The second Pam leaves the conference room she realizes that she has no idea where to go or what to do. There’s something bubbling down in her stomach and her lungs feel like they are full of champagne. She wants to yell or sing or do a cartwheel or something. It’s like that night she won her award for having the whitest sneakers…except she is far from drunk.

 She decides she better sit down.

As she walks to her desk, she wonders if she looks different and then notices that none of her co-workers seem to know that something monumental has just happened in their presence. Didn’t they notice Jim come into the office? Didn’t they feel the fabric of the universe stitching itself back together? Maybe this all was a dream.

When she reaches her desk, she sees the sticky note on her computer monitor and she knows that what happened is very real.

“Pick you up at 6:30—Jim”

Seeing his name there on the bottom of the yellow square starts it all over again. It’s like her body is blushing and there are goose bumps on her goose bumps. She sits on her chair and bounces up and down for a few seconds. She opens her desk drawer and has no clue why. She shuffles some papers and takes a sip of water from her mug. She wants to tell someone before she bursts, but she wants to keep it a secret at the same time because this feeling inside of her is so warm and delicious and….

She can’t sit still.

 She decides to head to the restroom where at least she’ll be alone to breathe and process all of this. She takes a couple of steps and then heads back and takes the sticky note off the monitor. She traces his name  J  -  I  -  M and sticks the paper in her pocket where she can swear she can feel it give off heat. She knows she needs to calm down, but as soon as she is alone in the women’s bathroom, she does a touchdown dance of joy….even going so far as to spike the fake football in the direction of the potpourri holder. This is joy and she knows it’s childish and immature and so very not like her at all, but she doesn’t care even if she is acting like Kelly.

She stops to look at herself in the mirror and is taken aback by what she sees there. Her faced is flush and a shade of pink that almost matches her cardigan. Her eyes are sparkling…sparking! There’s a grin on her face that looks almost too big for her features. She’s radiant. She’s beautiful. Who is this girl? Then she reminds herself….this is the girl that has a date with Jim Halpert tonight.

She turns on the faucet and splashes some cool water on her face. It can’t wash away her smile or the sparkle, but it helps snap her back to reality. She turns off the tap and flops herself down on the couch. She can do this.

She’s been there about 5 minutes when the door opens and Kelly walks in.

The first thing Pam notices is that it looks like someone turned the light off inside of Kelly. There are a few tears in the corner of Kelly’s eyes and she’s clutching a handful of tissues. She jumps back, startled when she notices Pam sitting on the couch.

“Kelly, what’s wrong?”

“Ryan broke up with me.” Pam has seen this happen several times over the course of Ryan and Kelly’s tumultuous relationship, but something seems different this time.

“Are you sure?” Kelly’s insecurities and paranoia about her boyfriend are well-known, so it could just be that a careless remark by Ryan has caused Kelly to go into a tailspin.

“Yeah. I’m sure.” Kelly sits in the chair and clutches her fuzzy, pink sweater around her as if protecting herself from an oncoming storm.

“Oh, Kelly….I’m so sorry.” And Pam is sorry. Despite the fact that earlier in the day, Kelly had been giving her smug advice about her relationship with Jim, Pam didn’t like to see anyone this upset.

“And I think….I think he’s leaving. He um….cleaned out his one drawer…not that there was a lot in it. But I’m pretty sure he’s gone. He’s never broken up with me before…I’m usually the one to break up with him. I don’t know what I’m going to do.”

Pam suddenly realizes what seems off about this whole scenario. Kelly is talking in a voice far lower in pitch and softer than the one she usually uses. It’s as if she’s been playing some sort of party-girl character and she forgot to put on her mask. This doesn’t seem like the Kelly who, instead of simply laying out the facts of her relationship troubles, should be talking a mile a minute about her tragic love life that is just like that one movie where the hot guy breaks up with the totally cute girl and blahblahblahblah. It’s like Kelly is broken.

Pam reaches over and pats Kelly’s hand. Kelly dabs at her eyes with her tissues. There are no mascara streaks…just a dampness in the corners. It’s then that Kelly looks up and really sees Pam.

“Hey…what’s going on with you? You look different than you did this morning. Oh my god. It’s Jim, isn’t it? I thought I saw him earlier, but then I got caught up with the….you know.” Kelly’s voice is still low and calm. “Did he get the job?”

“You know what? I don’t know for sure….but I don’t think so.”

“That’s going to suck for you….having to see him every day again, knowing that he isn’t really that into you.” A tiny spark of the old Kelly shows in the corners of her mouth.

“Well…..he did ask me out to dinner, so maybe he’s had a change of heart.”

“Oh Pam…that’s great. Really. That’s awesome! When are you going?”

“Tonight.”

“That’s great….isn’t that funny….this morning you were heartbroken about Jim and I had Ryan and this afternoon….well……”  Kelly dabs at her eyes again.

“Kelly….I’m sorry.” Pam decides that maybe she’s learned a few things she can pass on. “Do you love him? And I mean…do you love Ryan…not just the idea of Ryan or the idea of having a boyfriend with cute hair? Do you love him when he’s messy and sloppy and when he plays video games? Do you love him when he’s a jerk?”

Kelly doesn’t really have to stop and think at all.

“Yes. I do.”  The sadness in those words touches something inside of Pam….touches a very familiar part of her that had hurt for a long time.

“Then listen. No matter what, you need to tell him. Maybe not today, but soon, Kelly. You need to tell him exactly how you feel…and without relating it to Love Actually or some other romantic comedy. You just need to be honest and if after you do that, he still wants to break up…well then I’ll help you get through it.” Pam thinks it’s weird. Earlier in the day, she had convinced herself she and Kelly were complete opposites and now she’s not so sure.

Kelly looks at Pam and slowly nods her head. “I will.”

They sit in silence for a minute, both thinking about how their days were ending in totally different places than where they started out. Kelly is the first to break the silence.

“So…what are you wearing?”

“Excuse me?”

“For your date, silly. You’re not going to wear what you have on, are you?”

“Ummmm no….but I guess I really hadn’t thought about it.”

“Well, if we leave now, we can totally pick up something really cute at the mall.”

Pam laughs and gets up from the couch. “That sounds like a great idea.”

As they leave the restroom, Pam notices that Kelly seems to have slipped mostly back into her old persona. She’s chattering about halter tops and how brown and turquoise would look great with Pam’s skin tone and how Pam should totally get this new perfume that Kelly had read about yesterday. Maybe having a plan to deal with Ryan has helped pull up her spirits just a little.

As they ride the elevator down to the main floor, Kelly reaches out and squeezes Pam’s hand.

Pam squeezes back. She’s realized that they have more in common than she thought.