May 10, 2007

“Pam?”

“Yeah Jim?”

“Are you working today?”

“I’m working tonight, but I’m not this afternoon.”

“Good, can you come by my office after lunch?”

“You want me to come by your office? You’ve never asked me to come by there before.”

“I know, I have something for you.”

“Can’t you just give it to me tonight?”

“I could, but I don’t think you want to wait for this one.”

“What is it?”

“See, you don’t want to wait.”

“Well, when you hook me in with a line like that, it’s kind of hard to.”

“To what?”

“Wait.”

“Can you come by this afternoon?”

“Of course.”

“Try and aim for around two if you can.”

“Will do, Halpert.”

“See you then, Beesly.”

**

She finally felt like herself again, she felt like she had shed her old skin behind and she had emerged from her cocoon victorious, beautiful, and a fully grown woman. She had forgiven Jim for missing the art show, the two of them had worked through the trying week that followed her miscarriage and after all of that was over and done with, he had helped her finish out the school year.

She graduated from NYU the first weekend in May. She had decided not to walk at the commencement ceremonies and instead she had opted for her own graduation festivities of sorts at The Golden Beet. She had comforted Dwight when he started to get teary about the idea of her leaving the restaurant and she had comforted Kelly in the women’s bathroom when Ryan had shown up to Pam’s party with another girl.

The past couple of weeks Pam had been working a lot at The Golden Beet and searching for a part time job that she could work in the field of visual arts. She had a couple of leads on paid internships and she even had an interview coming up soon with a small publishing company that was looking for an illustrator – her dream job. For the most part though, she had enjoyed having the free time to draw or paint whatever she wanted, work at the restaurant with the people that she enjoyed and just generally bask in the new life of spring that was all around her wherever she went.

**

She had never been to Jim’s office before – inside, that is. He had pointed the building out to her on several different occasions, but it seemed like he enjoyed avoiding the place as much as he possibly could when he didn’t have to be there.

She rode up the elevator to the fifth floor – the floor where he worked. The advertising company was quite large and it took up three floors of the building – from level five to level eight. When she stepped off the elevator she was immediately greeted by the receptionist sitting at a large circular table, filing her nails.

“Um, hi,” Pam said as she walked up to the desk. “I’m here to see Jim Halpert.”

“Does he know you’re coming?” the woman drawled.

“Yes,” Pam said with a nod.

“One second,” she said as she picked up her phone and dialed a couple of numbers. “Mr. Halpert, a…I’m sorry, what’s your name?” Pam opened up her mouth to speak, “Never mind, go ahead.”

“What office is his?” Pam asked meekly.

“Second to last door on the right,” the receptionist replied, hardly even looking up.

“Thanks,” Pam said with a quick nod before walking briskly down the hallway.

She admired posters that were lining the halls of what she could only assume were companies that the people working in the building sponsored. Some of them were extremely good, some of them she had seen countless times in the past. For the first time, she started to realize how prolific Jim actually was.

She nearly passed right by his open door. She heard a familiar voice call her name and she quickly took a couple of steps back, grinning as she looked in through the door of Jim’s office. He had a large office – huge office. The wall facing the hallway was lined with windows and when she walked in, she felt like she had stepped into a museum. For such a large office, it was very sparsely decorated. There were two potted trees in two corners, one near the door and another on the opposite side of the room. There was a large desk towards the end of the room and three good-sized armchairs that faced the desk, and Jim sat in his ergonomic desk chair on the opposite side. Behind the desk was a long set of floor to ceiling window panes that looked out towards the city.

“Hey Pam,” Michael said with a large grin on his face as she walked in the room, taking it all in.

“Hi Michael,” she said with a generous smile, which was really aimed more for Jim.

“You made it!” Jim exclaimed, standing up.

“I found it!” she exclaimed in reply.

“Come here, you,” he said as he opened up his arms and she quickly skittered across the room and he pulled her into his embrace. It was as if they hadn’t seen each other in a week, when in reality, they had just seen one another the day before.

“I can’t believe this is where you work,” she said quietly. “This is so nice!”

“You think this is nice, you should come see my office,” Michael said with a proud grin. Pam turned and looked at him.

“I don’t know what kind of an invitation that is,” she said, “but I think I’m going to decline, I rather like what I have right here.”

“Can you give us a few moments alone?” Jim asked. “I’ll give you a call when we’re done.”

“Of course, Jimbo,” Michael said as he stood up and walked towards the door. “Pam? Nice seeing you.”

“You too, Michael,” she said with a grin as he closed the door behind him. She turned her attention back towards Jim, his arm still around her shoulder. “So, what’s the big present?”

“Well aren’t we eager?” he asked, she nodded vigorously and he chuckled to himself. “Okay, come, come.” He pulled her over in front of his chair and softly pressed on her shoulders, indicating that she sit on his desk. He sat in his chair and wheeled himself between her knees.

“I think that office sex is more of a gift to you than it is for me,” she said with a wry smile.

“The present is not sex,” he said. He nodded thoughtfully to himself, “Though it would be a lot more inexpensive.” She playfully slapped him on his shoulder, but her eyes quickly widened.

“My present is expensive?” she asked. He nodded. “What is it? I can’t wait!”

“Okay…” he started to open up one of the drawers on the side of his desk and quickly closed it. “No, you know what, I’m going to make you guess what it is.”

“What?” she asked, he almost waited for her to groan.

“Let us play…a truth and two lies,” he said, the smile ever present on his face.

“I believe, Mr. Halpert, that the game is two truths and a lie,” she said mimicking his smile.

“I know, but that would just be too easy, I think,” he said quickly.

“Okay, out with it,” she said as her legs quickly swung back and forth in anticipation.

“Okay,” he said. “Your present is, and remember; only one of these is the actual present…”

“Yes yes,” she said.

“Your present is…an extensive summer long program at one of the best art schools in the United States…”

“What art school?” she asked mischievously.

“Uh…”

“That’s one of the untrue ones,” she said quickly before he could say anymore.

“Okay, next is a two week vacation to the Bahamas,” he said, and quickly before she could interrupt him, “and the last is a two week vacation to Paris.”

The smile immediately disappeared from her face and she stared into his face.

“Which one is the truth?” she asked nervously.

“Which one do you think is the truth?” he asked.

“I know which one I want to think is the truth,” she replied, the smile returning to her face. He bit his lower lip and she immediately mimicked the gesture.

“Okay then,” he said as he opened up the drawer. “Since I’m sure that you don’t want to tell me which one you hope is the truth and have that not be it…” she nodded quickly. “Close your eyes.”

“What?” she asked.

“Just close your eyes,” he replied with a smile.

“I hate you,” she said.

“You won’t in a minute, close your eyes,” he said as he waved his hand over her face, making sure that she had really done what he said. He leaned over and opened up the drawer of his desk, not taking his eyes off her as he searched through the drawer for what he was looking for.

“No peeking,” he said as he caught her squint open one eye. She squeaked a little and immediately turned her head away. He grabbed what he had been looking for in his hands and returned to the position that he had been in beforehand.

“Hold out your hands,” he said, and both of her hands immediately shot open on top of her lap. “Ready?”

“Yes!” she cried, the suspense of the moment wracking her senseless.

“Okay,” he said as he gently laid two plane tickets in her hands. “You can open your eyes.”

Her hands immediately grasped the tickets in her hand and she brought them close to her face.

“Plane tickets…” she said before anything could even register.

“And what do they say?” Jim asked, unable to wipe the smile from his face.

“JFK…” she said slowly. “CDG…”

“Charles de Gaulle,” he said quietly.

“Paris,” she barely whispered and bit her bottom lip as a smile crossed her face. Jim nodded slowly. “We’re going to Paris?” She swallowed the lump that was forming in her throat.

“For two weeks,” he said softly.

“You are…you’re taking me to Paris,” she choked on the words, “for two weeks.” He nodded. She opened her mouth to say more, but the words became lost in her jumbled mind and all that she could do was squeeze out a couple tears of happiness and leap into his lap with a loud squeal of happiness that was followed by ecstatic giggling.

“So I take it I chose the right destination?” he asked, his voice muffled against her hair and the tight grip of her arms around his chest.

“Yes, yes,” she said pulling away from him, tears in her eyes, and the biggest smile that he had ever seen on her face. “Oh my god, yes.” She leaned forward and started kissing him. She kissed him on his lips – twice, she kissed him on his cheeks – four times, she kissed him on his forehead – three times, and she kissed him on the tip of his nose – once.

“I’m glad,” he said with a smile that no where near matched hers, but at this point, matching the smile on her face was impossible.

“So when are we going?” she asked as she pulled away from him and looked at the tickets again.

“A couple of weeks from now,” he replied. “I forfeited our seats at the spring dinner gala, I hope that’s okay.”

“Okay?” she asked. “I think that you could have told Dwight to fire me and I would still be okay.” The smile quickly disappeared. “Oh my god. What about my job? Can I really leave for two weeks?”

“I talked to Dwight,” Jim said quietly.

“You…Dwight…he knows?” she asked.

“I decided that it was a good idea to double check with him before purchasing the tickets,” he replied. “I was able to push him to two weeks. Actually…it’s more like a week and a half but…”

“I don’t care,” she said as she threw her arms around his neck again.

“That’s what I thought,” he said with a smile.

“As long as I get to see the Louvre,” she said against his shoulder.

“We’ll see the Louvre,” he said softly, “and I’ll take you to Musée d’Orsay, and we’ll go to Versailles and the Eiffel Tower and anywhere else that you want to go.” She pulled away from him again and looked him in the eyes.

“You, Jim Halpert,” she said softly, “are the greatest man that ever lived.” He laughed and pulled her close again. “And you are totally getting the sex of your life tonight,” she added with a giggle.

“And all I had to do is take you to Paris,” he said.