“Dwight Schrutte!” Dwight said loudly, leaning towards his monitor.
Pam broke down and escaped into the break room, giggling. Jim looked up from where he was idly sipping a pop.
“He’s still doing it.” She explained, jerking her thumb over her shoulder.
“I know,” he smiled. “I can hear him from here.”
During lunch, when most of the staff had left the building, Jim had gotten onto Dwight’s computer and made it so that a pop-up message appeared whenever he had to type in a password. The message said, “Security Notice: voice recognition software has been installed on your passworded files. Please say your name directly into the monitor to access”. He had happily complied, reveling in the fact that no one else’s files were important enough for the added security.
She went over to the pop machine. “Are you okay?” She asked again in a low tone, referring to that morning. This was the first she’d gotten to speak to him. The office had been in an uproar since Michael had staggered out of his office with the news that Ryan had gotten the job in New York. That explained Kelley’s absence, Pam had thought.
“Yeah,” he looked at her and gave a wan grin. “I guess I had it coming.”
Pam glanced around to see Karen staring at them. Their eyes met but Karen looked away quickly and, grabbing her cell phone, left the office. Pam’s head turned back to Jim. He’d missed the little exchange.
She went over to sit across from him. “Can I ask you something?” she asked hesitantly.
“What?” He asked, eyeing her warily. He’d gotten wary of women and their softly voiced questions.
She linked fingers in front of her as she leaned forward and whispered, “What happened yesterday with Karen?”
He leaned back and looked at her in exasperation. “Are you kidding me?” At her raised eyebrows he just shook his head, “I’m not getting into that with you,” he said firmly.
She just leaned over and started poking his arm, looking at him with what his mother had always called ‘Bambi-eyes’. “Pleeeeeease,” she whispered.
“Why do you want to know?” he whispered back.
“Because I’m a girl,” she said simply with a shrug of her shoulder, as though that explained everything. “And you’re a boy,” she ignored his ‘thanks for noticing’ and continued, “…which means you must have done something.”
“Gee, you mean besides break-up with her,” he said sarcastically. At her knowing nod, he relented. “Okay, fine. After I got out of the meeting with David I asked her to meet me by this fountain.” He looked at her with twin parts guilt and humor. “I guess I let her down pretty fast, but I had things to do.” He smiled at her slowly, his eyes ranging over her face.
She tried to ignore what the smile was doing to her insides. “You drove over together, didn’t you?”
He got the silent question. “I ordered a rental car for her before I left,” he said in his defense.
“Poor, Karen.” Pam said sympathetically, shaking her head at him in amazement.
He looked at her in disbelief. Women were incredible. “I’m sorry, Pam” he raised a finger for clarification, “but …what? You’re upset that I broke up with her? ”
She rolled her eyes at him, shaking her head. “No, you moron,” she belied the insult by grinning at him. “But, once again, I’m a girl. We’re capable of feeling more that one thing at a time,” she explained in superior tones. “I can feel bad that Karen’s jerk of a boyfriend dropped her and left her stranded…,” she raised her hand to ward off his protest, “You know what I mean…hundreds of miles from home.” She then smiled slowly, warmly, as she leaned forward to lay her hand over his. “And I can feel humbled, glad, and amazed that you’d do that to get back here so quickly.”
He’d turned his hand over to link fingers with hers. “Jerk, huh?” He murmured then laughed at her easy ‘well, you’re a boy’.
Pam pulled their hands apart as Karen came back inside and headed straight for Michael’s office. Jim had seen her too, she noted as they looked at each other solemnly.
Well,” Jim began, standing up, “if I’m going to redeem myself from ‘jerk’ status, I’ve got to pull out the big guns tonight.” She looked at him enquiringly. “Disney,” he said in definite tones, nodding his head. He moved towards the door.
“Wait, what!” she asked incredulously. She couldn’t have heard him right.
“Disney,” He said again, stopping at the door. “You have a DVD player?” She nodded. “Is it okay if I bring pizza over?” She nodded again, slowly, as though still trying to translate what he’d said. “Alright, then,” he grinned at her. “I’ll see you at seven.”
He walked back to his desk just as Dwight tried to access another file.
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Author's Chapter Notes:
Pam gets to talk to Jim in the break room.
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Chapter End Notes:
Next: Disney as you've never known it.
Please review as they make me grin like a moron.
Please review as they make me grin like a moron.
