Roy comes up to the office just before five on Friday.
"Hey, babe," he says. "Can you leave yet? We wanna go to Poor Richard's."
Pam glances over at Jim, who's looking at his computer screen.
"Um, yeah," she says. "Just give me a minute."
Roy waits around, leaning on the counter, while she finds her purse and writes herself a Post-It to remind Michael he has yet another conference call with corporate on Monday. There are rumors flying lately in weird ways that she only sort of catches. Yesterday Michael came out of his office after one of the phonecalls, looking pale and twitchy and asked to talk to her. She caught Jim's eye on the way in -- neither of them smiled.
"Hey, um, Pam," Michael said as she closed the door behind her. "Do... you... and... Roy... ever...." Pam braced herself. "That is, do you think he would-- I mean, would you--"
"What?" Pam said.
"What do you know about unions?" Michael said quickly and Pam felt simultaneously relieved and nervous.
"Um," she said. "Nothing?"
"Really?" said Michael, looking at her directly now. "Are you sure about that? Because there are all these rumors flying around and corporate is really not happy and it would be really great if you could just mention to Roy that--"
"Maybe you should try talking to Roy about it," Pam said and Michael exhaled in a huge huff.
"No, that would-- they'd just--" He looked down at his desk, picking at the edge of his blotter. "Fine, okay, thank you, Pam. You can just..." He gestured to the door without looking up, and she ducked out fast.
Jim was on the phone but looked up when she came out, shutting the door behind her, and she shrugged and forced a smile, shaking her head.
Now, today, Roy's pushing up off the counter as she turns off the light on her desk. She looks over at Jim again, and he half waves as she walks out around the counter. She waves back and follows Roy out the door and downstairs to where Darryl and Madge and some of the guys are waiting.
"Friday, all right," says Roy, and they all go to the bar.
Pam's halfway through her third beer, bored, wondering whether she can take off and leave Roy to get a ride with Darryl, wondering why she never sees anyone she knows here, when she tunes back in to what they're talking about.
"And of course Pam will sign," Roy's saying, and she frowns.
"What?" she says, and Darryl looks at her face and stops talking.
They fight. They fight like they always do when he just assumes she'll want to do something just because he does, in the parking lot outside and all the way home, and then in the kitchen, while she slams cupboard doors.
"No, Roy," she says, setting a plate down hard. "I just don't want to. I don't -- I don't want to get in the middle of things, okay?"
"Look, whatever," Roy says. "Either you care about what we're doing or you don't."
She sighs heavily.
"It's not that I don't--"
"Do you even know what that clown Michael makes in a year?" Roy says, gesturing in some vague direction. "More than both of us put together, Pam. That's not right."
Pam's head is pounding, like she's getting a hangover without really having been drunk, and she's starving and she knows she should care more, but she just doesn't. She leans against the counter and rubs her forehead.
"Can't we talk about this later?" she says, and looks up when she's met with silence.
"Fine," Roy says. "I'm going out."
**
Pam's still awake when Roy comes home. She lies in bed and listens to him shut the door and toss his keys in the tray and kick his shoes into the closet and come quietly up the stairs. The room is dark, but her eyes have adjusted enough to see him when he comes in. He's just wearing his undershirt and work pants, and he sits down heavily on his side of the bed. His back is to her but she knows he knows she's awake. Pam blinks up into the darkness and watches his shoulders rise and fall as he breathes, before she finally reaches out and touches the small of his back.
"I was thinking," she says, "For Memorial Day weekend maybe we could both take some sick days and go back up to that place in the Poconos? They might still have rooms if we called now."
Roy doesn't say anything, but his shoulders slump a little, and then he lies down on his side of the bed, turning on his side to face her. He touches her hip, her back, and then her feet are brushing up against his legs and they're kissing.
Roy rolls them over, slides his hands up across her stomach, her breasts, and she lifts her arms to help him pull off her tanktop. She's always liked how tall he is, how big his hands are; it makes her feel safe, turns her on. He's kissing her neck now and she shivers with how good it is, that tingling in her hands starting, and she makes a little noise and pulls him up to kiss her again, hands in his hair. Headlights from passing cars sweep across the ceiling and he's slipping his fingers under the hem of her pajama pants, making her feel good, making her feel.
Author's Chapter Notes:
In which the plot thickens?
