June 7, 2008

It was the evening of the annual spring gala. Normally, Pam would have suggested to Jim that they skip it entirely. The previous year they had been in Paris, the year before that, the gala had been a little awkward for the two of them since it had been their first big date together.

There were no ifs ands or buts about going to the dinner this time around though. Tonight was the official announcement declaring the merger of the two most major advertising companies in New York City. In addition to that announcement, Jim’s promotion to vice president was officially being made public as well.

***

It had been a difficult few months for Jim and Pam. When Jim had returned home to be with Pam, he had been certain that any hopes for a promotion to vice president of the company were gone. When he left San Francisco, he had abruptly cancelled all of his meetings for the upcoming week and he had spent a ridiculous amount of the company’s money to get a flight home as soon as he possibly could. He had no idea how he had been reconsidered for the position – he simply assumed that Michael liked him enough to throw his name back in the ring.

Jim had mostly worried about the notion of working with Karen. He hadn’t spoken to her at all; he had only heard things about her intentions through co-workers. He she had no plans of leaving the company.

He had worried what might happen when she realized that he was after her position and he was constantly in fear about what might happen if he actually got her position in the company. As the months passed though, he started to realize that maybe his worries were irrational. He still had not heard anything from her personally, and if anything, from what he had heard from his co-workers, it seemed that she was the one pushing for him to get the job.

Because of the impending promotion looming on the horizon, it had sent Jim into an endless circus of stressful business meetings that followed him around everywhere – from his office back home with him in the evening. He had always heard the phrase, “The honeymoon is over!”, but he never really felt that it would apply to Pam and him. Unfortunately, the more days that he spent late at his company in meetings or just working into the evening, there were consequently more evenings that Pam spent locked away in the guest bedroom working on illustrations.

This dinner gala was their first night out together in weeks.

***

“Have I told you that I’m proud of you?” Pam asked as she leaned close to Jim and placed her hand on his upper thigh.

“I don’t think that you have, actually!” he replied with a wide grin as he leaned close to her and kissed her on the tip of her nose.

“Eeeeww!!” Michael exclaimed from the other side of the table like a prepubescent middle schooler. “PDA! PDA!”

“Oh come on, Michael.” Jim said rolling his eyes in Michael’s direction. Michael had no right to talk as Jim had caught him and the new girlfriend kissing near the men’s room only a half hour earlier.

“I am, you know.” Pam whispered in Jim’s ear and her palm moved up his thigh a little higher, her fingertips delicately danced along the inseam of his pants.

“I’m giving a speech in five minutes.” he mumbled. She immediately drew back her hand to her lap and smiled sweetly at him.

“As you wish.” she said.

He leaned dangerously close to her neck and for a second she thought that he might kiss her in front of all of his co-workers but instead he breathily whispered, “Maybe later.” A huge grin spread across her face and she nervously bit her lower lip as Michael stared at the two of them as if he was trying to figure out what they were talking about.

“Will Michael Scott please report to the microphone?” a voice over the sound system asked.

“What?” Michael asked, looking around confused.

“I think it’s time for the announcements.” Jim replied, his gaze going towards the stage.

“We’re never able to just relax at these things, are we?” Michael huffed as he pushed himself away from the table and stood up.

“I don’t think that’s quite the point.” Jim said with a smirk as he watched Michael trudge towards the front of the room to announce the merger and Jim’s promotion to the sea of people enjoying the dinner gala.

***

“I just want a glass of water with lemon.” Pam said to the bartender as she fetched a drink for herself.

“It’s an open bar and you get a glass of water?” a female voice near her scoffed. “You pregnant or something?”

Pam quickly turned towards where the voice came from and just as she was about to open her mouth to say something sarcastic to the mysterious female, she stopped short and her voice caught somewhere in her throat. Standing next to her was Karen – a very pregnant Karen – with a glass of red wine cradled in her hand.

“No…” Pam said, “but you…yes?”

“God, I hope so.” Karen said as she ran her hand along the large curve of her stomach. “If not, I’ve just spent the past six months with my head in the toilet for no reason.”

Pam refrained from laughing at the comment and instead, her mind started to race. She wondered if Karen knew who she was. She couldn’t remember a moment in time that she had ever been introduced to her. Pam had certainly seen her that one fateful time when she was still working at The Golden Beet but she had never introduced herself. She wasn’t even certain if Jim had wedding or vacation photos at work or if Jim had even seen Karen since all of their legal issues had finally been settled.

“You don’t work within the company, do you? I…you don’t look familiar,” Karen said as she took a drink from her glass of wine.

“Me?” Pam asked, pointing to herself – as if there was anyone else that Karen could have been talking to.

“Yes, you,” Karen said with a smile, “I’ve never seen you before.”

“Oh, no,” Pam said shaking her head, “I don’t work in the company. I’m here with my husband. I work for a small publishing company.” She stopped herself after that; she didn’t need Karen knowing anymore about her personal life.

Karen snorted, “He must not be very important in the company. You’d think that he would have bought you a nicer dress. Especially at an event like this.”

Pam’s eyes widened, but just as she was about to say something to defend herself (and Jim) or simply walk away, Karen spoke again, “Will you look at this fucker that they’ve made vice president?” Karen shot a wicked glance over towards the table that Jim, Pam and the rest of Jim’s close co-workers were sitting at.

Pam’s heart jumped in her chest when she heard the vicious words about Jim that Karen had so foolishly let spill out of her mouth. However, the trickster that inhabited Pam decided to let Karen speak. One reason Pam didn’t speak up was because she wanted to know whether or not Karen actually knew who she was. The other reason she decided she would try and play along was to see just how much Karen would say to a supposed stranger.

“Yeah…” Pam said with a wry smile on her face as she graciously took the glass of water from the bartender

“Bastard stole my job.” Karen said shaking her head as she took a long sip of the wine.

“Should you really be…uh…” Pam pointed to the glass of wine, “I didn’t think that you were supposed to drink while pregnant.”

“The French do it, the Italian do it…probably.” Karen shrugged. “How much is a glass going to hurt the kid anyway? It’s a special occasion.”

“If you say so.” Pam said quietly as she took another gulp of the water.

“I should have fought him for it, you know.” Karen said, pointing a finger towards Jim.

“You don’t think he deserves it?” Pam asked.

“I don’t know,” Karen replied, “I don’t know much of his work, I guess. I would have fought a little bit harder if it weren’t for my maternity leave. I figured I’d try a couple months of the stay-at-home mom crap. I have a kid entering pre-school this year, too. It’d kind of be nice not to hire an incompetent nanny to look after the little devil.”

“So you’re leaving the company?” Pam asked, hoping that the optimistic tone of voice wasn’t too apparent.

“Oh no, no, I’ll still be working from home.” Karen replied quickly. “I’d be a complete fool to leave this company. Amazing salary, trips all around the globe…you know, that’s one of the reasons why I vouched for Halpert to get this position.”

“The salary?” Pam asked.

“No, the trips.” Karen replied, and as Pam looked at the woman who her husband despised so much, she noticed an evil glint in her eye.

“What, you like that he’s taking all the trips that you could take?” Pam asked, confused.

“No,” Karen replied, shaking her head, “I heard that he got married not too long ago. There’s this little part of me that loves that his new position is going to pull the dumb fuck away from his new wife.” She chucked menacingly to herself and Pam felt her heart jump after Karen spoke. She felt her cheeks quickly flush pink as a surge of rage coursed through her blood.

“You know what?” Pam asked, her face suddenly cold. “I just realized, we never formally introduced ourselves!”

“Oh!” Karen exclaimed, setting her glass of wine down on the bar. “I’m Karen Filippelli.” She extended her hand warmly towards Pam, Pam shook the hand firmly.

“I’m Pam Beesly-Halpert,” she said calmly. She waited for the look of shock to cross Karen’s face and finished, “Jim’s wife.”

***

“So is there some celebratory lovin’ in our futures this evening?” Jim asked in a low growl as the two of them sat in the backseat of the company car heading home.

“Maybe.” Pam replied, despite herself as her mind kept racing back to the encounter with Karen earlier in the evening.

“Just maybe?” he pouted. “Not absolutely?”

“Jim, when was the last time that you spoke with Karen?” she asked, curiosity getting the best of her. She was amazed how just the mention of her name could completely change his demeanor.

“I don’t know, it’s been…it’s been a long time.” he said.

“I ran into her this evening.” Pam said matter-of-factly.

“Oh?” he asked.

“She said…she said some interesting things.” she said.

“Like what?” Jim asked nervously.

“Well, she thinks that you’re a really uncool guy,” she replied, “though I will admit that she used words that were a lot more R-rated than that.”

“Not surprising.” he said. He and Karen certainly hadn’t ended on a good note. He had used a lot of “R-rated” words himself while talking with her during their last meeting together.

“And she’s pregnant.” Pam said quickly, she didn’t know why she mentioned that. Perhaps it was a twinge of jealousy that Karen could get pregnant and she couldn’t. Pam continued, “But the really interesting thing she told me is how you came to get your new position in the company.”

“So she did have something to do with it?” he asked. He still had a hard time believing that his ex-wife would have vouched for him to take her position in the company – unless of course she had some ulterior motives.

“In a nasty little way, yes.” she replied.

“Suspicions confirmed,” Jim thought to himself.

Pam continued, “She seems to believe that if you are the new vice president of the company that you’re not going to be…with me that much.”

His heart leapt in his chest. For some reason, he had barely even thought about the extra travel that would be involved with the promotion. In the past, he had been able to travel when and where he pleased without much concern for others in his life – because there weren’t others in his life. Now, not only was there Pam, but there was also a whole future family somewhere down the line. He couldn’t believe that he hadn’t thought of it sooner.

“Did she say that?” Jim asked.

“More or less.” Pam replied. “She had no idea who I was when I was talking to her. The conversation pretty much came to a screeching halt when I finally introduced myself as your wife.”

“How did she look when you said it?” he asked, feeling a little hopeful and a little smug.

“Shocked as hell.” she replied, laughing softly.

“I’m sure,” he said, smiling, “I don’t think I’ve seen her since that last legal meeting of ours.”

“She knew you were married.” Pam said quietly.

“Everyone knows I’m married.” Jim said. Pam nodded. “I think that Michael did just about everything short of announcing our wedding over the intercom system in the building. You know, just so everyone was absolutely sure that I was off the market.” He laughed and looked over at Pam, who only nodded again and didn’t return his jovial response.

“So the…the traveling thing.” Pam said quietly, looking down into her lap.

“You can come with me.” he said, reaching into her lap and taking her hand into his. She shook her head.

“I have a full time job, and I think I used up most all of my vacation days on that honeymoon.” she said.

A silence settled between the two of them as they drove a couple more blocks. Pam settled her head against the window and sighed deeply.

“Pam…” Jim murmured, sensing the tension between the two of them.

“I just don’t want you to be gone all the time.” she said quietly.

“I’ll try to do most of my business in the city.” he said as he ran his thumb over the top of her hand. He inched closer towards her and settled his chin on her shoulder. “I don’t want to be gone all the time either, Pam.” he said quietly and he pressed his lips against her jaw.

“Yeah,” she mumbled, “I know.”

Jim wrapped his arm around Pam’s shoulder, pulled her close against his chest and held her there tightly as the car rounded the corner to their home. Pam sighed heavily, her breath kicking up the faint odor of Jim’s cologne. She wondered to herself how she could have gone from such a high to such a low all within one night. She had been so happy for him at the beginning of the night – they both thought that he had lost the promotion back in January. The wonderful realization that he had a second chance made her ecstatic almost. However, after speaking with Karen, she wasn’t so sure how she felt about Jim’s new position. She had been so happy about the advancement in his career that the cold reality of him traveling more often and being away more had completely eluded her. Truthfully, she didn’t know how she felt anymore.