Her mom wanted to meet him? Jim looked up from his interrupted conversation with Larissa to stare at Pam. He realized that in a sense his surprise was completely unreasonable. After all, if Pam loved him—was willing to consider him her boyfriend—was making jokes about him becoming her fiancé—of course she’d have told her mom. And what mother wouldn’t want to meet her daughter’s boyfriend?

His mind flashed back to what seemed like an eternity ago but really wasn’t that long: her mother peering out of the receptionist’s spot and whispering with Pam “which one is Jim?” while Pam giggled and shushed her. Her mother had wanted to meet him for a lot longer than he’d been her boyfriend. But of course, he also remembered what happened next: boorish Roy bounding up the steps ready for their dinner date, insisting on escorting Mrs. Beesly out while Pam finished up her last bits of work. He couldn’t actually put his finger on what exactly Roy had done wrong: he too would have been excited to see Mrs. Beesly (hell, he had been, and he hadn’t had a ten-year history with her) and he too would have thought it was a good opportunity to get a few minutes one-on-one with her while Pam finished up. Maybe that was it, though—Roy had that ten-year history, so he shouldn’t have needed to grab a few minutes with Mrs. Beesly the way that Jim would. He should have been confident enough in his relationship with his prospective wife and mother-in-law to just meet them at the restaurant. But, of course, Jim realized, he would have blamed Roy for disinterest if he’d done that. So it wasn’t who Roy actually was, or what he did—just that he got the chance to do it with Pam and her mother and not Jim.

Only now it seemed like it would be him. If he could close his mouth and make some sort of coherent words come out instead of gawping at Pam like an imbecile.

Fortunately, he too had family, and Larissa stepped cleanly into the breach. “Do I get to meet her too, Pam?” She batted her eyelashes at Pam. “After all, I told you we’re family, I think that means I get to claim your mother as family too.”

My sister considers Pam family? When did that happen? This was definitely not helping Jim pick his jaw up from the floor.

“I don’t know, Larissa, I think we’re going to go to Friendly’s, where they give you those little crayons to draw on the table, and I don’t think there’s space for your architectural drawings next to my masterpieces.” Pam grinned at Larissa, while her eyes clearly asked Jim to just talk already. He realized this was his moment, the time he’d been hoping for, been aching for, when all he had to do was say something and Pam would fall into his lap. Heck, she had already fallen into his lap—all he had to do was not drop her. That second realization helped him find his voice.

“Yeah, L, I think I get first dibs on Mrs. Beesly. Don’t worry, though—I’m sure there will be more opportunities in the future.” Oh god, what if that was too much to assume? A glance at smiling Pam was not quite enough to reassure him. “Or at least there will be if I don’t screw this up.”

“I don’t know, Pam, should we trust him not to screw it up?”

“Oh, I think we can do that. He hasn’t screwed anything up yet.”

“Except, I don’t know, his arm, his ribs, his head…”

“Hey! I didn’t screw any of those things up.”

“Then why are you here, hmm?”

“I think you will find,” Jim said with the greatest dignity he could muster while trying not to laugh because it would hurt his ribs “that the cab driver screwed that up when he hit the other car.”

“Oh, Larissa, he has you there.”

“Hm…but he was working under your orders. Doesn’t that make it a work-for-hire, or at least here a screwing-up-for-hire? I think Jim still has to take the blame.”

“I’m not trying to copyright my injuries, L. Work-for-hire has nothing to do with it.”

“But they’re such lovely injuries! Look, they already got you Pam back. Don’t you want to take responsibility for them?”

“Hey now, the injuries didn’t get me back! They just…gave us an opportunity to realize what needed to happen. It’s not like I only love Jim because of his broken limbs. That’d be kind of sick.”

“I didn’t say you did! But it’s not like any of us would be here if it weren’t for Jim’s injuries.”

“I certainly wouldn’t be here listening to you impugn my ability to not screw things up.”

“Impugn! Pam, look at my brother here, finally using those English credits.”

“I think that’s a five-dollar word, Halpert. You’re going to have to fork over the dough if you want to keep upping that vocabulary.”

“I think you misunderstand the concept, Beesly. A five-dollar word doesn’t mean that I owe you five dollars to use it, it means that you owe me five dollars for the privilege of hearing it. And they were journalism credits and you know it, L.”

“Like your journalism major didn’t require any English credits. And god knows if I had to pay to talk to you Thanksgiving would be a very quiet weekend.”

Jim finally couldn’t hold it in and laughed—and immediately felt a stab of pain in his ribs. His involuntary inhalation of breath caught both Pam’s and Larissa’s attention, and they were instantly solicitous.

“Hey, Halpert. I’d pay to hear you talk anytime. Though I do think that would make you a bad boyfriend if you held me to it. Right now, Larissa and I will get you a nurse to deal with that pain, and then we’ll be back after you’ve rested a little, OK? And think about whether you want my mom and dad to come by—they really would love to meet you.”

“Yeah, Jim, think about it. And if you think no, think again, because I told this one she’s family and I won’t have you proving me wrong, OK? So do me a solid and decide to meet the parents—and also heal, k? Because I don’t like seeing my big brother in pain I didn’t cause.”

Jim didn’t want them to leave, but he definitely wanted something for the pain roaring in his side and he figured if Pam’s family was going to come by he needed to be at his best for that particular moment. So he just accepted his fate and smiled through the pain at them both as they slipped out of the room.