January 23, 2011

Pam sat on the living room floor with Amelia, waiting for Jim to come home…or call. He was supposed to be picking up Amelia’s birthday cake – a mint chocolate chip ice cream cake. The cake was really more of an indulgence for her than it was for Amelia, but there was no doubting that their baby girl would love it as well. Pam just wasn’t expecting Jim to take so long.

She glanced up at the clock sitting just below the television – it was nearly four in the afternoon and she knew that the place they had ordered the cake from would be closed in minutes. If Jim wasn’t getting the cake, where could he…

The phone startled Pam from her thoughts and she cast a dazed look towards Amelia.

“That better be daddy.” she muttered as slowly stood to her feet and walked across the room to the phone. Amelia responded with her usual baby response of a loud, happy cry and threw one of her wooden blocks at the table. Pam kind of wished that Amelia would say something every once in a while, it wasn’t even like the little girl was trying to form words, she was still babbling just as she had been four months earlier.

“Hello.” she said as she picked up the phone, watching Amelia out of the corner of her eye.

“Hey Pam, sorry I’m still out.” Jim responded on the other line.

“Where are you?” Pam asked, pointing a threatening finger towards Amelia as she threw another block at their living room coffee table.

“At The Golden Beet.” he replied. “I got the cake, I convinced Dwight to keep it in the freezer until I leave here. Anyway, I got a call from Michael while I was on my way home and he really needed to talk. This was the only place he would meet me at.”

“What about the office?” Pam asked, a bit suspicious about Jim’s story.

“Oh, Pam, who knows why Michael chooses to do the things he does.” he replied. “Listen, the reason why I’m calling you is because I’d really like it if you could come down here.”

“To The Golden Beet?” she asked incredulously.

“Yeah.” he replied.

“Aren’t they closed now?” Pam asked, looking at the clock – 4 o’clock on a Sunday, Dwight had definitely closed up the restaurant for the day.

“He’s starting to close up,” Jim replied casually, “but he already told me that he would make an exception for you.”

“I don’t know Jim…” she said slowly. “I’d have to get Amelia all bundled up to go outside and I’d have to walk all the way over there…”

“You could take a cab.” he argued.

“I don’t know…” she said again.

“Come on.” he said, “I’ve ordered you your favorite dish and I promise that Michael will be gone by the time you arrive.”

“Ah, you know just the right things to say.” Pam teased as she looked over towards Amelia, still sitting on the floor. She sighed – getting Amelia ready to go outside in the cold was quite a task sometimes, one that she often didn’t like to deal with. Was it really worth it?

“I promise it will be worth your while.” Jim said, as if he was reading her mind.

Pam sighed again and nodded, “Okay, okay. I’ll come.”

“Wonderful!” he exclaimed.

“But I swear, you have to promise me a slice of that mint chocolate chip ice cream cake when I get there or the deal is off.” she said.

“But it’s…” he began.

“I know it’s for Tuesday, but you’re dragging me half-way across town, I expect a little something-something in return.” she said. “I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

“Great.” he said, “I’ll see you soon.”

***

Pam silently grumbled the entire way to The Golden Beet. She spoke only nice things to Amelia – though she was pretty certain the baby wasn’t able to hear, bundled underneath layers of warm blankets and clothing. Pam wasn’t necessarily mad at Jim, she just felt like she was doing everything for him these days. She wanted to have a big party for Amelia – after all, it was her first birthday and there is only ever one first birthday. Jim, on the other hand, had vetoed the idea, saying it was unnecessary (how many people would be able to come to a birthday party on a Tuesday night?) and the planning would make them even more exhausted than they already were. He had a point, Pam knew that Jim’s reasoning was perfectly valid – not even their mothers would be able to make it to a Tuesday evening birthday party.

Still, she hated having to walk to The Golden Beet at four o’clock in the afternoon on a windy, winter’s day when she could have just as easily spent the rest of her day in her warm living room, working on illustrations for the publishing company.

As she approached the restaurant she noticed that it seemed surprisingly…active for late Sunday afternoon. She realized it had been several years since she last worked there and it had been several months – at least – since she had last eaten there, maybe Dwight changed his hours…but knowing Angela’s religious ideals, she highly doubted the prospect of late hours on a Sunday. Still, the restaurant looked busy…was it decorated differently too?

She felt the resentment for having to go out in the cold start to melt away as she saw the silhouette of Jim in the window. She smiled and looked down into the stroller. When she looked back up, he wasn’t there and…well, come to think of it, the restaurant suddenly looked less busy than it had only seconds ago.

Pam was convinced she must be going crazy as she opened up the door and felt a warm rush of air surround her and the stroller.

“Pam!” Jim exclaimed, meeting her in the doorway and carrying the stroller with Amelia seated securely within over the threshold. “You’re here!”

“Yeah, I’m here.” she said, trying to sound indignant, but her voice trailed off as she looked around the restaurant and suddenly realized why Jim had pulled her away from the house on a cold Sunday afternoon. The Golden Beet did look different than usual – much different. There were pink streamers hanging from the ceiling and there was a large, bright banner over the bar that read, “Happy 1st Birthday, Amelia!” Pam clapped her hands over her mouth and a sound that resembled a squeal or a giggle escaped from her throat.

“You did this?” she asked, her gaze meeting Jim’s.

“With a little bit of help.” he replied, cueing everyone else at the restaurant to emerge from behind the bar and the back hallway that led to the kitchen and restrooms. Pam gasped as she looked around at the sea of familiar faces: Dwight, Angela, Kelly, Andy, Phyllis, Phyllis’ husband, Pam’s mother, Jim’s mother, even Jim’s brother Jonathan. She couldn’t believe that everyone that she had wanted to invite to a birthday party was there – and she hadn’t even planned any of it.

Pam speechlessly stammered, her lips moving without sound as she looked around. Her gaze then traveled once more towards Jim, holding Amelia. Amelia seemed completely unfazed by the small group of their friends and family, she blinked in the direction of the small crowd in front of her, smiled then buried her face against Jim’s chest out of shyness.

“But I thought…” Pam finally managed to say after taking in the people around her – some of whom she hadn’t seen in nearly a year – and turning back towards Jim. “I thought you said that…how did you plan all of this?”

“Well, Dwight was more than willing to hold it here,” he explained, “and getting everyone together really wasn’t that difficult. I just really didn’t want you to have to deal with it all. And after all…” he nodded towards Amelia in his arms, her face pressed against his sweater. “This may be her birthday party, but I think that you are the one who will get more out of it.”

Pam grinned and kissed Jim on the cheek, “Thank you so, so much for this.”

***

Pam snapped out of her tipsy, wine-induced euphoria when she heard the distant cry of a baby. Immediately, she turned to Amelia, happily sitting in her high chair tentatively making noise and playing with the toy xylophone that Andy had given to her. Pam didn’t know why she turned to Amelia, the cry didn’t sound like hers, and she was sitting right next to her anyway.

Angela immediately stood up in a hurry.

“Colin!” she exclaimed loudly as she backed away from the table and ran back towards the kitchen.

“Colin?” Pam asked, watching Angela disappear around the corner of the hallway. She had sworn that she saw a small child’s playpen in the corner when she walked into the restaurant earlier, but she had passed it off as her mind playing tricks on her.

“Our son, Colin.” Dwight replied and Pam immediately realized that the last time she had seen Dwight and Angela, Angela had been pregnant – she had completely forgotten.

“I…oh my goodness.” Pam said, “I totally forgot. How old is he?”

“Almost eight months.” Dwight replied.

“Oh my god.” Kelly interjected, leaning across the table towards Pam, “Pam, just wait until you see him. He is so cute.”

“Really?” she asked, trying not to sound too skeptical right in front of Dwight.

“Yes, oh my god, yes.” Kelly replied. “And you wouldn’t think so at all…” she flashed a quick, cautious glance in Dwight’s direction before continuing. “I just think he’s the cutest baby ever. I mean, next to Amelia, of course.”

“Of course.” Pam said while she gave a small eye-roll towards Jim at the comment.

“Seriously.” Jim said, leaning in close to whisper in her ear. “You will be surprised.”

“You’ve seen him?” she asked quietly.

“Earlier today.” he replied.

“Speaking of earlier today…” she began, about to question where Michael was – she wondered whether or not he had even met with Michael earlier in the afternoon. However, her train of thought was stopped by Angela standing near her shoulder with a baby dressed in blue and green.

“Care to meet Colin?” Angela asked, lowering herself into the empty chair behind Pam. “Since everyone else has.”

“I…sure.” Pam said, holding her arms towards the baby boy. She watched as Angela’s gaze darted towards Dwight and Pam recoiled her arms a bit.

“She can hold him.” Dwight said. Angela nodded and passed the baby into Pam’s arms.

“Hey! No fair!” Kelly exclaimed loudly. “You’ve never let me hold him!”

“That’s because you do not have a child of your own.” Angela said harshly as she kept a cautious eye on Pam.

“Oh my goodness.” Pam said as she positioned the small child on her lap and stared into the crystal blue eyes of the little boy. “You weren’t kidding, Kelly.” Little Colin really was quite possibly one of the cutest baby boys she had ever seen. He had obviously gotten every good, attractive trait from Dwight and Angela and none of the bad.

“It’s actually probably best that you hold onto him for a couple more seconds.” Angela said, rising back to her feet. “I need to go grab Michael’s gift to Amelia.”

“So Michael really was here, then?” Pam asked, watching Angela as she quickly walked back towards the kitchen again.

“Yeah,” Jim replied, nodding, “he was supposed to stay around for the party but he got an emergency call from work probably about a half hour before you arrived and he needed to head to the office. But he wanted to make sure that Amelia got the present from him.”

“Do you know what it is?” Pam asked curiously.

“I have no idea.” Jim replied. “He seemed pretty excited about it though, so I’m bracing myself for the worst.”

“Dare I think what the worst is?” Pam asked nervously, looking up as Angela emerged from the back hallway with a large pink box in her arms.

“Well, it’s big…” Jim replied quietly as Angela made her way around the table and set the box in front of Amelia.

“I will take Colin again…” Angela said, holding out her arms. Pam handed the baby over to his mother and she leaned over the table towards the gift.

“Let’s shake it!” Pam exclaimed happily.

“No!” Angela cried loudly, which immediately garnered a suspicious glance from Jim, Pam and the others who had no idea what was inside the box.

“I mean…” Angela said, a bit more calmly. “I don’t think that would be the greatest idea.”

“Okay.” Pam said suspiciously pushing the box closer towards Amelia. “So Amelia…do you want to find out what Mr. Michael Scott bought you for your birthday?” She silently pleaded that the gift was something age-appropriate while Amelia grinned and shouted out a “ya!”.

Jim smiled as he tucked his finger underneath a corner of wrapping paper.

“The top just comes right off.” Angela said with a nod.

“Oh, okay.” Jim said, his fingers disappearing under the lid of the box just as he swore he heard a noise come from inside.

“Was that…” Pam began, suspiciously.

“A meow?” Jim finished for her. He quickly tore off the top of the box to reveal a small white kitten, sitting on a pink blanket. Amelia squealed loudly and clapped her hands together in excitement.

“Oh my god.” Pam said, unsure whether she should scoop the kitten up and let Amelia pet it, call Michael and chew him out for getting her daughter a kitten or find the nearest veterinarian in the neighborhood to make sure that the kitten was safe to have around small children.

“Don’t worry,” Angela said with a smile, “she’s completely litter trained and perfectly healthy. My cat just recently had kittens not too long ago – Michael insisted on buying this one for Amelia.”

“I…I’m not quite sure what to say.” Pam said, as she scooped the cat from the box and held it out towards Amelia. Jim took the cat from Pam and cooed words like, “kitty” and “gentle” to his daughter.

“Thank you.” she said.

She and Jim had never discussed the possibility of pets – the subject had never come up. Of course now, they were kind of stuck and Pam couldn’t possibly imagine giving the kitten back to Angela or handing it over to a shelter. She couldn’t even remember the last time she had a pet. She hoped she – nor Jim – were allergic to cats.

“If you ever need anything for her, just let me know.” Angela said with a smile.

Pam nodded and smiled at Amelia’s reaction to the kitten – it was like love at first sight for the little girl.

Jim jumped when he felt his phone vibrate against his leg.

“Pam.” he said, nodding towards the kitten. Pam inched close to Amelia and held the kitten up to her daughter and she continued to gently pet the back of the cat.

Jim walked away into a deserted corner of the restaurant and Pam watched his facial expressions change from happy to an emotion that she couldn’t immediately place – anger, frustration…disappointment? She deduced anger and nervously started to play with a napkin ring in front of her when he snapped his phone shut and headed back to the table with a furrowed forehead.

“That was Michael.” he said quietly.

“Yeah?” Pam asked nervously.

“I need to go.” Jim said hurriedly, gathering up a couple of his things from next to his chair. “Michael needs me down at the office immediately apparently and…”

“Daddy!” Amelia exclaimed loudly, pointing towards Jim. Jim dropped everything that he had gathered up in his hands and stared at Amelia. Pam dropped the napkin ring she had been fiddling with and stared at her daughter as well. The room fell completely silent at the sound of Amelia’s little voice actually saying words and her gaze darted back and forth between her mother and father.

“Daddy…” Amelia repeated, a little less sure of herself this time around, but she still pointed towards Jim, as if emphasizing that she was certain he was her “daddy”.

“Is that her…” Jim stammered.

“Yes.” Pam said quickly, without letting him finish his sentence.

“Daddy.” Amelia said a third time and Jim swore he smiled a wider smile than he ever had before. He quickly scooped Amelia up from her high chair and held her in his arms.

“Yes.” he said, nodding and pointing at himself. “Daddy.”

Amelia giggled and pressed her tiny palm against his chin. He looked down at Pam sitting in her seat – tears of happiness pooling in the corners of her eyes.

“Screw Michael.” Jim said, returning to his seat with Amelia. “Whatever he needs can wait. Being here with you…”

Amelia grinned and exclaimed, “Daddy!” once more.

Jim’s grin matched his daughter’s and he brushed a couple wispy curls from her forehead and continued, “And you, Mia-Melia. Being here with you all is much more important than whatever Michael needs right now.”