Pam tapped the rhythm of the Jewel song with her stiletto heal, listening to the soft clap of plastic on tile. After her chat with Jim beside the bar, she had felt the overwhelming need to escape somewhere quiet and replay the conversation. She’d often done this in the old days when he’d make a comment that cracked the door to his real feelings. She’d sit in silence and conjure every detail: the inflection of his gravely voice as it rolled over the syllables, the slight stubble on his chin that made her think of lazy weekends, and the way his eyes danced on her face as if to read a hidden meaning in the laugh lines or eyelashes.

Now she sat leaning against the French door on a terrace outside the ballroom lost in the same sense of nostalgia and longing.

He was flirting with her. She couldn’t get past it. The familiar rhythm of the conversation that they had built up over years of lust and denial that had all but faded away when he left her was back for tonight. Who knows why? Alcohol, the romance of the wedding, or her satin dress could have brought back the tiny glimmer of the man she once knew.

Slowly, carefully she relived their interactions in the past four hours.

After her talking head in front of the gift table, where she let America (or whoever was going to see the documentary) know that she was onto Phyllis about the wedding decorations, she scanned the chapel for a familiar mop of brown hair. She spotted him standing in a corner with Dwight, their heads bent close and his finger on his lip like he was thinking hard. She smiled slightly to herself as she recognized the stance he took when he humored someone, and strolled over to the pair with more bravado that she would have thought possible.

He saw her as she was closing in on them, about five feet away. His eyes widened, conveying the hilarity of the situation. Dwight was bent over muttering as he wrote in a small steno pad that she knew he carried everywhere (it said “Case Files, A Completely Public Account of Very Boring Things” a title that he had come up with the afternoon he read the Wikipedia article on reverse psychology).

Pam quirked her eyebrows, and Jim mouthed “Wedding Crashers” and winked. A plan was born.

The remaining five feet Pam half ran. She grabbed his elbow roughly, gave him a confused look, and said quickly “Jim, something odd is going on.”

Jim summoned the most curious look he could muster while trying to maintain a straight face. “Like what?” Dwight perked up, stepping to close to her for comfort.

“Well, I don’t know,” she looked around in mock uncertainty, “It’s just I heard Phyllis say that only about one hundred guests were invited, but doesn’t this look like a lot more than that to you?” She glanced back up at him, biting her lip.

He’d let himself forget how good at this she was, so when she delivered these lines with complete sincerity he let himself be properly nostalgic. It soon passed as he felt both of their gazes waiting for agreement. Dwight beat him to it though, “Oh Pam, you artistic types are so naïve,” He said through gritted teeth. “You and Jim are so weak.” He glanced around as if he could identify the crashers just by appearance. After a moment of silence he turned his attention back to Pam, “You posses a woman’s intuition. Tell me, did any certain individual look especially suspicious?”

“Yea…actually,” she looked as if this just dawned on her, “This guy in front of me asked me what the lucky couples name was.”

“Gotcha, sucker!” Dwight’s chest puffed out, “ASL?”

Now Pam was genuinely confused, “Excuse me?”

“Age, Sex, Location. It’s a chat room acronym.” Jim supplied with a barely concealed smirk.

“Pam, you need to educate yourself on twenty-first century lingo. Now, what is is ASL?”

“Um. He was a man as far as I could tell, he looked about forty-five and I don’t really know where he lives. He was about 5’11 and had brown hair, but-“

Before Pam could finish, Dwight interrupted “I’m on it!” and stalked away.

She turned towards Jim, who had a giant smile on his face, “Nice, describing half the people here.”

She smiled her toothy smile and explained, “Well, Phyllis has enough to deal with, with Michael in the wedding party. This will keep our hero busy until the reception starts.”

“Pam Beesly: Pranking for the good of Woman Kind. I never knew you were such a do-gooder.”

“I guess we are even then, I never knew you were a chat room fanatic.”

“I’ll admit I had some lonely nights, sexxii4u429 really gets me, you know?”

“Who gets you?” Karen strolled over and caught the end of the sentence.

Pam jumped on the opportunity to be a little cordial to the brunette, “Jim’s online secret lover. Sexxii4u429.”

Karen, catching on, turned in mock disapproval, “Jim if someone else is on your mind, then I should just give up now. Really, I can’t compete.” The words were delivered in a joking tone but they rang true to all three of them.

The silence was deafening. Karen’s eyes widened and Pam fidgeted.

Jim’s eyebrows shot up as if he was trying to figure out whether the apparent sub-text was intentional or not. To escape the increasingly awkward moment, Pam stated “I’m going to go talk to Kevin and Stacey, you guys have fun!” she said in a grossly cheery voice and turned around.

As she glanced back, she saw him mutter “What was that?”

They had danced. The cameras didn’t catch it though (which was lucky, considering their obsession to the smallest moments between the two of them), they were to focused on Uncle Al wandering around at a stop light. Pam had been chatting with Toby and his girlfriend (she was so happy for him) when Jim had gracefully asked her to dance.

She agreed, and here they were, swaying back and forth to a Jazz number coming over the loud speaker.

“Where’s Karen?” she asked, and immediately regretted. Really, did she have to ruin everything?

“Talking about New York City with Stacey. She lived there for a  couple of years in college.”

“Wow, I did not know that. How did she end up here, with Kevin of all people?” she was acutely aware of his large hands lying on her hips, offering a pleasant warmth.

“I didn’t stick around to find out. Came to find you.” His smile was a little lopsided, so she figured his new found boldness originated from a glass. Her palms were sweating a little as she clasped them behind his neck.

“I’m glad. I was having a very awkward conversation with Toby and Celina.”

“Awkward because….?”

“Oh, nothing. He just acts a little weird around me sometimes.” The conversation was veering off towards something she didn’t want to discuss right now, when things were going so good.

“Like he’s infatuated? I know you know what that looks like.” Ok, he was drunk. She’s never seen him this bold. “Come on, Pam, its ridiculously obvious.” His voice was tight with frustration, and what Pam didn’t dare to guess was jealousy.

“Well,” she said trying to keep the conversation light, “it looks like he got over me fast.” Some how, she didn’t think they were talking about Toby anymore. What was up with the subtext tonight?

“Probably not.” She heard him mutter, and took the opportunity to change the topic.

“Speaking of Kevin. I’ll give you thirty bucks if you convince him to do “Baby Got Back.”

“ I don’t know, Beesly. You probably shouldn’t bet against my persuasion skills when Kevin is involved.”

“Oh, yes. I forgot. He thinks you’re the bees knees.”

He gave her the lopsided smile again, “Did you just say ‘bees knees’? How old are you, sixty?”

“Sixty-seven and three quarters, thank you.”

“Your very welcome.”

The music cut off quickly as one of Bob’s groomsmen got up to make a toast. They took their seats at the round tables, and the moment was lost.

Then, when the party was in full swing she spotted him by the bar. She doesn’t quite remember what was said, but he last statement sent waves of shock and pleasure running through her, “ I know, and it is very cute.”

Back on the terrace, she smiled as the memory took a hold of her and let her hope for a few seconds before visions of a brunette in his arms grounded her firmly on earth.

Really, they were so cute together. The all-American couple. They’d be on a commercial for wedding rings or condoms. Who was she to-