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Pam shook her head and mouthed an apology to Oscar, who grimaced and glanced back and forth between Jim and Toby.  The truth was that Oscar hadn’t been the one concerned about Jim monopolizing the conversation with his humor.  In fact, Oscar would have welcomed Jim into the little group, regardless of the younger salesman’s quirks. No, Oscar wasn’t the one who had objected to including Jim in their silly little club; it had been Toby.

      

      “I just want things to stay the same,” he had said quietly when Pam had first asked to let Jim come.  “I just don’t think that it would be a good idea to add him into things.” 

         Pam had been nonplussed by his refusal since she had always thought that Jim and Toby were good friends, Jim still baby sat Sasha a few times a month, but since Jim didn’t seem seriously bothered by not being included in the group she let it slide. Oscar, however, knew the real reason that Toby was going so hard after Jim for not reading the book.  Years in the closet had taught Oscar a thing or two about hiding romantic feelings for someone, and Toby’s were obviously focused on Pam.  Oscar had hoped, however, that Toby could have shown the same maturity that Jim had shown when Pam had been engaged to Roy.  But watching him blatantly trying to embarrass Jim in front of Pam, Oscar could clearly see that hadn’t been the case.

            After the lunch was over, and Jim and Pam were quietly joking by her desk, Jim still wearing his newsboy cap, a “punishment” devised by Pam for his failure to read any of Angela’s Ashes, Oscar slipped back into the annex.  He found Toby at his desk and quickly checked to ensure that Kelly was still on her own lunch break.

          “Hey, Toby,” he began. Toby looked up from the papers on his desk.

            “Hey, Oscar,” He greeted softly. “Did you need something?”

            Oscar nodded, crossing his arms and resting against Toby’s desk.

            “Yeah.” Oscar wanted to be as tactful as he possibly could. “I was just wondering what happened during Finer Things.”

            Toby’s pale eyebrows rose in shock.

            “What do you mean?” He asked.

            Oscar gave him a pointed look.

            “You know what I’m talking about, Toby. Was it really necessary to go after Jim like that?”

            Toby grimaced and looked down at his desk.

            “He didn’t read the book and then tried to make a joke out of it all,” he grumbled.

            “Well, we all know Jim likes to joke around. You know he wasn’t trying to make fun of us. Do you really think he’d belittle anything Pam does?”

            At the mention of Pam’s name, Toby’s eyes grew uncharacteristically dark.

            “Well, if he cares so much about the things Pam gets involved with, he had a whole month to read that book.”

            “Maybe he had something else going on,” Oscar hedged.  He knew what had most likely kept Jim busy, he’d helped Jim arrange his finances so he could fit it in along with another large purchase he was planning to buy, one he knew wouldn’t please the HR rep. 

            Toby huffed a disbelieving breath.

            “Yeah, I’ll bet he did,” he muttered sarcastically.

            “Well,” Oscar knew what he was about to say would be insensitive, but Toby’s attitude was being to wear on him. “What’s your excuse for not giving them the paperwork to disclose their relationship to corporate? You’ve had at least two months since you outted them to do it.”

            With that, Oscar turned and walked back through the annex to his desk, left Toby sitting in stunned silence.

           

*                       *                       *

            A week later, after Jim’s failed attempt at simplifying Birthday Month, Oscar found Toby reading the paper in the break room.  Oscar had tried to avoid Toby since their last conversation, but Oscar knew he’d given Toby a bit of a shock by implying he knew why Jim and Pam hadn’t been able to register with corporate yet. Toby looked up from reading and smiled sadly at Oscar as he sat down at the table.

            “Hey, Oscar. What a day, huh?” he mused.

            “Yeah,” Oscar agreed. “Poor Jim. I know he meant well, he just underestimated how much people in this office count on Michael’s insane birthday parties to break the boredom.”

            “Yeah, well” Toby hedged. “Who’d have thought there was a managerial duty that Michael Scott could do better than Jim Halpert, huh?”

            Oscar grimaced, Toby needed to watch the bitterness in his tone when talking about Jim.

            “To Jim’s credit, he hadn’t started working here when Michael tried the whole combined party thing.” Oscar paused, then conceded. “We probably should have told him about it, but he was just so proud of himself for coming up with an idea he thought would help us all.”

            “Yeah, well at least you’ll still get a party,” Toby bemoaned and his eyes dropped back to his newspaper, scanning the page to detract from his disappointment at not being included in yet another office party.

            Oscar was about to comment when Toby gasp in surprise and muttered a soft “I don’t believe it”.

            “What is it?” He asked and Toby pushed the paper across the table, his finger pointing to what had caught his attention.

            At first he couldn’t understand why Toby would be so stunned by an article about allegations of steroid us by the Phillies major players, but then he caught sight of the by line.

There in clean precise type-print was the name: Jim Halpert. Oscar smiled to himself.

            “Oh, cool, he got something published” he enthused. At Toby’s confused look, he explained. “Jim’s been taking night classes in journalism and sports writing since the whole incident in Utica happened. He goes to the community collage with Pam while she’s at her art classes. He mentioned that one of his professors was the local sports editor and had showed an interest in getting him to write a few things for the paper.  Pam’s going to flip when she sees this.”

            “He’s been taking classes since Michael and Dwight drug him to Utica?” Toby asked confused.

            Oscar nodded. “Yeah he said that he and Pam had a long talk about his goals and what he wants out of life and that she encouraged him to try something else.  So, he’s been taking classes two nights a week.  Keeps him fairly busy, for what he’s said.”

            By the wrinkling of Toby’s forehead, it was clear that he was realizing why Jim had thought that Angela’s Ashes had been about actual ashes.

            On his way out the door that night, Oscar stopped by Jim’s desk to congratulate him on his article.  Jim flushed and smiled nervously.

            “Thanks man,” he rasped. “And thanks for helping me move things around so I can still do that…other thing.”

            Oscar smiled knowingly as Pam came up behind Jim and slid a piece of paper in front of him.

            “Hey,” she said, the excitement evident in her voice. “Look at what Toby just gave us.”

            Oscar glanced down to read the document heading.

           Voluntary Disclosure of Relationship Form

Chapter End Notes:
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BaraJam is the author of 8 other stories.
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