He wasn't sure exactly what he should say to Pam. Should he just tell her he had broken up with Karen and then try to gauge her reaction? Should he grab her and kiss the hell out of her? He ran through the various scenarios in his mind several times before deciding on something in between.

He pulled into the Dunder Mifflin parking lot at 4:45. People would start leaving for the day soon. He though maybe he should wait in the parking lot for a while until she walked out to her car. But he had just driven two hours that had seemed like a lifetime, and he couldn't stand waiting anymore.

When the elevator took too long, he opted for the stairs. He ran up two stairs at a time, and quickly opened the door to the office. Pam was not at her desk.

"Dwight! Where is Pam?" He asked Dwight because he was closest, but that was probably a mistake, because Dwight eyed him suspiciously.

"Why do you want to know?"

"Just... tell me. Please."

Dwight raised his eyebrows. "Conference room. With the cameras."

Jim flung open the door to the conference room, apparently catching Pam in mid-sentence.

"Pam!" he practically yelled, following with a quick apology to the camera guys. She was looking at him with a kind of shocked expression on her face. He continued on. "Um, are you free for dinner tonight?"

"Yes," she replied, sounding surprised but not hesitant.

He nervously drummed the door jamb and said, "Alright. Then it's a date," before backing out of the conference room and shutting the door behind him.

He looked up to find Phyllis's eyes on him. And Dwight's.

"What's going on?" Dwight demanded, accusingly.

"Nothing, Dwight. Why do you ask?"

"Did you just ask Pam out on a date? When you have a girlfriend?"

"She's not my girlfriend anymore," Jim replied, then headed off to the men's room just to get away from further questions. He splashed water on his face for several minutes, just trying to catch his breath. Somewhere in the back of his thoughts he wished the men's room had a big comfy couch like the ladies room.

He emerged a few minutes later with a new task in mind. He noticed that Pam was not back at her desk, nor was she still in the conference room. He hoped he hadn't scared her away, but he didn't want to open up another line of questioning by asking someone where she went. Telling himself that she was probably just in the bathroom, he set to work on cleaning out his desk so he could move his stuff back to his old desk. If he was coming back to Scranton, he might as well come all the way back.

His co-workers started leaving for the day, and even Michael emerged from his office and asked how the interview went, but he looked like he was a million miles away and sort of wandered out the door without waiting for a reply.

Now Jim was starting to get concerned. He walked over to the women's bathroom and knocked on the door.

"Pam?"

A slight muffled sound followed, and a reply: "Yeah, I'm here."

"Are you okay?"

She opened the door. He could tell she had been crying. "Wait a second... is this a sign that you really don't want to go out with me?"

She smiled at his joke, but didn't say anything.

"Seriously, is everything okay?"

She nodded, and finally spoke. "I guess I'm just... emotional. And I'm afraid to ask..."

He dropped his head. "Yeah, Karen and I broke up. I'll explain everything over dinner, okay? Just... don't be upset... I want us to have a good time."

"Oh, I'm not upset!" she responded, "I'm probably the farthest away from 'upset' that I could possibly be at the moment." With that she gave him the biggest smile he had ever seen, and he couldn't resist pulling her into a hug.

"I'll pick you up at 6:30, okay?"

"Sounds great. I'll be waiting."

They broke apart and she headed for the main office.

"Oh, Pam?" he called after her.

"Yeah?"

"Um, where do you live exactly?"