July 8, 2009

Jim straightened his tie as he walked from the men’s bathroom at The Golden Beet. He glanced ahead towards the living room and noticed Michael and Ryan already exiting the restaurant. He wished that just once they could have a leisurely lunch meeting that didn’t involve rushing back to the office immediately after they had paid their bill.

He felt a small tug on his elbow and he quickly turned to face Angela who was looking friendlier than usual with a soft expression on her face.

“Hello Jim.” she said demurely, nodding her head as she addressed him.

“Angela.” he said warily as he perused her face for signs of mischief. She was usually so cold whenever she talked to anyone with the exception of Dwight…and speak of the devil; Dwight popped from the door to the kitchen and stood right behind Angela.

“Jim.” Dwight said in a purely professional manner.

“Can I help you two with something?” Jim asked suspiciously.

“We would just like you to give this to Pam.” Angela replied, pulling a medium-sized white envelope from one of the pockets of her apron.

“What is it?” Jim asked, though he took the envelope anyway.

“It’s an invitation.” Dwight replied. Jim nodded, expecting for more, but neither of them spoke.

“For…” Jim tried to egg on.

“Should we tell him?” Angela whispered loudly to Dwight, as if Jim wasn’t standing right in front of the two of them – he could clearly hear her, she was right there.

“Our wedding.” Dwight said unceremoniously.

“What?” Jim asked, feeling like someone had just hit him on the back of the head. He had no idea that the two of them were even engaged, much less giving Pam an invitation to their wedding.

“She’ll probably bring you along anyway,” Dwight explained, “it says that she can bring a guest if she wants. I don’t know why she wouldn’t bring her husband.”

“Wow.” Jim said looking down at the envelope with the Pam’s name written out in gold ink on the front. “I had no idea that you two were even…” Dating? Engaged? Interested in other human beings? “I had no idea.”

“Well, it’s in a couple of weeks,” Angela said, “so I hope that she doesn’t have any plans. I’d…we’d really hate it if she missed out. I mean, we came to yours.”

“Definitely, I’ll give it to her tonight.” Jim said nodding along. “But why didn’t you just mail it to her? I don’t think I’ve been here for the past…”

“Month.” Dwight finished.

“Wow, okay, in the past month.” Jim said. “Have you been waiting that long to see me?”

“Yes.” Dwight answered just as Angela had said, “No.”

“Sorry I haven’t been around.” Jim said. He glanced over his shoulder to catch a glimpse of Michael and Ryan waiting impatiently on the sidewalk outside of the restaurant and sighed. Jim didn’t feel a strong connection of friendship between the two people, but it was always nice to talk with the people who you hadn’t seen in a while. As often as he felt a little awkward around Dwight and Angela, he would much rather stand here and talk to them for another half an hour than go back to work and deal with all the company’s problems.

“I should…” he pointed over his shoulder towards the entrance, “I should probably go.”

“Of course.” Dwight said nodding and turning back towards the kitchen.

“Thanks for this.” Jim said as he held up the envelope, though he did feel a little awkward thanking the two of them for the item since it was intended for Pam.

“We’ll look forward to seeing you there.” Angela said.

“Definitely.” Jim said, “I’ll see you around.” He waved at Dwight through the doors of the kitchen and turned around to join his co-workers out on the street. He safely tucked the invitation to the wedding into a pocket of his shoulder bag. He figured as soon as Michael saw a glimpse of the white wedding invitation that he would start wondering why he hadn’t gotten one either.

***

Pam absentmindedly stared out the window next to her desk and watched the people walking along the sidewalks. She didn’t feel much like concentrating on anything that she had to work on – even though she did have a deadline to make – and Andy seemed hell-bent on making her day as excruciating as possible. The entire morning he had been quietly humming or singing, “In the Jungle” – all of the parts – and the first break that she had gotten was at lunch. Andy still hadn’t returned, so she figured that she could fit in the last little bits of “Pam-time” before he returned and added another piece of music to his afternoon repertoire.

“You feeling okay, Pam?” Phyllis asked kindly as she walked into the office and noticed Pam staring forlornly out the window. The only person that knew anything about Pam’s pregnancy other than Jim was Pam’s boss, and she had made sure that no one else found out until she had cleared the 3-month mark and she could feel a little more certain that this was definitely going to work.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine.” Pam said, barely even looking in Phyllis’ direction.

“You sure?” Phyllis asked. “You look kind of lost.”

Pam nodded, “Yeah, deadlines and all…I’m kind of lost in all the storybooks.”

Phyllis nodded in agreement and sat down at her own seat. Within no more than a minute, she was hunched over her computer, hard at work on whatever she had received over her lunch break.

“Andy’s coming.” Phyllis said quietly as Pam typed away at her computer. Pam’s head shot up and she could hear the distinct sound of Andy’s falsetto voice singing “Celebration” from a far end of the hallway.

“And here I thought he was going to take the afternoon off.” Pam said looking at the clock on her computer – he had taken a break far, far longer than any that he usually did.

“We could only be so lucky.” Phyllis said with a smirk as the voice became a little clearer and a little louder.

“Pamcasso!” Andy exclaimed loudly as he walked through the door, small, foldable scooter in his arm.

“Glad to see you decided that work was important.” Pam said without turning to acknowledge his presence in the doorway.

“Aw, come on Pamcasso! We’re going to have good time tonight…” Andy said, starting to fall back into the song that he had sung down the hall.

“Andy…”

“Let’s celebrate,” Andy sang, “it’s all right!”

“What are we celebrating?” Phyllis asked and Pam smirked at the comment.

“We are…celebrating good times!” Andy exclaimed. “Come on! Yahoo!”

Pam hid her smile with her hand, as horribly irritating as Andy’s falsetto singing voice was, she couldn’t help to giggle at him this time.

“Pam knows what I’m talking about!” he exclaimed pointing to her. Pam immediately wiped the smile from her face and turned back to her computer stone-faced.

“What are we celebrating, Andy?” Pam asked flatly.

“Do I ever have an invitation for you.” Andy replied pointing at Pam.

“Oh god…” Pam said, burying her face in her hands. She had received so many invitations from Andy over the past couple of years that she had worked with him. He had invited her to a high school reunion, a bat mitzvah – and he wasn’t even Jewish, parties that his friends threw over the weekends and the previous Christmas, he had even invited her to come with him to his mother’s in Connecticut. He was absolutely relentless.

“So I got these tickets from one of my friends for this great little private event being held at this wine bar downtown.” he said with a grin on his face. Pam immediately breathed a sigh of relief – she had a perfectly legitimate excuse to miss this one. The gears in her head immediately turned backward though as she realized that she was still hiding her pregnancy from everyone except for those who had a justifiable reason to know.

“Yeah?” Pam asked, uninterested and wondering how she was going to get out of this one.

“It’s this really exclusive wine and cheese tasting party or…something like that.” Andy explained, “and I can bring one guest.”

“I really can’t.” Pam said. How many times had she said that phrase to Andy?

“Oh come on, Pam.” he said, “I know how much you love the vino. You can drink some really awesome wine there. And the best part…it’s free!”

Even though it was Andy, and Pam would rather be caught drowning in a bottle of tequila than go out to an event with him, she couldn’t deny that the un-pregnant part of her really liked a good glass or two of wine. And if it was free? Then all the better! However, she couldn’t go – there was just no way.

“I really, really can’t.” she said shaking her head. “Maybe you should take Phyllis instead.”

“I’d love to go.” Phyllis immediately chimed in.

“But I want to take you Pamcasso.” Andy pleaded.

“I can’t.” Pam said.

“Why not?” he asked.

“I just can’t.” she replied. “Believe me, Andy. If there is one thing that you have invited me to over the past year or so, this is the event that I would actually like to attend.”

“Then come along!” he exclaimed. She could sense that he thought with enough begging he could actually get her to go – especially after what she had just said.

“No.” she said calmly.

“Come on!” Andy whined as he hopped up and down like a little boy that desperately needed to use a restroom.

“Andy.” she said firmly, “I can’t.”

“Why not?” he asked. “Give me one good reason why you can’t come along with me.”

She sighed, this was going to start looking suspicious, “I can’t do that either, Andy.”

“Come on, come on, come on!” he exclaimed. Pam flashed a glance over towards Phyllis who looked like she was genuinely enjoying the interaction between her two co-workers.

“No, no, no!” Pam answered.

“One reason.” Andy said.

“I don’t feel well.” Pam lied.

“Bull crap.” he said. “A better reason.”

“I can’t.” Pam said, turning back to her computer.

“Oh come on, Pam.” Phyllis said, joining in now, wanting to see what sort of marvelously creative excuse Pam could come up with this time. “Give him a good excuse.”

“I have dinner with Jim tonight.” Pam lied again.

“No you don’t.” Andy said.

“How do you know?” Pam asked incredulously.

“I looked at your planner.” Andy replied. “Your entire week is wide open.”

“Wow, now if that isn’t an invasion of privacy…” Pam said, glad that she didn’t have any revealing doctor information scheduled in the planner she kept at work yet.

“Come on, Pam.” he said in a sing-song voice, “Vino!”

“No.” Pam said, her heart starting to race from the interrogation.

“I’ll ask Phyllis…” Andy said.

“Really?” Phyllis happily interrupted.

“If you give me a really good reason not to show up at your home tonight and drag you along with me.” Andy finished.

“Give him a good reason, Pam!” Phyllis egged on, really wanting to go to this event. Even if it was with Andy.

Pam shook her head as Andy continued to drill away with questions, waiting for the breaking point where she would finally just cave and say yes.

Finally, she slammed her palms down on the top of her desk, startling both Andy and Phyllis. They immediately ceased speaking and waited for Pam’s answer.

“I’m pregnant.” Pam said, her gaze quickly darting back and forth between the two.

“What?” Phyllis asked, a huge smile crossing her face.

“What?” Andy asked, his face looking like Pam had just smashed any tiny glimmer of hope that he had left to woo her.

“I didn’t…” Pam said shaking her head, “I wanted to wait another month before telling anyone.”

“How far are you?” Phyllis asked excitedly.

“Two months.” Pam replied quietly.

“Oh my goodness!” Phyllis jumped up as she clasped her hands to her chest and rushed over towards Pam and scooped her up into a tight embrace.

“You’re pregnant?” Andy asked incredulously.

“Yes.” Pam replied quietly, stilling her bouncing knee with her hand.

“My little Pamcasso.” he said shaking his head sadly as he sat down in the chair at his desk.

“So I’m sorry that I can’t go with you tonight,” Pam said, “but please, bring Phyllis with you. You two can talk and gossip about me all you want. You two can talk about how fat I’m going to get or something like that.” Phyllis smiled brightly.

“Okay, fine.” Andy said with a tone of finality. “Phyllis, do you want to go with me this evening to the wine and cheese party?”

“I’d love to Andy.” Phyllis said nodding. “I’m sure Bobby won’t mind. He doesn’t much care for wine.” Andy nodded glumly.

“See?” Pam said with a smile, “It all works out!”

“Yeah, sure.” Andy said turning to his computer and he lamely typed something up on his computer.

“Congratulations Pam!” Phyllis exclaimed, giving Pam another tight hug.

“Thank you.” Pam said with a smile.

It may have been a bit of a premature announcement, but Pam did feel good about finally getting it out in the open.