She looked up from her beer on the table in front of her when he walked through the door of the dimly lit bar and smiled as she waved him over.

            “Hey you,” she greeted enthusiastically. “So I feel that you owe me at least 2 alcoholic beverages for not warning me that the stories of Michael Scott are totally understated.”

            Karen smiled and rested her chin on her hand, learning flirtatiously closer to Jim as he sat down across from her. He smiled slightly as he draped his coat on the bench next to him.

“If I had told you the truth, would you have believed me?” He gave a little laugh, but to Karen it seemed as though something was slightly off about him right then, his cheerful mood a little forced.  In all honesty, he’d been acting oddly for him all day.  He’d hung back from the other Stamford people during Michael’s “meeting”; he’d kept their interactions to a minimum during the day; and when she had causally rubbed his back on the way back into the building from the parking lot, he’d tensed slightly and moved away from her touch. Initially she had written it off as having to do with being back at the insane asylum that seemed to be operating at the Scranton branch.  But, now seeing him in a different setting, she noticed tenseness in his posture and weariness in his eyes when there should have been relaxation and humor. 

Karen thought back over the day, wondering what could have been the cause. He hadn’t seemed overly surprised or shocked by Michael’s actions that day, so it couldn’t have been that. And, it couldn’t be that he was stressed over his duties as the Assistant Regional Manager since there hadn’t been much work done by anyone that day.  She’d seen him come in with Martin, laughing and joking around. Then the receptionist, Pam, had rushed up to him to give him a big bear hug.  They’d seemed to be on friendly terms, but didn’t talk for long before Michael had interrupted about some asinine thing or another.  She had seen them talking again briefly in the break room, but then she’d been distracted by Dwight asking her when her “cycle was scheduled to start” for “safety purposes.

It hit her that after he’d spoke to Pam the second time, Jim’s mood had taken a nose dive.  She couldn’t understand why.

“So,” she decided to ease into figuring out how to get him out of his funk. “Out of everyone, I think that Pam is the only sane person in that office.”

That got his attention. He sat a little straighter and his eyes widened.

“Yeah,” he replied, relaxing a bit and motioning to the waitress to bring him a beer as well. “Pam is…awesome.” He’d recovered quickly, but not before Karen had noticed the flash of something intense sweep across his face.

Part of being a good sales person is intuitively recognizing when something is going wrong for the customer.  Karen was a good sales person, and right now she knew that his edginess had something to do with Pam.  Suddenly, the idea of exploring what she’d thought to be a mutual attraction between them seemed like it might not be as good of an idea as she’d originally hoped. The waitress brought Jim his beer, and Karen used the interruption to gather her thoughts about how to broach the subject of his relationship with Pam.  She had a feeling this date wasn’t going to end with the two of them establishing themselves as a couple like she’d assumed.   When the waitress walked away, she took a deep breath and asked the question she knew he wouldn’t be able to deny.

“So, what did she do to break your heart?”

Having been in mid sip, Jim choked on his beer, his face flushed and eyes watery as he coughed into his fist.  He clearly hadn’t been expecting her to ask that.

“What?” He croaked when he could breath again.

Karen shook her head.

“Come on, Jim. I’m not blind,” she scolded. “I saw how excited the two of you were to see each other, but then you’ve been moody ever since.” 

Karen looked him straight in his eyes and was slightly taken aback by his expression.  Panicked didn’t quiet fit the mixture of fear, sadness and anxiety that floated across his face before he lowered his eyes to the beer in his large hands.  Even in the low light, Karen could see they were shaking a little.

“It doesn’t matter,” he mumbled.

Karen slumped back into her seat. Yeah, just what she’d expected.  Jim Halpert might be single, but he was definitely, completely unavailable.

“So, what happened?” She asked again.

He shook his head, as if to imply it hadn’t been that big of a deal, his body language alone enough to clue her into the fact he was about to lie his ass off.

“I told her how I felt, and she didn’t feel the same way. So, that was it. I moved on.”

It might not have been a total lie, but Karen was smart enough to know it was a gross understatement. She was angry for a few moments at how he’d lead her on, letting her think he was actually interested in her when in reality she was just a rebound for him.  But, then she noticed the way his lips were pursed together and the nervous way his fingers moved over the glass in his hands as the water came into his eyes again. It occurred to her that he probably didn’t see this thing between them as something he wanted to do, but something he thought he had to do to be happy.

And Karen could see it now, Jim Halpert wasn’t happy, at all. She doubted very much she’d ever really known what kind of person he actually was before he’d come to Stamford.  She suspected the flashes of his mischievous humor she’d seen were nothing in comparison to how he’d been before.  She felt sorry for him, sad that he’d been hurt so deeply. But still, she wasn’t going to let herself be his defense against getting his heart ripped out again. It was early enough that she could bow out gracefully with her dignity intact, without hating him.

“You know,” she began. “You’re a great guy, Jim.” 

He looked up at her and she could tell he understood what she was telling him. This wasn’t going any further, they’d be friends, but anything more than that was not a good idea for either of them. His lips twitch in an understanding smirk.

“Not really,” he said warmly. “Otherwise I would have warned you to sit down wind of Dwight.  The days when he fertilizes his beet fields before work are…aromatically appalling”

Karen laughed, glad she was able to do so. He really was a good guy.

“Good to know, Halpert,” she paused, debating on whether she should mention the sneaking suspicions she’d had since she’d seen Pam’s face when she’d hugged him hello.  In the end she’d decided to go for broke. “And, you know, maybe in the time you’ve been away some things have changed.”

He stopped laughing, confusion and wariness registering in his expression.

‘It’s just that, from what I saw today, I think you might not have to move on as much as you think.”

He swallowed hard and shook his head.  It was a long moment before he took a deep breath to respond,

“When I told her that I l…how I felt,” his voice broke and Karen wondered if he’d talked about this with anyone before now. “She was engaged. Had been engaged for three years to this dumb ass who works in the warehouse that never really appreciated her.  The guy even told me one time that he was glad I was friends with her, so he wouldn’t have to talk to her when they git home form work.”

Karen’s face must have reflected her shock at that little bit of news, because he sheepishly dipped his head and looked away from her as he continued to explain.

“Anyway, she said she was still marrying him and I transferred.  When she broke up with the guy, she didn’t try to get a hold of me or anything, so I doubt she did it because of anything I’d said,” he turned his eyes back to her. “I talked to her in the parking lot tonight and told her I was kinda seeing you and she didn’t act like it was a big deal so..” he trailed off helplessly.

Karen didn’t quite know what to say to that, she didn’t know Pam well enough to say one thing or the other about what her feelings for Jim might be. But one thing she knew for sure.

“Yeah, well, I’d try act like it wasn’t a big deal too if a guy who’d told me he loved me when I was engaged to someone else came to be later and told me he had a girlfriend.”

Jim’s eyebrows quirked. Yes, she thought, I picked up on the fact that you’d told her you had more than a crush on her, Halpert.

She was satisfied enough to see that she’d actually got him to think about that possibility.  She wasn’t going to actively play matchmaker for the guy she’d been casually dating and the girl who broke his heart, but she could at least rest easy knowing she’d been mature enough to give him a push.   Later that night, when she was curled up in her motel room, she started thinking about where she’d want to go, should a better job come along.  Maybe she could eventually get something at corporate, she had always liked New York.  And, there had been rumors that the Regional Manager at the Utica branch was planning on retiring this year.  It might be nice to run her own branch.