The dishes could have waited. Nearly everyone who walked into the breakroom had told her that. It’s Friday evening Pam, go home. The dishes will still be here Monday. Don’t you want to get home before the storm hits?

Well, the storm had already hit and sure, the dishes would still have been there on Monday but the last thing Pam wanted to do at nine am Monday morning was try to scrub margarita residue off of the break room tables.

It didn’t go unnoticed either, as Pam plunged her hands back into the tepid water and glanced over her shoulder at her coworkers slipping out the door one by one, that no one had offered to stay and help; which would have gotten her out of there even faster.

Sure, some of them had reasons. Meredith could barely stand, so they’d gotten her into a taxi before the roads got any worse. Phyllis rode to work with Bob and had to leave when he did. Angela needed to get home to her cats.

Dwight was up on the roof waiting for a helicopter.

She bit the inside of her cheek, smiling as she remembered how for exactly eight minutes and thirteen seconds, the amount of time it took them to come up with a reason and the specifics of how to get Dwight up on the roof, it had seemed like old times between her and Jim.

Old times; it was such a stupid phrase. They were too young to have old times together, especially since they never should have stopped having any times in the first place. But that was her fault. Maybe if she hadn’t been such an idiot last spring, things wouldn’t be so fucked up now.

Pam sighed. This was why she tried not to drink vodka; it made her sad and whiny. She looked back into the bullpen to see if anyone else was still around, just in time to see Karen pulling Jim under the one doorway that still had mistletoe hanging from it.

She spun back around and stared at the wall. Well, that was new. She’d never seen the two of them kissing before. The way they normally acted in the office, it was easy to forget they were even dating, unless you were the kind of person who thought about the fact that they were dating for way more hours in a day than was considered healthy. And the more she thought about it now, the more Pam wondered if she’d ever seen Jim kiss anyone else like that in the entire time she’d known him. If this was what it was like for him every time he had seen her with Roy over the years, well, she felt like an even bigger asshole about the whole thing.

A quick glance behind her showed that they were still kissing and her embarrassment prickled into something that felt a lot like irritation. Why were they even still here anyways? Karen had made it pretty clear she’d been ready to leave the minute she’d seen Jim laughing over Pam’s shoulder as they’d texted Dwight about the top secret ice cream social.

Karen. Pam sighed and emptied the water out of the sink. She hadn’t woken up that morning determined to become friends with Karen but then Angela had acted like, well Angela and it wasn’t like Pam had much choice in the matter.

It hadn’t been the worst thing in the world, spending the day hanging out with the woman who was now dating the guy she probably maybe was in love with. And they’d worked really well together and everyone had had a great time at the party so in that aspect, it had been a good day. Things had only gone sour when she and Jim had been working out the finer details of Dwight’s CIA recruitment and Karen had stepped in, pulling Jim away with the claim that she needed his help getting some decorations down so that they could get on with their evening. The look she’d given Pam over her shoulder as they headed for the breakroom had been just cold enough that Pam had to wonder if she was wrong in assuming that Karen knew nothing about what had happened in May. If she didn’t know anything, she clearly suspected something.

“Hey.”

Pam jumped, almost dropping the stack of plates in her hands. Jim rushed forward to catch them and put them away in the open cabinet.

“Sorry about that.” He jerked his head toward the door. “So, are you about done here? We’re getting ready to leave, but I don’t want you to be stuck here alone.”

“Oh.” She shook her head. “I just have a few more things to do, but go ahead. I can lock up on my own. It’s no problem.”

“Yeah, see.” Jim ran his hand through his hair and looked behind him. Karen was far enough away that she couldn’t hear them. “The thing is, the weather is getting really bad out there and I’d like to at least make sure you get out of here okay.”

“That’s really not necessary. I’ve driven home in a snowstorm before, Jim. I’ll be okay.”

“Pam.” He sounded annoyed and she wondered what exactly he was annoyed with. “Would you just look outside? It’s time to go.”

Okay, so it had gotten a lot darker in the last twenty minutes and the snow was falling a lot harder than it had been. As much as she didn’t want to give Jim the satisfaction, she really didn’t want to get stuck in a snowbank either.

“Fine.” She wiped her hands on a dishtowel and turned the kitchen lights off before following Jim out to her desk. She was pulling her coat on, careful to avoid eye contact as Karen made a show of buttoning up Jim’s coat in what she probably thought was a great girlfriend move but reminded Pam more of a mom with a struggling toddler.

“Okay, everyone ready?” Jim asked, grabbing a box of Karen’s things off of the counter. He turned too quickly toward the door and one of the items slid off the top and fell to the floor.

Before she could think about it or stop herself, Pam took a step back, her left heel coming down hard on the slim plastic case with a satisfying crack, puncturing it before cracking the DVD in two.

“I’m so sorry,” she gasped, reaching down to grab the case. She turned it over in her hands. “I’m such a klutz.” She made a face at the cover; Hugh Grant’s face now had hole through it. “Karen, I’ll get you a new copy.”

Right, that’s why she didn’t drink vodka. It also made her mean.

“Don’t worry about it.” Karen’s voice was cool as she looked down at the DVD and then set it back in the box Jim still held. “It was just a silly little gift.” She tucked her hand through Jim’s arm and squeezed lightly. “We should get going. I’ve got big plans for us tonight.”

The elevator took forever to reach their floor, but as soon as they stepped inside, Pam wished she’d taken the stairs instead.

“Pam, do you have any plans for the weekend?” Karen’s voice was even louder in the steel prison they were trapped in.

Besides drinking wine and watching White Christmas six times in a row? Pam shook her head. “Not really, just going to hang around the house I think. Wait out the storm and all that. How about you guys?”

“You shouldn’t stay home all weekend,” Karen argued. “Hey you know what you should do? Call up that warehouse guy, see if you can get him to take you to dinner or something.”

Jim turned to face Pam completely. “Warehouse guy? What warehouse guy?”

“Oh.” Pam smiled thinly. “Karen saw Roy talking to me earlier and she thinks I should go out with him.” She had to turn away so she didn’t laugh at the look he was giving her.

“Right.” Jim coughed. “Now that sounds like a great time. Roy. You should do that.” He was trying hard not to laugh but failed miserably.

Karen looked between the two of them. “What? Am I missing something?”

Pam shook her head as the elevator doors finally opened. “It’s nothing, I didn’t say anything earlier because I didn’t want to get into it but Roy and I dated for like, ten years. We broke up over the summer.”

“They were engaged,” Jim corrected her. “What?” he asked as she reached out and punched his arm. “You were.”

“Thanks Jim.” She shrugged. “Yeah, it’s weird, sorry I didn’t say anything.” She stopped in front of her car. “Anyways, you guys have a great weekend. See you Monday.” Pam waved at the two of them and got into her car before any more could be said. She just wanted to go home.

She should have been more surprised when her car didn’t start. Each turn of the key resulted in nothing more than a clicking noise. Perfect. This was just great.

Jim tapped his knuckles on her window and she sighed, opening the door. “Everything okay?” he asked.

“It won’t start,” she said, turning the key to prove her point. Jim gestured for her to get out of the car and they exchanged spots. She rolled her eyes when he mimicked her actions, trying to start the car. “Oh, you turn the key,” she said sarcastically.” Is that what I was doing wrong?”

“I was just checking.” He tried it twice more but the car didn’t make a sound. “Your battery is dead. Stupid question but did you leave your lights on again this morning?”

“No.” Maybe. Even if she had, Pam wasn’t going to admit that to him. “Whatever, I’ll just call a cab. You guys go on.”

“No way, I’ll drive you home.” Both Pam and Karen protested at that.

“You don’t have to, I’ll be fine. I’ll wait inside and everything.”

“Jim, she said she’d be fine; come on, we still need to go to my hotel before going back to your place for the night.”

“It’s rush hour on a Friday night in the middle of a snowstorm. You won’t get a cab for at least an hour, if at all. I’m taking you home. Karen, your hotel is only a couple of blocks from here, why don’t you go get your things together while I drive Pam home. It’ll only take a couple of minutes and then I’ll swing by and pick you up.” Jim didn’t give either of them a chance to argue with him. He walked Karen back to her car and opened the door, waiting for her to get in. “Come on,” he said, and Pam could hear impatience creeping into his voice. She wondered if it was directed at Karen or if he was just cold, because she was absolutely freezing as they stood there in the parking lot. Karen got into the car but it was clear to anyone with eyes that she wasn’t happy about this turn of events.

She said something to Jim but Pam couldn’t hear what it was. She wrapped her scarf tighter around her neck and tried to block the wind from creeping down her collar.

“I’m not going to just leave her here.”

It was hard to pretend not to listen when other people were clearly talking about her but Pam did her best. She was beginning to think that maybe she should have left when everyone else had told her to. At least then, when her car hadn’t started, she could have gotten a ride with literally anyone else.

She snuck a peek at the other car just in time to see Jim bend down to kiss Karen before shutting her door and thumping the top of the car twice. He waited until she’d backed out of her parking spot before turning back toward Pam and his own car.

There was no misinterpreting the look Karen gave her as she drove past. Maybe vodka made Karen bitchy too.

“It’s freezing, let’s go.” Jim’s voice snapped her out of her thoughts and she realized he was standing next to her with the car door open, waiting for her to get inside. She just nodded; she was too tired and too ready to be home to argue with him. She watched as he scraped the ice from the windshield and cleared the snow from the hood of his car.

She didn’t realize until he was seated next to her that this was the first time the two of them had truly been alone together since that night back in May and while she knew it was too late to bolt out of the car and make a run for it, she still considered it.

She really wished she’d let those dishes wait until Monday.