“You’re lying.”
“No, I’m not.”
“How is it even possible that you’ve never seen it?” Pam challenged, her laughter ringing vibrantly through her words.
“I’m sorry, Pam. Unlike you, I don’t have an unhealthy obsession with reality TV.”
“Obsession’ is such an ugly word. I prefer ‘curiosity.’”
“Either way, it’s unhealthy. Lauren, in Wilkes-Barre, back me up on this one.”
“Sorry Jim, I have to side with Pam. I love ‘Big Brother’.”
“Thank you!” Pam threw up her hands in victory. Jim rolled his eyes.
“Typical. Women ganging up on me,” He shook his head, his broad smile betraying the glare he shot through the window.
“Oh please,” Pam stuck her tongue out at him, continuing to giggle.
“Wow. Ladies and gentleman, I’m sorry to announce that Pam is actually in the fifth grade. She just stuck her tongue out at me.”
“I did not.”
“I don’t know what to do, we’ve been breaking so many child labor laws.”
“You’re such a jerk.”
Their laughter replaced talking, and when that subsided, they were left smiling at each other and both refusing to break eye contact.
“Umm, I’m still here.”
Jim’s head jerked towards his mic, shaking his head to regain clarity. “Oh, uhh, sorry Lauren. Thanks for calling in.” He glanced over at Pam, whose cheeks were growing pinker by the second as she concentrated on shuffling papers in front of her.
“Okay, we’re going to take a quick break. For now, some people are going to try and convince you to buy a lot of stuff, so good luck with that.” Jim patched the commercials through, watching Pam out of the corner of his eye get up from her chair.
“I’m just going to give these call reports to Andy,” she gave a sheepish smile and walked quickly away from the booth.
“Oh, right, yeah—“ he mumbled, watching her walk away. He leaned back in his chair with a heavy sigh.
“Tired?”
Jim jumped and turned around to find Dwight behind him with arms crossed and an icy stare.
“Yeah, you know, early hours and everything.”
“Hmm, yes. Not to mention all that flirting with your co-host.”
“What? No, we’re not—I mean, I wasn’t flirting.“
“Jim, let me teach you a little something about radio. My show is the highest ranked and most listened to at this station. And you know how I got to that point?”
“Bribing listeners?”
Dwight snarled. “No. It was through hard work and never slacking off, always paying attention. It was not through romantic entanglements with my co-workers.”
“What are you talking about? She’s just my co-host, there’s nothing going on.” Jim averted Dwight’s eyes, worried that his lie might be too obvious in his own.
“Oh, please. Do I look like an idiot?”
“Is that an actual question? Because—“
“Jim!” Dwight shouted, his frustration mounting. “I’m just saying, it would not be wise to get caught up in foolish lust with someone you work so closely.”
“Hey Dwight,” Pam suddenly appeared at the doorway to the booth. “How’s Angela?”
Dwight suddenly stood up straighter, failing at hiding his alarm. “From what I hear she’s doing quite well. Though if you wanted a more accurate answer, I suggest you ask her yourself.”
Pam just nodded and smiled sweetly. Dwight shot one last glare at Jim before hastily leaving.
“What was that about?” Jim asked.
“You don’t want to know,” Pam assured him, once again taking her seat.
“Hey, listen, I don’t know how much you heard—“
“Don’t worry about it. Ten seconds,” she nodded toward the mic as she quickly put on her headphones.
Jim frowned. He was annoyed; annoyed with himself for being too cowardly to just admit the truth, even if it was to Dwight. And as he watched Pam prepare for the show, avoiding his eyes at all costs, he realized that his denial may have cost him the one thing he knew he wanted.
xxx
“So the trend of the week is lavender. This is not to be confused with mauve; I know it can sometimes be tricky distinguishing—“
“Actually, I’m quite fond of mauve,” Phyllis chipped in shyly from her side of the booth.
Kelly’s faced morphed into horror. “I’m sorry, what?”
“Well, it’s not a color you see very often.”
“Yeah. There’s a reason. It’s ugly.”
“Oh, gosh, I don’t know about that. Listeners? What do you think? The number to call is—“
“Umm, no, actually folks, we don’t need your opinion. Trust me on this one, okay? Mauve, bad. Lavender, good. Let’s not turn this into the horizontal versus vertical stripes disaster of ’03. Anywho! Got to take a break. Don’t touch that dial!” Kelly finished in a chipper voice, but gave an fierce look toward Phyllis once commercials began.
“How dare you? You can’t just stick your nose in my topics like that! There are lives at stake here, Phyllis! People could go out in public in that color and it would be all your fault.”
Phyllis began to apologize before stopping shortly, raising her head in defiance. “No. I’m going to tell people what I think, too. Pam expresses herself on Jim’s show all the time. I think she’s setting a great example of what we board operators can do.”
“Please. Pam doesn’t know anything about fashion, she’s not a good role model. So are you going to pipe down or not?”
Phyllis smiled. “No, I’m not. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some reading to brush up on for tomorrow’s show.”
Kelly began to sputter in shock as Phyllis walked proudly out of the booth.
“Reading? We don’t read on this show! Where are you going? Phyllis? PHYLLIS!”
xxx
As the days passed, tensions began to mount at WYDM as more and more board operators started following Pam’s example. It was indeed bringing in much more listener participation, but the hosts were not as eager to share their air time as Jim had been.
“Michael, may we have a word?” Angela said sternly, Oscar, Kevin, and Kelly standing closely by her in Michael’s office, looking much like she sounded.
“Umm, well, sure, I guess—“ Michael began, their unhappy faces making him uneasy.
“It’s our board operators. Ever since Pam became co-host of Jim’s show, they’ve started chiming into our own. They’re interrupting, they’re voicing their opinion; they’re out of control.” Oscar ranted.
“Phyllis worked my show the other day, and you know what she did? She offered fashion advice,” Kelly stressed the last two words. “And you know what? The caller took it! We can’t have this in our world, Michael, it’s just wrong!”
“Look, guys, I’m sorry but—“
“I can’t have someone challenging my Superbowl picks,” said a stony-looking Kevin. “No one does that.”
Michael groaned and put his head in his hands. “I just—I don’t know what you guys want me to do! They’re getting callers! People are actually listening to the morning show, I can’t just yank her away!”
“Michael,” Angela leaned on his desk, her eyes seeming to glow with anger. “Either you demote Pam back to board operator, or you lose us.”
“What is happening to this station? It’s like the freakin’ ‘Bourne Ultimatum’ around here!” Michael whined. “I am the station manger, okay? I make the rules.
“You have till the end of the day,” Angela said coolly. With that, the four of them walked out of his office, Kelly slamming the door forcefully behind her.
xxx
“Okay folks, we’re back, taking more of your calls. Pam, who do we have?”
“Carrie on line 2, she needs some relationship advice.”
“Alright, Carrie, we’ll try to help. What’s up?”
“It’s this guy from this class I’m taking. I can’t figure out if he’s interested in me or just trying to be friendly. I mean, I really like him, but don’t want to come on to strong if he’s not actually interested.”
“Well—“
“Carrie, I know how confusing that can be—“ Pam interrupted. “But I think you’re right in being cautious. If you’re not getting a vibe from him, you don’t want to waste too much time on pursuing him.”
Jim’s heart pounded in his chest, but he knew this was an opportunity that he couldn’t ignore.
“Actually, I have to disagree.”
Pam paused and shot him a confused look.
“Carrie, what you have to understand is sometimes guys are just as shy as you are. I mean, who likes being rejected? Especially by a girl like…” Jim trailed off, working up the courage to keep his gaze focused on a nervous-looking Pam as he spoke. “Anyway, the point is, I’d be willing to bet he’s into you. You just have to forgive him for his stupidity in not making that clear to you.”
Pam’s pursed lips started to break into a small smile, pink flushing her cheeks once more.
“It’s all about timing.” Jim took a deep breath. “And you just have to trust that he’s waiting for the right moment.”
“Wow. Okay, well, that makes sense. Thanks you guys, I really appreciate it.”
“No problem, Carrie. Call back and let us know how it goes okay?” Pam said, her voice much brighter than it had been previously.
“Will do. Have a good day, guys!”
“Alright, you too. Well, that wraps it up for us. We’ll be back tomorrow morning, same time same place. Say goodbye, Pam.”
“Goodbye Pam!”
“Wow.” Jim smiled, patching the bumper music through. “Original.”
She shrugged. “I do what I can.”
“Uhh, Pam,” Michael said meekly from the doorway. “Can I talk to you for a second?”
“Oh, sure.” She glanced Jim, whose concerned face made it clear that he had no more clue as to what Michael wanted than she did.
Michael let Pam walk in front of him towards his office, shooting Jim an apologetic look before they rounded the corner.
Author's Chapter Notes:
Yikes, sorry about the wait on this one guys. Hope the chapter makes up for it :) Many thanks to Cousin Mose for answering countless questions and being an all around cool kid.
Chapter End Notes:
*cue dramatic music* I know, I'm mean. Tell me off with a review :)
