Jim was extremely nervous as he walked up to Angela’s door to pick her up for their first date. Last week, he’d made a declaration of love to her, and things had been awkward the rest of that day. After a day of reflection, she agreed to go on a date with him, but she still seemed a bit uneasy, and that unanswered love declaration was still hanging out there. Because of this, he wanted everything about the evening to be perfect, and arrived with a dozen roses in hopes of getting off to a good start.

“Hello, Jim,” Angela said in a flat tone as she opened the door.

“Uh, hi, Angela,” Jim replied, confused by her formal and stilted greeting. “I brought these for you.” He handed her the roses, but she didn’t seem extremely impressed.

“That is very nice. Thank You.”

“Uh, you’re welcome,” Jim replied, getting more nervous by the second.

“Now just let me put these in some water and then we can leave,” she said with an obviously fake smile.

“Okay,” Jim replied. He had started to wonder if Angela really wanted to do this.

Things didn’t get much better when they arrived at the restaurant. He thought picking a vegetarian eatery would impress her, but she seemed oddly annoyed more than anything else.

“Why did you take me here?” Angela asked.

“I don’t know. I thought this would be a good place since you’re a vegetarian.”

“But you’re not. What are you going to eat?”

”Oh, I’ll find something on here that’s has… flavor,” he said sarcastically, but she was obviously not in the mood for jokes.

Dinner was a mostly silent and awkward affair. Every attempt Jim made at small talk was cut short by an abrupt, seemingly dismissive answer from Angela. He didn’t quite understand it. The woman he fell in love with had turned back into the cold, brusque woman who used to be his enemy. What was going on? Perhaps she didn’t really want to be on a date with him, and was just being kind in accepting his offer. He had to admit that his love declaration came out of the blue and she probably still hadn’t completely recovered from that. She’d been nice to him for a long time now so maybe she agreed to the date out of fear of hurting his feelings. Whatever the case, this certainly hadn’t gone as he expected.

“Thank You, Jim,” Angela said at the front door to her apartment. “I had a nice time.” Her voice was flat, and he could tell she didn’t mean it. The invitation to a good night kiss definitely wasn’t there, not that he was sure he wanted one anymore.

“You sure?”

“Of course. Why wouldn’t I be?”

She obviously wasn’t going to talk about it. Jim figured it had already been uncomfortable enough and bugging her about it would probably just make things worse. “No reason. I guess I’ll see you tomorrow, right?”

“Yep,” she said, plastering on a fake smile.

The date hadn’t gone even remotely like Jim planned and he couldn’t figure out why. It bugged him all night long, and the next day at work, he decided he couldn’t wait until lunch to talk to her about it. He saw Angela get up to make some copies, and walked over there. He stood right next to her and looked straight ahead so no one could tell they were talking to one another.

“Hey,” he started.

“Hello,” she responded.

“Things seemed pretty weird last night.”

“Did they?”

“Yeah, you know, you were kind of… distant.”

“Was I?”

“Stop that.”

“Stop what?”

“You know what I’m talking about,” he said with a bit of annoyance. “We’ve been spending a lot of time together lately, and it’s been fun, but last night was anything but fun. You seemed like you’d rather be anywhere else.”

This got her attention. “That’s not true.”

“It isn’t? Then I guess I don’t understand.”

“I don’t know what to say, Jim,” she said as her voice wavered a bit. “You told me you loved me. You, of all people, told me that. How do you expect me to respond to that?”

“I guess maybe I could have gone about that a better way, but if you didn’t want to go on a date, you should have said no.”

“It’s not that. I did want to go. I mean, I do want to go.”

“You do?” he asked hopefully.

“Yes,” she replied quietly.

“How about tonight? We can try again. I know the perfect place.”

“Where?”

“Trust me,” he said.

At this point, Kevin walked up. “Are you done with the copier, yet?”  

“Yes I am, Kevin,” Angela replied a little too quickly. With that, she quickly turned and walked back to her desk.

Kevin looked over at Jim, who was still standing there. “What are you doing? You don’t even have something to copy.”

Jim looked down at his empty hands. “Oh, yeah, I left it on my desk. You go ahead, Kev. I’ll take care of it later.” Jim went back to his desk, leaving a very confused Kevin in his wake.

“Jim! This place is disgusting,” Angela complained as they walked through the bowling alley.

“Well, last night you told me I should have picked a place I would enjoy, so here we are,” Jim replied as they walked over to a rack of bowling balls.

“I must have been out of my mind when I said that. It smells like a locker room here. And that spray stuff they put in the shoes, I don’t think that did the trick.”

“You had them spray them three times.”

“Some of us don’t want to catch a foot disease.”

“Quit complaining, Martin. Now, let’s find you a ball.”

“This one is fine,” Angela said as he picked up one of the smallest balls on the rack.

“8 pounds? You won’t be able to knock over anything with that. Try this one.” He hands her a much larger ball.

She picks it up and almost immediately drops it. “Jim! This one is heavier than I am.”

“Hey, look at you, you made a joke,” he said with amusement.

“No I didn’t,” she protested.

“Well, unless that ball actually does weigh 95 pounds, then I think you did. Let me see.” As Jim took the ball from her, he brushed her hand, causing her to smile. “Nope. This isn’t 95 pounds.” She actually laughed and as they walked over to their lane, he could tell this was going to go much better than the previous night.

It was later that night when they kissed for the first time. Jim walked her to her front door once again, but this time the atmosphere was much more inviting. Still, he was a little nervous, worried about overplaying his hand. They stood there for a few minutes, smiling at one another and exchanging monosyllabic pleasantries. Jim was waiting for what he felt would be the right moment when Angela impulsively pulled him close to her and kissed him. The initial kiss was brief as they pulled back and looked at each other for a brief moment. Then they went back in for a much more passionate, deeper kiss.

“Good night, Jim,” Angela said as they finally broke apart, but the pounding in his chest was far too loud for him to hear anything else. Angela smiled and retreated to her apartment.

Jim walked into work the next day happier than he’d been in a long time.  He was so happy that he decided it was finally time to do something different. “Hi, Valerie,” he said to the receptionist.

This definitely took Valerie by surprise. “Oh, Hi.”

“I just wanted to say that I’m sorry I’ve ignored you for so long,” Jim said.

“Oh no, it’s okay,” Valerie said, still a bit unsure of where this was headed.

“No it’s not. I was rude to you for a long time. Still, you managed to make sure I got all my messages and transferred all my calls. You did a great job despite me being a jerk, so thanks.”

She smiled and said, “You’re welcome.”

“Keep up the good work,” he said before going to his desk.

It was the start of a new chapter in his life. The old Jim Halpert, who had ever so slowly started to reappear over the last couple years, was finally back. He was in charge of office morale once again, leading the group in time-wasting activities whenever he had the chance, although Angela pretended to hate them because they were keeping things a secret for now. He even got back into his weekly poker games, and when Angela sat in for a couple hands at his urging, even she had to admit that it didn’t make her “completely nauseated“.

Jim went all out for their one month anniversary, showering her with gifts and taking her to a fancy restaurant. She tried to pretend that it was silly to make such a big deal out of it, but deep down she absolutely loved it. He understood this complexity about her by now. It was that night when they made love for the first time. He held her in his arms the same way she had done for him at the cemetery last year. And for what seemed like the first time in her life, Angela was no longer afraid of letting go with her emotions.

“I love you, Jim,” she said in the darkness.

“I love you, too,” the darkness replied back.

Jim and Angela were dating for six months when he decided it was time to introduce her to his mom, something he had only done previously with Karen and Pam. She was sweet to both of them, although he sensed his mom did not really care for Karen. He waited so long to introduce Angela because he was afraid his mom would feel the same about her, even if she wouldn’t show it. He really wanted her to like Angela.

Angela was certainly nervous herself. She sensed that his mom was bound to be much like Jim, touchy feely and overly happy all the time. She was afraid that his mom would not approve of his new cold and judgmental girlfriend. Her trepidation certainly didn’t end when Jim’s mother warmly greeted both of them and immediately asked to speak with Angela alone in the kitchen. Angela braced herself for the criticism: Jim isn’t like you. He’s a caring sensitive person, and deserves to be with someone who can give him the same. Why do you dress like a pilgrim?

“So, Angela…”

“Yes, Mrs. Halpert?”

“You can call me Larissa.”

“I’d rather not. I think that’s disrespectful.”

Larissa looked at her oddly for a moment, then smiled. “Suit yourself. I wanted to talk to you alone because there‘s something I wanted to tell you.”

Angela gulped, “Okay.”

“Thank you,” Larissa said.

“What?” a surprised Angela asked.

“Thank you. For bringing him back,” Larissa said, trying to say it without tearing up. “He was gone for so long. I was so afraid that I lost him. I tried to help. We all did. We couldn’t get through to him. But you did something. You were there for him in a way that none of us could be, and you brought him back.”

Angela could probably count only ten times in her life where she had cried, and at least eight of them had to do with the party planning committee. Yet there she was, crying because Jim’s mom hugged her in the kitchen.

“Is everything okay?” Jim said as he entered the kitchen. “I heard crying and I just wanted to see if it was happy crying or you know, the result of hair pulling.”

“He can never resist a joke,” Larissa said to Angela. “You’ll have to get used to that.”

“I’m getting there,” Angela replied with a smile.

It was a regular Saturday afternoon when Jim decided to do something he hadn’t done in a very long time. He stopped by the cemetery to talk to Pam:

“Hi, Pam. I know it’s been a long time since I’ve been here. Things have really changed in my life lately. I’m still not even sure if I believe you can hear me or not. I know that Angela would probably say that you can hear me, and I guess that’s what I came here to talk to you about. I’ve fallen in love with someone else, and believe it or not, her name is Angela Martin. I know what you’re probably thinking. Angela? It doesn’t make any sense. Actually, knowing you, you’re probably up there teasing me right now. I can just hear it. ‘Angela and Jim sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G.’ But it’s true. I really do love her. She’s just, underneath that bossy, judgmental exterior, there’s this warm and wonderful person inside. Now, I’m thinking maybe this isn’t a surprise to you. Maybe you’ve been looking over me this whole time. Maybe you chose her to come to my rescue, and to be the one I’m supposed to end up with. If so, what were you thinking? I know you’re laughing at that, so don’t try to pretend otherwise.”

Jim paused for several minutes, doing anything in his power to stop from crying. After a few moments, he continued, “I guess what I’m saying, Pam, is that while I’ve fallen in love with someone, that doesn’t mean I’ve fallen out of love with you. I will always love you, Pam, and I will treasure every second I got to spend in your company.”

That afternoon, Jim had finally arrived at his destination. He pulled into a parking space and turned the ignition off. Then he just sat there and waited for a long time. He had to decide if this was what he really wanted. This next step was bold and frightening. He had always planned to make it at some point, but this was certainly far off from his original dream. However, he also didn’t want to end up like Ryan, trying to live the rest of his life pretending he wasn’t in love. Jim got out of his car and made that fateful walk. He opened the door and entered. The sign above him read:

J B JEWELERS