She looks around again at the few people still here. Her feet are tired of standing for so long and she's wishing she had picked the other dress she looked at during her shopping trip last week. This one is getting itchy.

"Hey," he says, announcing himself.

Her eyes widen in surprise at the sound of his voice and she turns around to greet him.

"Jim! Hey! I, I didn't know you were coming."

"Uh, yeah. Well, I saw your flyer, so... Just thought I'd come check it out."

She nods. "Right. Yeah."

"This your stuff?"

"Uh huh." She winces, already anticipating his negative reaction. He's always been so supportive of her art, but this is the first time she's really shown him more than simple sketches on napkins.

"It's nice. D'ya mind if I...?"

"Yeah, definitely. Look around. That's cool. That's... great."

He stays for the last thirty minutes of the show. She loses track of him once or twice as he wanders around looking at everything. She can't believe he's here. And without Karen. It feels like something she should ask him about if only they were really friends like they've always pretended to be. She can almost see an alternate version of herself nonchalantly asking him how things are going with his girlfriend. Maybe he'd elaborate a little bit on the rough patch they're going through. And then she, in turn, would dish about Roy and how he doesn't seem to get that she's changed since they were engaged. But it's such a stupid fantasy after all that's happened between her and Jim. They were never really friends like that. They pretended to be, but neither of them were ever that good at pretending.

She smiles without meaning to when he walks back to her.

"Thanks again for coming," she says.

"You're welcome. Hey do you need help with this stuff?"

"Oh. Uh, no, that's okay. I'm sure you've gotta get going."

"Oh, right, yeah." His face falls and she feels like an idiot for pushing him away after he actually bothered to come.

"Hey, Jim?"

"Yeah?"

"Um, do you want to maybe go get something to eat? I'm kind of starving." She's actually amazed when the words come out of her mouth. Perhaps she's changed more than even she knew.

"Oh. Um, yeah. Actually that sounds good." They both smile cautiously and it feels like a beginning.

***

The silences are more awkward than ever, possibly because there are more of them than there ever were before. He thinks maybe he shouldn't have said yes when she invited him to eat with her. And then he thinks really what he shouldn't have done was go to her art show in the first place.

But a second later she looks up from her burger and milkshake and just smiles at him like "Isn't it funny that this is how things are now?" It's kind of a half embarrassed, half apologetic smile.

At least they're trying, he thinks. It might be a small step, but it's still a step.

They finish eating and part ways in the parking lot outside the fast food restaurant. She waves once as she's driving past him. He doesn't tell Karen about any of it the next day. But he wonders later if she told Roy.

***

A few weeks later he texts her to see if she wants to meet him for lunch on Sunday. Karen's out of town for the weekend and he remembers overhearing something on Friday about Roy planning a thing with Kenny for Sunday afternoon. It feels a little bit wrong, but not wrong enough to keep him from doing it. Still, he's startled when his phone vibrates with a new message.

lunch sounds great :) where do you want to go?

***

It's funny how good they are at pretending not to notice that something is happening. It's been six weeks since her art show and in that time they've gone out almost once a week. But it doesn't even occur to her until the sixth week that what they're doing is almost like cheating on Karen and Roy.

That night they meet up at a bookstore. She told Roy she was going to the mall to look for shoes. She doesn't know what he told Karen.

Together she and Jim peruse the travel section. They talk about all the places they want to go. This is always how it is now. They talk about anything as long as it isn't important.

***

He leans down to grab a book about India from the bottom shelf and in the process of standing up again he comes a little too close to the scent of her hair.

"Pam?"

"Yeah?"

"What are we doing?" He's almost whispering, but they're standing close enough that he knows she can hear him clearly.

"What?"

"This. I mean... everything. What is this?"

Her eyes get wide and he thinks he's completely blown it.

"I, I don't know what you mean," she says.

He takes a deep breath.

"I don't even know what I'm doing here, you know? This is just so... familiar. I can't do it again."

"Jim, what are you talking about?"

He's frustrated now. He's certain she knows exactly what he's talking about, but getting her to admit it seems less likely than getting the sun to stop in the middle of the sky. Besides, she's got that scared look on her face again. It's all so just exactly the same as it always, always has been. And he vowed that he'd never put himself in this place again.

"Nothing. Sorry. Never mind."

"Okay." She sighs with what sounds like relief, but he can't help but notice that there's something in her expression that looks almost like... disappointment.

"Actually, I have to go," he says.

"Oh. Um, okay. Well, I'll see you at work then?"

"Yeah. See you at work."