I transferred the call to Kendall in HR, and then finally listened to the two neglected voice mails. I finally hung up, and noticed that Jim was flipping with a puzzled expression through a magazine. I had to laugh; he’d picked up an old issue of Broadway Magazine that I’d left in the rack. I decided to see if I couldn’t satisfy some of my curiosity. I cleared my throat gently. “Jim, do you need anything while you wait? I can point you to the restrooms, or we have vending machines in our break room…”

Jim broke out into that great, friendly smile and said he was fine. I asked him about his trip up to the city, and made a tiny joke about what a long drive home Michael would be having. With a laugh, he stood up and came over by my desk, resting his forearms on it as he talked to me. I gotta tell you, there was something very appealing about that tall white boy sort of leaning over me, like there was nothing more important in the world than our conversation. Still, I wasn’t going to be charmed out of my purpose. Casual-like, I said, “It must be a little weird, applying for the same job as your boss and your…um…”

He sort of grinned and said, “Karen’s my girlfriend, yes.” I have to admit, I was surprised. Like I said before, I figured they maybe were sleeping together with no strings, or that she was on the hunt for him, but I never expected that they were an actual couple. I’m a good actress, but part of that is that my emotions are clearly expressed on my face. Jim noticed, raising his eyebrows slightly, but he didn’t say anything.

I tried to veer in a new direction. I said, “Well, it’ll be a good opportunity for any of you. Better than being a receptionist, anyway.”

Jim just smiled at my attempt at deflection. He said, “Hey, now. Some of my favorite people are receptionists.”

I laughed. “I’ll have to tell Pam you said that.”  

Jim stood up like my desk had caught fire. I actually jumped, he moved so fast. He swallowed hard, and then forced a fake smile back on his face. “Pam?” he said, sort of hollowly.

I tried to keep my tone light, but obviously I was dying to know what was going on. “Yeah. Pam is the receptionist in your office, right?”

The poor guy started to stammer. “Ye-yeah. Of, of course. I just…I didn’t realize you’d know her, but of course you do. I mean. Heh. Yeah. You could tell her I…yeah.” And he turned around and sat back down on the little couch.

At this point, I had decided that, one: Jim Halpert was a nice guy; two: Jim Halpert wasn’t really that sold on his girlfriend, and three: Jim Halpert had something going on with sweet little Pam, the receptionist in his office.

I’ve talked to Pam Beesly several times a week for years now. I don’t know her very well, but I do know that she broke off an engagement last summer, and that she hasn’t sounded like herself for a long time, until the last week or so. All I could do was watch Jim and wonder about all the drama going on in that Scranton office. Honestly, all the Michael and Jan stuff was so far gone from my brain, I hardly remembered it had happened.

Finally, my internal line rang again. David was ready for Jim. I wished him luck, and he smiled, thanking me politely as he disappeared into the main office. I struggled mightily for a minute, but finally decided not to call down to Scranton. I mean, I could easily have used the excuse that I was calling just to give Pam the scoop on Jan, but I didn’t trust myself not to just blurt out, “What is going on with you and Jim?!” So, I opened a game of spider solitaire, and tried not to think about it. After all, it was possible that neither Jim nor Karen would get the job, and I might never see either one of them again. My curiosity was just going to bug me with no way to resolve it.

Yeah, so I thought. Jim had been gone maybe ten minutes when he came back through the doors. I looked up at him, surprised. “What now?” I asked before I could catch myself.

Jim started to laugh, just a little. “Just a little more hard-core self-destruction. I’ve been really stupid. Blind, even. But I’m trying to fix it. Can you do me…well, actually, two favors, Grace?”

I was so confused, but you have to understand, there was something about that guy, just something intense in his eyes, and I found myself nodding before I realized that I had agreed to help him.

With a relieved sigh, he leaned down onto my desk in that conspiratorial way. He said, “Great. OK, first, can you give me the name and number of a cab company, the train schedule, and the info for a decent local hotel? I have a feeling that Karen is, um…maybe not going to want to ride back to Scranton with me, and I want to be able to take care of whatever arrangements she wants.”

My eyebrows were just about leaping off my forehead, but I nodded without a word and started pulling the information out of a file I keep for visitors to the office. I handed him a print-out and a couple of brochures.

He smiled and thanked me, and then he said, and oh my gosh, I couldn’t believe it, he said, “OK. Um, the other favor. Can you maybe call the Scranton office and tell Pam to wait until I get back?”

Obviously, I was all, “Excuse me?”

Jim looked sheepish. “Look, I need to talk to her today, and I don’t know her new address or phone number, so I need to catch her before she leaves work. And I don’t know how long it will take to sort this out with Karen before I go…but I also don’t want to talk to Pam before I talk to Karen, because that just seems…lame.” He sounded lame, and he knew it.

I shook my head. I said, “Jim, I want to help you, but you can’t expect me to tell that poor girl to keep an eye out for you without telling her anything else!”

I could almost hear the gears turning in his head. Finally, he said, “How about this? Tell her that you’re going to fax her something for Toby that is very confidential, so could she please not leave until it comes so it doesn’t sit out on the fax machine. You can even tell her it might not be until late, but that it is really important. I mean, I know it’s a lie, but…”

Oh, you know I said I’d do it! Clever boy. He actually kissed me on the cheek before he stalked out of the building, looking like you imagine the Christians going into the gladiator arenas: terrified, but confident of their reward. I hoped he was going to get the reward he was looking for.

I called Pam and improvised my part nicely. She didn’t seem too upset about being asked to work late; I imagined she wanted to be around as long as possible to hear what had happened with the interviews anyway (I was careful not to mention them, and she didn’t ask).

I have to admit, I was singing to myself for the rest of the afternoon, thankful that I had had such an entertaining day and equally grateful that I work here and not in Scranton. I was just about to turn the phone system to automatic voice mail for the night when the phone rang.

“Dunder Mifflin, this is Grace,” I said, as usual.

It was Jim. “Hey Grace,” he said. “I just wanted to thank you. I made it here on time and…and Pam and I have dinner plans.”

Music to my ears. I may be waiting to be discovered, but it was nice to have a supporting role while someone else got their big break.