************************************
Pam woke up early the next morning. It was Thursday…their first day to shadow the art directors at The Met. She quickly showered and dressed. She had made a resolve to go shopping this weekend for something other than plain skirts and cardigans. For the first time in a long time she had actually felt pretty when she had gone out to dinner with Natalee and her friends. She had had a great time. Natalee’s friends were great. They had immediately welcomed Pam. Pam never had that many girlfriends, so it felt nice to be a part of a group and for once she wasn't expected to replenish beer and nachos for Roy and his friends
She went into the bathroom to do her hair. As she stared at herself in the mirror she remembered the confidence she had felt the night before. She opened the medicine cabinet and found the mousse that Natalee had used in her hair the night before. She was fairly certain that Natalee wouldn’t mind her borrowing some, besides she could always buy her more. She worked the foam into her curls and then smiled at the finished product. She looked so different without it pulled back. Mature and self-assured.
Going back into the kitchen she decided that she wanted some tea. She opened all the cabinets to see if there was a teapot. She had one of course…packed carefully in a box under her bed. Not finding one in the kitchen she walked into the bedroom and pulled the box out. She gingerly opened the box and pulled out the teapot. She softly traced her finger over the shiny green lid…remembering. “No!” Pam thought forcefully. “I just want some tea!” She took the pot into the kitchen and filled it with water. She made herself a cup of tea and walked out onto the balcony. The view of the city from this high up was amazing. The Hudson River gleamed brightly in the sun and everything looked so peaceful. She was so immersed in the view that she didn’t hear Natalee come outside.
“Hey!” she said. “Nice view huh?”
“Yeah it is. I love it!”
“Your hair looks great!” Natalee said.
“Oh thanks. I hope you don’t mind, but I borrowed some more of your mousse. I‘ll get you some more.”
“Oh don‘t worry about it.” Natalee leaned her elbows up on the railing of the balcony. “Did you have fun last night?”
“Yeah…I really did. Your friends are great!”
“I’m glad you had a good time! Maybe we can all go out again this weekend!”
“That’d be great.” Pam took another sip of tea.
“Oh crap…” Natalee said looking at her watch. “I better get ready! We have to leave in like 20 minutes!”
After a few minutes Pam walked back inside and washed out her teacup. Then she carefully rinsed out the teapot and set it back on the stove.
“Ready?” Natalee asked hurrying back into the living room. They took the elevator downstairs, waved to Frank and went outside to hail a cab.
Pam’s breath caught in her throat as they pulled up in front of The Met. It was beautiful. If this was the outside she couldn’t even imagine what she going to get to see inside.
****************************************
Jim walked into the office shortly before 9. He had ended up not calling Karen the night before. Instead he had gone home and fallen asleep in front of the TV. He didn’t even know what he had watched. His mind was a thousand miles away…actually 123 miles to be exact. The distance from Scranton to New York City. He’d sadly map quested it after his fourth beer in hopes of feeling closer to Pam.
He set his bag down on his desk and walked into the kitchen to put his lunch into the fridge. Last night as he was laying on the couch he had made a decision that he was going to put Pam out of his mind. She was living her life and he needed to live his. He left his house feeling semi-optimistic about the day ahead of him. He was going to try to make things right with Karen. He wasn’t going to let Ryan catch him as he stared vacantly at the reception area. He had been doing really well. Hadn’t thought about her for a good hour, up until he opened the fridge in the kitchen. He had gone in to put his lunch in the fridge and as he leaned over to put his bag on the shelf, there it was. A mixed berry yogurt. “Here we go again…” he thought sarcastically. He slammed the fridge shut and sulked back to his desk. Things went smoothly after that….for the most part. Karen came in and refused to make eye contact. He thought about sending her an e-mail, but decided against it. He actually found himself being productive when Michael walked out of his office and asked for everyone’s attention.
“Ok everyone! Due to the unfortunate “abandonment” problem that we have recently found ourselves in the middle I wanted to let you all know that I have asked a communication expert to come in and speak to us about good office communication skills.”
“What abandonment problem Michael?” Stanley asked.
“What abandonme…are you SERIOUS Stanley? Has everyone forgotten that not more than two days ago we had a certain receptionist up and leave us. I thought that we meant more to her. We were her family and obviously she has forgotten all about us and…”
“Actually Michael…” Phyllis interrupted. “Pam emailed me this morning to tell me about her internship and she told me to tell everyone hello.”
“Well fine…” Michael said storming back into his office. “I guess some people were just more important to her.”
Jim couldn’t help but stare at Phyllis. She had heard from Pam? Without even thinking he quickly opened up an IM to Phyllis and typed:
You heard from Pam? How is she?
A couple seconds later a box popped up signaling that he had a new e-mail. He quickly opened his inbox to find an e-mail from Phyllis with the subject line reading: Fwd. From Pam. He turned to look at Phyllis and saw that she was smiling at him. “Thanks” he mouthed before turning back to his computer and opening the e-mail.
Phyllis,
Hi! How are you doing? I bet you all are wondering why I just up and left without any warning. I can’t really explain it. I just had to…do something else. I hope things are going well. I am really enjoying my internship so far. I get to work directly under the art directors at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I live with another girl in this great apartment and things are going really well. I do miss certain things about Scranton though. Surprising I know! Well, tell everyone I said hello. Hope to hear from you soon.
Pam
P.S. Dunder Mifflin's website will have my picture on the graphic arts page! I'm so excited!
Jim read the e-mail over and over again. Even though the e-mail wasn’t addressed to him it was almost like…for a moment…they were connected. He finally closed the e-mail and opened his browser to the Dunder Mifflin corporate website. After searching for a couple of minutes he found the link that read Graphic Arts. Down towards the bottom of the page there was another link that read Internships. Looking around to make sure that no one, i.e.: Karen, was looking his direction he clicked on the link. There was a brief explanation of the internship and a list of the different companies that were sponsoring the interns. He scrolled down farther and there she was…Pam Beesly, her name in bold, black letters under the picture. His breath caught in his chest. It had only been a week since he’d seen her, it felt like he hadn’t seen in her years. She looked beautiful. Her hair was down and her smile was bright…and she looked happy. Underneath her name it read ‘click here to learn more’. He quickly clicked on the link to find a short questionnaire.
What do you hope to accomplish by the end of this internship?:
Getting the chance to learn more about art has always been a dream of mine. A dream that I didn’t think would come true for a long time. I just want to be able to increase my knowledge and appreciation of art. Then I want to take those skills and make something that means something to someone.
Where do you see yourself in 10 years?:
I guess the most that I can hope for is that I will be happy. Whether that means marriage and a family or a great career…or both. I just hope to be happy.
Who inspires you?:
I've been really lucky to have a great family and friends who have inspired me to take a chance on something.
Jim felt a lump form in his throat when he read the last question. Maybe she really did miss him…or at least their friendship had meant something. He looked back up at her picture and a tear formed in his eyes. He quickly blinked it away and closed the page.
He sat staring blankly at the computer screen until Dwight’s voice broke through the silence.
“Jim, why are you not selling paper? Do you want Dunder Mifflin to shut down?”
Jim turned in his chair to look at Dwight who was glaring at him sternly. “Yes Dwight. That has been my plan all along.”
“Well, you are picking a terrible time to succeed at something, Jim. I will report your malfeasance to Michael."
Jim was not in the mood for Dwight‘s ranting. “Dwight...for once...can you please just…”
“You are such a girl. Are you PMSing?”
“As a matter of fact…” Jim began.
“Uh, Jim, that was a rhetorical question and therefore inappropriate to answer. Thank You.” Dwight said turning back to his computer.
“Hey Dwight…have you used your calculator lately?” Jim asked suddenly feeling that a good prank on Dwight would help his day.
"You cannot fool me again Jim. We Schrutes can use our brains to do complex math problems and we do not need calculators. If you put my calculator in gelatin, then you are wasting your time..…” Dwight stopped. “Where did you put it?”
“Maybe I moved it...or maybe I didn’t.”
“Damn it, Jim!” Dwight yelled slamming his palms on his desk.
“Actually…you know what? I think I saw Andy near your desk earlier.” Jim said in a whisper.
“Andy!!” Dwight screamed as he ran off towards Andy’s desk. Jim smiled and turned back to his computer.
The rest of the day passed by as normal. He ate his sandwich at his desk while he closed two sales. He organized his desk drawers and filed some papers. He was trying everything he could think of to keep himself busy so that he wouldn’t open a certain website again. Around 4:30 he ran out of things to do and before he knew it he was once again looking at the picture of Pam. He needed to talk to her. He needed to have some sort of communication with her. This couldn’t be it. Four years of talking and laughter and friendship could not be thrown away just like that. He quickly opened a new e-mail and typed Pam’s address into the top, but then he stopped. He didn’t even know what he’d say. There was so much that he wanted to tell her. So much he wanted to ask, but he knew he couldn’t do it in an e-mail. He cleared his throat and began to type.
Pam,
Hey. I heard about your internship and I wanted to say congratulations. I am so proud of you for doing this and accomplishing something with your art.
Jim stopped. He couldn’t just leave it like that. Before he knew what he was doing he was typing again. Writing not what was in his head, but his heart.
I know this probably isn’t the best way to do this…but I just have to say it. I know things were weird since I came back to Scranton and I wish I could explain it to you in a way that would make sense. I just felt like I needed to start over, but I didn’t want that to mean that we couldn’t still be friends. I don’t know exactly what the reason was behind you leaving. I mean one day you’re here and then you’re gone. No goodbye…nothing. I wish I could understand it. I know that had to be something important to you for you to leave like that, but I mean you didn’t even say goodbye. I wish at least that would have been different. I hope that this is all that you wanted.
Jim
He didn’t even read it over. He didn’t want time to dwell on it…to hesitate in sending it. He just clicked the send button and immediately got up to go get a soda so that he wouldn’t sit at his desk and rethink his actions. He sat in the break room reading the paper until just after 5:00. He waited until he saw Karen pick up her purse and walk out before he made his way back into the office. He sat down in his chair and with shaking hands moved the mouse to click on his e-mail. He was almost positive that he had stopped breathing while he waited for the page to load. It seemed like hours instead of seconds when his inbox finally opened to reveal…nothing. He wasn’t sure what he had been expecting, but the realization that she hadn’t e-mailed him back came as a harder blow than he thought it would have. He slumped in his chair trying to convince himself that it had only been a little under an hour since he had sent it to her. She probably didn’t have access to a computer 24/7, but still he had hoped….wished that there would have been something from her. He sighed as he shut down his computer and walked out of the office.
*****************************************
Pam collapsed on the couch as soon as she walked into the apartment. She couldn’t remember the last time she had been this tired. She had been on her feet for nearly 8 hours straight. She had no idea how much was involved in the art directors job. She kicked off her shoes and stretched her legs out in front of her.
“Is it just me or was that exhausting.” Natalee said slumping onto the couch next to Pam.
“No kidding. I had no idea it would be like that.”
“I don’t think we stayed in one place for more than 5 seconds!” Natalee said with a laugh. “I think I’m going to go take a bath. Then maybe we can figure out something for dinner.”
“Ok!” Pam said. She groaned as she pulled herself off the couch. She picked up her shoes and headed into her room. After throwing her shoes into the closet she sank into her desk chair and turned on her computer.
Time seemed to come to a screeching halt when Pam saw the e-mail. Her hand froze over the mouse. The from address seemed to glow brightly ‘Jim. on the screen.
She tentatively clicked on the e-mail. Her heart was pounding as she read the words. She sat numbly in the chair, her heart aching and mind racing. This was not what she had expected.
*****************************
Author's Chapter Notes:
Still don't own them. Can't afford them either.....
Chapter End Notes:
Please Review! We need to know if this is decent or not!
A little visual for the road:
http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg148/jinxcoke/FNB1.jpg
A little visual for the road:
http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg148/jinxcoke/FNB1.jpg
