with her hands. The passing seconds slowed to a crawl. A deathly silence drowned out the noise of the ocean and the chaos of Michael's competition. They stood in an awkward triangle, a triangle plus one really. Jim staring at Karen staring at his ungainly bulge. Pam staring at the fabric-tenting vector which now defiantly pointed at Karen who looked like a deer caught in the headlights.

Karen recoiled back a few small steps. She moved her gaze up and met Jim's eyes as he tried to make sense of the vacant look on her face. She slowly and silently staggered backwards, but hadn't gotten more than two feet away when her head was bumped lightly but awkwardly from behind by an ungainly chunk of metal and glass. THUNK.

"Aah!" She let out a startled cry and skipped back toward Jim, ducking forward and reaching up to rub the back of her head, coming within six inches of getting poked in the forehead by Jim's stubbornly persistent shame. Jim hadn't see him back there. The camera guy... CRAP! He should have known -- the camera guy was a pro, and he had spent enough time in the office to be able to predict where the drama was going to be and get himself into position. In this case he had locked his lens on Karen as she had struggled futilely to free herself from under Phyllis' rear end. Phyllis had seen him, and smiled at the camera for a bit as she twirled an imaginary lasso and pretended to ride Karen like a horse. Then he had zoomed in on the sheer disgust on the pinned girl's normally stoic face as Phyllis gave her butt a few playful swats before mercifully letting her up (only after making Karen say "pretty please"). Being a seasoned professional, he kept the camera on Karen after this. She had immediately staggered over to Jim for comfort, but she had unknowingly led him to pure documentary gold.

Not that any of this mattered to Jim at the moment. All three of them moved to escape. Pam turned to her left and clamped her hands over her face, trying mightily to suppress the laughter that wanted so badly to explode. Karen was trapped: the camera behind her, Pam to her right, the threat of Jimpalement from the front. Taking her only option, she ducked down onto her knees, pivoted to her left, and took off toward the parking lot. As Karen moved away, the camera was pointed right... OH GOD! Jim ducked backwards, closing his knees and splashing hard onto his butt. As he recoiled, his leg caught Karen just as she was getting to her feet. Jim heard the thump as Karen belly flopped back into the sand, but her legs kept moving, kicking sand onto him and Pam as she regained her footing and sprinted off.

Jim instinctively started to get up to follow her, but remembered the situation and froze. His voice still worked, but only just barely.

"Uuuuh... Pam?"

He turned to Pam slowly, using his right leg to block the camera from capturing any more of his disgrace. She turned and peeked out at him from between her fingers. She was bright red and shaking. Her body was doing all it could to avoid bursting into uncontrolled laughter.

"Can I borrow your towel?"

She couldn't take it anymore. She moved her hands off her face. Her face was wrinkled up, her eyes squinted shut. She stiffened her torso and jerked her arms straight up into the air.

"OK take it... just don't shoot!"

She barely got the words out before bursting into laughter. She covered her face again with her left hand, and used her right hand to pass her towel to Jim as she collapsed into the fetal position, immobilized by laughter. Any other time that would be funny. Actually, it was pretty funny even now. Good one Beesly. Jim couldn't hold back a little smile. For years, his most satisfying moments were the ones when he made her laugh. Nothing made his day like watching her burst into happy laughter at one of his jokes. Thank God she was going to laugh this little incident off too. Maybe they hadn't drifted as far apart as he thought. And she looked so beaut... Christ, Jim, you're trying to get rid of this thing. Jim looked away as he wrapped his waist in Pam's towel, tucking the towel into a little knot in the front. The more visual clutter in front, the better.

He bolted up and took off in the direction Karen was last seen headed, moving as fast as the lingering effects of Creed's handiwork and his awkward configuration would permit.

He found her behind her car, sitting against the side of it, her knees drawn up into her chest, looking away from him. She was wearing a plain, tight fitting black one-piece swimsuit and some pale blue soccer shorts. She had made it a point to dress as modestly as possible after Michael had told her the forecast had called for "bikini weather." She had taken her hair down from the tight fitting bun she had been wearing and was rubbing her head where the camera had bumped it. There was no question she was pretty... beautiful even... but this was of little consolation to Jim. He knew she was capable of getting very ugly very fast, and he tried to preempt the ass-chewing that he was certain was headed his way.

He remembered the "Five rules for dealing with women" that his old roommate Mark had advised him of. Lie lie lie lie lie. He prepared his list of excuses, the primary one being "blood flow to region following Creed incident."

"Karen I'm so sorry... I just... see after getting hit the blood..."

She turned and looked up at him. Her voice contained none of the venom he was expecting.

"It's OK Jim. Just sit down."

What? It must be a trap. It had to be. She's going to neuter me... He slowly slid down beside her, keeping a respectful distance. He tried to apologize again and she interrupted him again.

"Really Jim, it's OK. I know you had a thing for her for a very long time. And you're a dude..."

Her voice was flat, unemotional. It actually kind of hurt. Jim found himself wishing she would just rip him a new one so they could be even. Before he could reply Karen made her move, sitting up and facing him.

"But she's the past Jim. The past. I want to be the future." She moved closer to him, staring intensely. His screw up had given her capital to force him into some relationship talk. Dammit she's brutal.

"We don't have to do it now, but can we at least talk about New York later? We really need to discuss it, Jim, and I don't want to lose you."

She smiled just a bit and batted her eyes at him. She had been bugging him about New York for a while now, but he had always been able to duck the subject. Now she had leverage and she knew it.

"OK Karen... And I don't want to lose you either. We'll talk tonight."

She leaned over and gave him a little hug. He hugged her back with one arm.

"Hey Jim, how about giving me that swim lesson you were bugging me about."

Jim smiled a little bit. He really hoped he could love her someday.

"OK Filippelli. Let's go."

Karen started tying her hair up again, but didn't stand up.

"We can wait here for a bit until... until it's gone."

It took Jim a second to realize. Oh, yeah... that.

"Don't worry, its totally gone now."