It was a great party, Pam thought to herself as she threw the last trash bag into the dumpster. Or at least, it would have been a great party if Michael hadn’t thrown it all into the trash three seconds after it had started.

She kicked the dumpster and glared up at the windows to the conference room. She knew better than to care as much as she did; it wasn’t like she hadn’t seen everything that had gone wrong at every other work party. She wasn’t new to the way Michael Scott’s brain worked. She really should have known better.

She should have been grateful that no one had caught on fire.

But still. She had put a lot of thought and effort into making sure every single person in that office would have had a good time. And she’d driven to three different stores to get those damn cookies for Stanley.

Pam took a deep breath, wrapping her arms around herself as she stood in front of the building; not quite ready to go back inside. She wished she’d thought to grab her coat before making her escape. The light dusting of snow that had started earlier in the day had turned into about an inch of snow covering the asphalt and while she couldn’t say it was really coming down, she still felt the tickle of snowflakes on her cheeks as she stubbornly refused to even step back into the warmth of the lobby.

“There you are.” She startled when the front doors opened but turned to shake her head at her husband as he came toward her.

“I’m not going back in,” she warned, taking a step back from him. Jim raised his hands and she grudgingly accepted the coat he slipped around her shoulders. “Thanks.” She sighed as his lips met the top of her head. “Why am I so mad?” she asked.

“Because Michael’s an ass. You always forget that quicker than everyone else does, but it’s true. He is. And he’s a drama queen, and the minute something isn’t about him, he throws a tantrum. And today, he threw a huge tantrum.”

“I know.” She leaned into him. “I used to be better at handling his tantrums.”

“Yeah, but now you have a kid,” Jim pointed out. “And I don’t know if you’ve noticed but our kid loves to throw a tantrum and maybe you’ve just used up all of your patience with her.”

Pam laughed. It was just that morning that their darling Ceceila had not only shrieked through her entire breakfast, but smashed two of the snowmen in Pam’s extensive collection. Pam realized she’d been exhausted before she’d even gotten to work.

“You’re right,” she said finally. “I still don’t want to go up there.”

“You don’t have to,” Jim reassured her. “But, I think you’d be surprised if you did.”

“Why? Did Michael find the ice cream cake hidden in the freezer and throw that out too?”

“Well, I think I know where Cece learned to throw a tantrum from.” Jim chuckled and did his best to ignore the look she gave him. “No come on, let’s go. It’s freezing out here.”

“Fine.” She let him steer her back into the building and into the elevator. “I’m not throwing a tantrum,” she mumbled as the doors opened on the Dunder Mifflin floor.

“No.” Jim shook his head. “Of course not.” He opened the office door and motioned for her to go in first.

“Pam!” Oscar looked up from the makeshift bar he’d set up at the reception desk. “Here, you look like you could use this.” He handed her a plastic cup filled with clear liquid.

“What’s going on?” She looked around and saw that not only was Oscar mixing drinks, but the Christmas tree was back in its place and Ryan and Kevin were setting up the karaoke machine in the conference room.

“Oh, we took a vote,” Erin said as she and Phyllis came in from the kitchen, arms filled with snacks. “We’re still having a party today.” Her eyes darted to Michael’s office and even though the door was closed and the blinds were shut, she still lowered her voice to almost a whisper. “Michael can just deal with it.”

Pam turned back to Jim and raised an eyebrow at him. “And you couldn’t just tell me this because...”

“Because you were making it very clear you didn’t want to come up here and we both know how you can be when you think I’m trying to make you do something.”

“Mmhmm.” She raised the cup in her hands to her lips. She didn’t know what it was, but it tasted like a candy cane. She took a second drink and rounded the corner of her desk to open one of the drawers. Jim laughed as she brandished two trays of cookies that she’d hidden earlier in the day. Stanley grinned for the second time that day and raised his own glass in salute to her.

“Now it’s a party.”

As it turned out, Pam had been right all along. It was a great party. She couldn’t help but grin to herself as she sipped her drink and looked around the bullpen. The celebration had been going on for about an hour and everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves.

Dwight and Gabe were singing an 80s hair band cover of O Come All Ye Faithful at the karaoke machine. Kelly and Ryan were making out under the mistletoe. Phyllis and Andy had put together a makeshift photo booth and were dressing up Angela in a red feather boa and elf ears. Meredith was showing Erin how to do a lemon drop shot.

Okay, that last one was potentially trouble but Pam decided that fell more under the supervision of Human Resources than it did Office Manager so she wasn’t going to worry about it. She scanned the room looking for Jim, finding him in the conference room with Oscar and Creed. They appeared to be involved in a serious conversation and Jim’s voice grew louder as she got closer to the room.

“Creed, you can’t be serious with this.”

“I am. I am serious,” the bald man insisted with a firm nod of his head. “I am the little boy in the song.”

“But you’re not,” Oscar protested. “You really aren’t because it’s just a song, not something that actually happened.”

“You’re wrong,” Creed stated with a point of his finger. “It did happen. I was there; I remember exactly how it happened.”

“Hey.” Pam nudged Jim’s shoulder with hers and leaned against the wall next to him. “What’s going on in here?”

“Here? Oh nothing.” He snaked an arm around her waist. “Creed’s just been telling us how something that happened to him as a kid was turned into a Christmas song.”

“Really?” Pam turned her attention to the other man. “Which one?”

“How did it happen then?” Oscar asked. A little of his drink spilled over the side of his cup as he gestured at the other man.

“Exactly like the song says.” Creed nodded again. “Grandpappy got drunk one night and told the story at a poker game and the next year, we heard the song on the radio. It’s a damn shame too; I could have sung it better. I have sung it better.”

“What song?” Pam asked again.

“Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer,” Jim murmured in her ear. She clapped a hand over her mouth to keep from laughing too loudly.

“It’s not funny Tammy.” Creed frowned at her. “My grandmother was a lovely woman. She didn’t deserve to die like that.”

“Oh no,” She backtracked quickly. “I mean, of course, it’s awful if that—happened—but maybe you’re confused?” They all stared as Creed slammed his cup down and stormed out of the room, muttering the whole way that he’d prove them wrong and they’d all be sorry.

“Pam, you look like you could use a refill, let me grab that for you.” Oscar took her cup and headed back into the office, leaving the two of them alone.

“Do you think Oscar’s trying to get me drunk?” she asked, craning her neck up to look at her husband. “That’s the third one he’s gone to get me.”

“Nah, you said so yourself.” Jim tapped her on the nose. “An office party isn’t an excuse to get drunk.” He shook his head as she stuck her tongue out at him. “You’re already drunk, aren’t you?”

“Nope, not me.” And she really wasn’t. Relaxed? Yes. Drunk? No. She raised herself up on her toes and kissed him just because she could. He’d been drinking a screwdriver and she could taste orange juice on his tongue. Mixed with the peppermint from hers, it vaguely reminded her of countless early morning kisses they’d shared and she settled herself a little more solidly against him.

Jim’s hands flexed at her waist, pulling her even closer for a second and then releasing her. “What was that for?” He raised his eyes to the ceiling. “I definitely don’t see any mistletoe around here.”

“The mistletoe is already being put to good use,” she said with a nod toward the annex were Kelly and Ryan were still making out in the doorway. “Honestly though, if you’re going to insist on there being mistletoe every time I kiss you from now on, it’s going to long year, Babe.” She pecked her lips to his cheek and then stepped away from him as Oscar came back in with a fresh round of drinks. She took one and then left them to discuss something sports related while she went back into the bullpen. There was something she needed to do, and she was just now feeling relaxed enough to do it.

That’s what she said, she thought to herself with a small giggle. Oh hell; maybe Oscar was using a heavy hand when making these drinks. She made a mental note to drink some water after her current drink was finished.

“Hey Angela.” She leaned against the other woman’s desk. “Are you having fun?”

“Have you seen the baby Jesus?”

Pam blinked. “I’m sorry, have I seen—“

“The baby Jesus, Pam. My Precious Moments figurine.” Angela waved her hand toward the file cabinet next to her desk. Pam hadn’t realized until that moment that the accountant had set out an entire Nativity scene with at least twenty separate statues all staring with their creepy big eyes at Pam. Sure enough, there was a Mary and a Joseph but there was an empty space between them where the manger should have sat.

“Oh wow.” Pam moved closer to inspect the scene. “I… how many angels do you have here?”

“Not enough, seeing as how Jesus has gone missing. Have you seen him?”

“No.” Pam shook her head, keeping her face as serious as she could. “I have not seen the baby Jesus today.”

“Or any other day probably,” Angela muttered under her breath.

Right. Pam bit back a snotty comment and remembered why she was standing there in the first place. “So, I wanted to talk to you about the party planning committee,” she said as casually as she could, staring at a spot over Angela’s shoulder and taking another sip from her cup.

“There isn’t a party planning committee, remember?”

Pam smiled patiently. “I know. But, Michael wants this party next week to be special and I was thinking that the best way to get that done is to pull everyone back together and work on it together. As a team.” Her last sentence came out sounding more like a question than a statement but she didn’t care.

Angela smiled smugly and crossed her arms over her chest. “I knew you couldn’t handle it all by yourself.”

She couldn’t help herself. “I put together this party pretty well.”

“No, Michael canceled your party. We saved it.”

The condescension in Angela’s voice was a little too much for Pam and for about two seconds she considered tossing the rest of her drink into the other woman’s lap, but she talked herself out of it even as her fingers twitched against the cup.

“Angela, just tell me if you aren’t interested. It’s okay, really.” She smiled sweetly. “I can always ask Phyllis. She always has such great ideas. Oh, and Meredith. Remember that time she wanted to throw a beer and hot wings party for Valentine’s Day? I’m sure the three of us can come up with something perfect for next week.”

“No, wait.” Angela stopped her as she moved to leave. Pam turned and looked at her expectantly. “I’m in,” she said quickly. “But only because I can’t trust any of you not to ruin this. God knows without me, you’d end up with Sno-cones and pork rinds.”

“Hey, that sounds festive.” Pam smiled at her. “Thank you Angela.” She pushed herself off of the desk, ready to be anywhere else in the office.

“Keep an eye out for Jesus!” Angela called after her.

“Will do!” Pam closed her eyes and pivoted toward the break room. She needed to start drinking water before she encountered anyone else or she was afraid she was going to start drinking straight from the bottle of Peppermint Schnapps.

Water safely in hand (she’d tossed in a lemon wedge for the appearance of drinking vodka), Pam saw that most of her coworkers were again convened in the conference room and joined them as quietly as she could, taking a seat next to Jim in the back of the room.

“Another drink?” he murmured into her ear as he shifted closer to her. “Pace yourself, Bees. It’s still early.”

“Thanks Dad, but it’s just water.” She nudged his knee with hers. “What are we all doing in here?” She squinted up at the white board where Andy stood with red and green markers in each hand.

“Oscar and I were talking about Creed’s claim that he’s the little kid in what is arguably the worst Christmas song of all time and we don’t know where Creed went off to, so we started talking about what the best Christmas song of all time is and believe it or not, everyone seems to have an opinion on this. The only thing to do was a Christmas bracket. Like basketball,” he explained further when he saw the look she was giving him.

“I know what a bracket is.” She grinned. “This must be torture for you, you hate Christmas music.”

“Yeah, but I’m a sucker for a bracket.” His arm moved to rest alongside the chair behind her, his hand curling around her shoulder. “Where were you? Everything okay?”

“Oh.” Pam balanced her drink on his leg, her pinky stroking lightly back and forth against a wrinkle in his dress pants. During normal work days, they were always very careful to not get to handsy with each other, but by unspoken agreement, they’d relaxed those rules during parties. If anyone had a problem with her husband’s arm around her, she’d just point out that at least they weren’t in a corner with his tongue shoved down her throat, Kelly. “Everything’s fine. Well, Jesus is missing, but everything’s fine.”

“Right, sure. As long as everything’s okay.” She could tell he was about to ask her another question but their attention was pulled back to the front of the room as Kelly’s voice rose above everyone else’s.

“Oh my God Ryan, how can you even try to give me crap right now? All I Want for Christmas is You is the best Christmas song of all time and so yeah, this game is boring and pointless.” Kelly folded her arms across her chest and glared at Ryan he was trying to sink lower into his chair. “Do you want me to tell them what your favorite Christmas song is?”

“It’s really not important Kel; they’ve already got enough songs on the board already.”

“No it’s cool, there’s always room for more music,” Andy enthused. “What is it?”

Ryan refused to answer him and Kelly clapped her hands gleefully and began to sing “I want a hippopotamus for Christmas,” much to the delight of nearly everyone in the room.

Pam’s eyes widened slightly as Andy, Phyllis, Erin, and even Gabe began singing along with Kelly.

She drained the last of her water and tapped the empty cup against Jim’s knee. “I don’t think water’s gonna cut it anymore, Babe,” she whispered with pleading eyes. “Not if there’s going to be singing.” Jim looked at her skeptically but she was ready for him, her bottom lip barely sliding out from under the top a in a well-practiced pout that she knew he couldn’t refuse. Sure enough, he gave her a quick nod and then followed as she stood up to go find the drinks.

“Not so fast!” Andy stopped them when they were halfway out the door.

“I’m just getting another drink.” She held up her empty cup. “We’ll be right back?”

“Okay but what’s your favorite Christmas song?” Andy pointed one of the markers at her.

Pam hated being put on the spot but, but also, she most definitely did not want Jim to have that information because he would never let her hear the end of it if he knew. “Oh, I like that one… “ her voice trailed off as she tried to come up with something innocent enough. “It has to do with Santa… maybe reindeer? Or a snowman?”

“Frosty.” Erin clapped her hands. “I love that one.”

“Sure, that.” Pam nodded her head and ducked out of the room before anyone could question her.

“So.” Jim leaned against the desk as she inspected the half empty bottles. “I’m pretty sure that you hate that song.”

“Hmm?” She looked up at him as she poured vodka into a new cup. “Oh, I do. I just wanted to get out of there.”

“Sure.” He took the drink she handed him and watched as she made her own. “What is your favorite Christmas song?”

Pam sipped her own drink and shook her head at him. “Nope, not telling you.”

“Come on, I promise I won’t laugh.”

“Oh yes you will. Remember how you laughed when I told you my favorite Christmas movie was Home Alone?”

“Home Alone 2,” he corrected her. “If you had said Home Alone, I wouldn’t have laughed at all because there’s nothing better than the original.”

“Says you.”

“It’s that song about the shoes isn’t it?”

“No!”

Jim snapped his fingers. “The one with all those eighties singers… you know the one, where Bono tells us to thank God that it’s them instead of you?”

“Stop it.” She tried to punch his arm but he caught her by the elbow. His free hand moved to tickle her. “Jim!” She twisted one way and then the other, trying to break free but she’d never once won this fight ever and he wasn’t about to let her now. Each move she made only brought her closer to him.

“What is it? I swear to god, if you say it’s I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus---“

She interrupted him the only way she knew how, pressing her lips against his until he stopped talking. “What if it is?” she asked against his mouth. “Think about it, we could have a lot of fun with that one.”

“Get your mind out of the gutter Mrs. Halpert, that’s a children’s song.” He let go of her elbow only to wrap that arm around her waist as he pushed her back against the desk.

“And it’s not my favorite.” She was about to remind him that the desk they were making out against was no longer hers but before she could get the words out, she heard the snap of mini-blinds and glanced over Jim’s shoulder to see Michael’s shadow dart away from his window 

Not your problem, she thought to herself as she tried to divert her focus back to Jim and the delightful things his tongue was currently doing inside of her mouth. She began to suspect that he’d had more to drink already than he’d let on but she wasn’t about to complain.

She heard another sound coming from Michael’s office, one that was suspiciously like a sob and she sighed, pulling away from Jim to rest her forehead against his chin.

“Michael’s hiding in his office,” she explained, seeing the question on Jim’s face.

He laughed softly as he kissed a very specific spot behind her ear. “This place doesn’t deserve you,” he said, squeezing her arms before letting her go. “Go on.”

“I’ll be quick.”

“Mmhmm, don’t think I’m forgetting that you owe me an answer here.” He winked at her as she started for Michael’s office before turning on his heel and heading back for the conference room.

“Michael?” She knocked as she cracked his door open. The room was dark and she had to blink a few times for her eyes to adjust to the dimness. “You know you can come out right?”

“I’ve got bigger things to worry about right now. Besides, nobody wants me at your stupid party, Pam.”

“Okay, but you don’t have to call it stupid, that’s just mea—“ She shook her head and remembered to pick her battles. “Come on, everyone’s having fun.” She flicked on the overhead light. “Oh Michael.”

He was lying on his stomach on the floor with his chin propped on his hands; the remains of her hidden ice cream cake melting next to him. An old Taylor Swift song was playing through his computer speakers.

“Are you sure you don’t want to join us? Everyone’s talking about their favorite Christmas songs and some of them are pretty funny.”

Michael ignored her, singing along with the music. “She wears shorts skirts, I wear t-shirts.” His feet kicked in the air behind him in time to the beat.

“Hey, let’s get up, yeah?” She realized she was using the same voice she used with her baby but quickly reconciled it with the fact that dealing with Michael was very similar to dealing with a nine month old.

“So why can’t you see, you belong with me.” Michael looked up at her finally. “Holly belongs with me, Pam. Why can’t she see that?”

You made this choice. You opened the door and now you have to deal with this. Pam lowered herself to the floor next to him.  “I know you think she does,” she said carefully.

“She does, Pam!”

“Okay,” she agreed quickly. “But Michael, she’s not even here yet. If you spend the rest of this week worrying about what will happen when she’s here next week, you’re going to drive yourself crazy.” And everyone else. “And so maybe, we can think of a better use of your time for the next few days.”

“I could write her a song.”

“You could. Yeah, that’s one idea.” She nodded. “But you need to remember that she’s still with AJ, okay? And I know; I know that I told you that she’s not over you, but you have to let her realize this on her own. You can’t overwhelm her when she walks through that door. You just can’t, Michael.”

“Why not?”

“Because—“ She opened and shut her mouth a few times, trying to figure out how she could spell this out to him. She wished she’d brought her drink in with her. She sighed. “Don’t you remember what happened with me and Jim?”

“You mean where you lived happily ever after? Way to rub it in, Pam.” Michael leaned over to turn the volume up on the speakers as he began to sing again. “She’s cheer captain and I’m on the bleachers.”

Pam turned the speaker back down and tried to get him to focus. “Before that! Remember?” She waited until he was looking at her. “Michael, when Jim told me that he loved me, it wasn’t an immediate fairy-tale ending. I freaked out, remember? And he moved to Stamford. You don’t want that to happen with Holly, do you?”

“Why would I move to Stamford? We don’t even have a branch there anymore.”

Pam closed her eyes and drew a deep breath, willing herself not to scream. “What I’m saying is I didn’t have the best reaction to Jim dropping that in my lap the way he did and because of that, he didn’t know what else to do but run. What if Holly is like I was? You can’t risk that, Michael. It took Jim and I really long time to find our way back to each other and what if you and Holly aren’t that lucky? Do you really want to risk taking an even longer way back to each other?”

“Do you think she still loves me?”

“I think you need to be patient. And I think you should try and stop thinking about it for just a little bit, and come out and have fun with everyone else. And then when you see Holly next week, I think you’ll know. It’s not really the same thing, but I knew as soon as Jim walked back through those doors after the merger. So you just need to wait a little longer, okay?”

“Okay.” Michael nodded. He looked past her, out the now open office door. “Do you think there are any cookies left?”

“There might be.” Her eyes drifted to the left and she frowned. “Michael, where did you get this?” She leaned over and plucked a small ceramic statue off of the floor.

“Oh that.” He giggled. “I thought if I stole Jesus, you guys really couldn’t have a Christmas party. You know, because he is the reason for the season, Pam.”

Pam pocketed the Precious Moments figure. “Come on.” She helped him to his feet and they left his office. She briefly thought about cleaning up the melted ice cream on his floor, but then she decided she’d already done more than necessary. There was still singing coming from the conference room and his eyes lit up.

“I wonder if they’ll sing White Christmas, that’s the best song!” He shook her hand off his arm and bolted for the group.

Pam collapsed into her desk chair and spun restlessly in half circles. She would join everyone else soon, but she needed a few minutes to herself.

As if dealing with Michael wasn’t exhausting enough. She hated that even now, after four years, a wedding, and a baby, she still couldn’t think about that night so long ago without it hurting her heart.

She sighed, slugged down the rest of her drink, and quickly fixed another one, telling herself that it was definitely her last one for the day. She could see Jim through the open blinds on the conference room. In the time since she’d seen him last, he’d acquired a Santa hat which was perched haphazardly on his head. She was about to join the group but a small commotion halted her just outside of the door.

“What do you mean White Christmas isn’t the greatest song? Is it because you’re black, Stanley? Is that why?”

Yeah. Michael had jumped right into the thick of the party. Great.

“It’s a terrible song, that’s all I’m saying.” Stanley shrugged indifferently before going back to his crossword puzzle. Pam wondered if he knew he too was wearing a Santa hat.

“Look at the board, Michael,” Phyllis said, pointing. “White Christmas was knocked out in the first round, see?”

He squinted. “By Feliz Navidad? Oscar, this is all your fault, isn’t it?”

“What does that mean?”

Nope. Pam knew her limits and she had exhausted all of her Michael energy already. She wasn’t going back in there. She drifted along the windows until she was toward the end of the conference room. Tapping her fingers lightly against the pane, she tried to catch Jim’s eye. It took a few seconds but he finally noticed her, quirking an eye and motioning for her to come and sit next to him.

She shook her head and jerked a thumb towards the break room. He made a face at her like he didn’t understand. She rolled her eyes. They used to be better at this non-verbal thing. She pointed at herself and then at him and then again to the break room, lifting her eyebrows. Finally, he grinned and flashed a thumbs up. She grinned back and spun around, knowing he’d follow her as soon as he could.

“You had to convince Michael to join the party,” he said, finding her a few minutes later.

Pam turned and smiled at him. “He was two steps away from a hysterical meltdown, what else was I supposed to do?”

“Two steps?”

“There was Taylor Swift and ice cream.”

“Oof.”

“Yeah.” She bit down on her lower lip and looked up at him. “Hey.” She stepped closer and wrapped her arms around his neck. “I love you. Have I told you that today?”

“Hmm. You have, but that doesn’t mean I don’t like hearing it again.”

“Well let me say it some more. I love you.” She tugged on his head until his mouth was on hers. “I love you a lot.”

“I love you too.” His hands were warm as they folded around her back. “What brought this on?”

“I can’t just want to kiss my husband in the break room at work?” She tightened her grip on his collar, keeping him from being able to take a step back.

“Pam.”

She shrugged into him. “I was talking to Michael—“

“That usually doesn’t put you in this mood.”

She shushed him. “I’m just so thankful that we’re not where he is. With Holly,” she clarified, nodding as recognition settled in his eyes. “Yeah.” She let her own eyes close when he kissed her. She wondered if she’d ever tire of the way his mouth felt against hers, of the sounds that came from the back of his throat when she scraped her nails against his neck, or the way her knees still buckled when his lips ghosted over her jawline before moving lower.

She hoped she never did.

“You still haven’t told me what your favorite Christmas song is.”

Pam pulled back slightly, lifting one eyebrow lazily at him. “I’m surprised at you; I’m trying to have my way with you here and you’re more concerned with Christmas music?”

“Wait, this is you trying to have your way with me?” Jim shook his head. “Do better, Beesly. This seems like a casual make-out at best.”

“I was just testing the waters first.” She batted her eyelashes at him. “Are you saying you’re receptive to my advances?”

“I think I could be. Let’s find out.” He stood still as her tongue traced against his lips. She heard his breath catch when her fingertips traced the shell of his ear before winding into his hair and tilting his head to the side to press her lips to his pulse. She felt him exhale softly when her hands dropped from his shoulders to palm his chest and then slide around to his back. His grip on her waist tightened when her nails scraped down his spine and then back up again.

“Where’d you get this?” She pulled her mouth away from him long enough to smirk at him as she pinched the Santa hat between two of her fingers.

“Don’t you like it? I thought you would, seeing as how your favorite song is I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus.”

“I told you that’s not it, but now that I see you in this hat…” She kissed him again, sighing as his fingers edged below the waist of her skirt.

“Got a bit of a thing for Santa, do you?” he murmured as he pushed one leg between hers.

“Maybe.” She pulled his face back to hers, needing to kiss him again. “How does Santa feel about the nice girls?” One of her hands fell to his belt and tugged the lower half of his body harder against hers.

“You think you’re on the nice list right now? Really?”

She shrugged, letting her hand glide over his thigh, fingers curling slightly around him. “Could be naughtier,” she whispered. “But I thought Santa only came for the good girls, so...”

“That’s what she said.”

She couldn’t help it. Pam laughed. The look on Jim’s face told her that his utterance had caught him as off guard as it had her. Working in this environment had ingrained that phrase into them; there just wasn’t any stopping it, ever.

“I don’t know why I said that. Seriously, forget I said anything. Come here.” He was pulling her back to him, intent on finishing what they’d started but she batted his hands away.

“No, wait.” With a momentarily clear head, Pam suddenly remembered that they were quite exposed in the middle of the break room, and infinitely lucky that no one had walked in on them just now. “We can’t do this here.”

“So let’s leave.” He had her back in his arms, his mouth pressing insistently against hers. “We’ll go home.”

“I don’t think I can wait that long.” Her hand found him again, still half-hard between them. “I don’t think you can either,” she murmured, squeezing gently. “I mean, is that a- a-“ she faltered as her mind went completely blank. She didn’t know if it was the alcohol finally catching up to her or the fact that they’d nearly ruined the moment with a Michael-esque joke that had her wondering if this whole Santa thing was creepy and not sexy, but whatever it was, she had completely forgotten what words were. She racked her brain, trying to come up with something. “Is that a paint brush in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?” she finished lamely.

This time Jim was laughing as he pulled back from her. “A paint brush?” he asked incredulously. “Geeze Beesly, are you trying to ruin this before it’s even started? A paint brush? Stroke my ego a little more, why don’t you?”

“Your ego needs no stroking,” she said, trying to keep a straight face. The look on his broke her and she fell into giggles. “I’m sorry! I know that was bad. I froze in the moment, I had nothing.” They were both still laughing as he kissed her again. “To be fair though, you’ve seen the size of some of my paint brushes, so—“

“Mmhmm. And you’re very familiar with the size of my—“ he pulled back just long enough to smirk at her. “Yule log.”

“Yule log.” She would have laughed again but there was nothing funny at all about the way he was pressed against her or the way he was ignoring that they were out in the open as his hands inched her skirt higher up her legs.

“At least I stayed on theme,” he murmured as she tried to push her skirt back down. His hands were seemingly everywhere and she needed to get them out of the plain sight. Fast.

“Come on.” She snatched the Santa hat off of his head and set it on hers before grabbing his hand and tugging him into the hallway. They both saw the open door to the storage closet/Ryan’s office at the same time and it was hard to say who pushed who in first but the door had barely clicked shut before Jim was lifting her onto the desk and sliding her panties down her legs.

“We have to be fast.” She whimpered as he slipped two fingers into her without resistance. She undid his belt, shoving his pants down to free him.

“And quiet,” he reprimanded her when his thumb circled against her and she gasped.

“Please, just.” She tried to arch her hips into him but he had her pinned tight against the desk as he rubbed just the head of his cock over her folds, barely nudging into her. “Jim!”

He didn’t loosen his grip on her as he bent his head to kiss first her mouth, then her cheek, then nipping down her neck. “Tell me your favorite Christmas song.”

“What? Now?”

“Now.” He pushed against her again, still not sliding into her.

“Ugh. Fine, whatever.” She dragged his head back up to hers and kissed him fiercely, pulling his lower lip between her teeth. “It’s All I Want for Christmas is You, okay? I’m no better than Kelly. I’m Christmas music trash.” Her words tumbled out in one long breath against his mouth, ending in a sigh as he finally pushed all the way into her. There weren’t any more words after that. They didn’t need them.

It was only a few minutes later that they collapsed against each other. “We really just did that, huh?” She felt Jim’s laugh rumble against where her head was cradled to his chest.

“We did,” he confirmed, dropping a kiss to her shoulder. “You wanna get out of here? See if your mom can watch Cece a little longer today and keep this party going?”

“Sounds great.” Space was limited in the closet, but she managed to straighten herself up as best she could before turning to help him tuck his shirt back in and straighten his tie.

Pam was reaching to open the door when the knob turned on its own. She looked up at Jim with panicked eyes as they heard a confused “It’s locked” from the other side.

There was a sharp pounding on the door. “Pam! We know you’re in there!”

Shit. Pam took a deep breath and pushed the door open to see Angela, Phyllis and Meredith. She hoped the panic had cooled her cheeks enough so that what they’d been doing wasn’t completely obvious.

“Oh for God’s sake!” The look on Angela’s face told her that she knew exactly what had been going on in the closet.

Then Pam remembered. “Angela, look!” she thrust her hand into her cardigan pocket and pulled out the doll she’d taken from Michael’s office. “I found Jesus.” She heard Jim choking back his laugh behind her and reached out and kicked him.

Angela’s face softened slightly as she took the doll from Pam’s hands. “Thank you.”

Phyllis still didn’t look pleased. “Pam, Angela said that you put her in charge of the party planning committee again because you didn’t think Meredith and I had any good ideas.”

“That’s not—“ Pam shook her head. “That’s not what I said at all! I think you guys have great—“

“See? I told you she loves my wings and beer party,” Meredith said, emptying the remains of her cup into her mouth.

“Wings aren’t classy!” Angela stamped her foot.

“They are if you use the clear plastic silverware and red and green paper plates,” Meredith shot back. “Boom. Classy as fuck.”

“You put the committee back together?” Jim murmured in her ear.

“I was drunk,” she whispered back. “It seemed like a good idea at the time.”

“Oh Beesly.” He kissed her neck and then edged out from behind her. “I’m going to go check on everyone else. You got this?” He escaped before she could say anything.

“So the closet huh? Nice.” Meredith tried to high five her. “Where else are the two of you doing it in this office?”

“What? Nowhere, we weren’t—“

“Pam, I can’t work like this,” Angela interrupted them. “Either tell them I’m in charge of planning the party or I’m not coming back to the committee.”

“Your parties aren’t so great either,” Phyllis pointed out, sneering at Angela. “Remember the nutcrackers?”

“Okay but did you hear what I said about the red and green plates?” Meredith butted in.

“I think everyone needs to calm down,” Pam said. “We don’t need to worry about this right now. I never said anyone had terrible ideas but I also think maybe wings and beer aren’t exactly what—“

“You know what? Why are we even listening to her?” Angela interrupted all of them and glared at Pam. “I mean, we practically had to save this party and then she wasn’t even grateful enough to join in. I’ve barely seen her all afternoon.”

“That’s not true!”

“I didn’t see you singing karaoke,” Phyllis said slowly.

“Did you even vote on the song bracket?” Meredith asked. “Because Andy put a lot of work into that and—“

“Oh my God.” Pam shook her head. “Nope, you know what? I’m out.” She raised her hands in surrender. “Guess what? Angela, you are in charge of planning next week’s party. Phyllis and Meredith, you’re going to help her. I’m not doing this again.” She left them arguing in the middle of the hallway and went in search of her husband. She needed to get out of there.

“Pam!” She found him again standing with Oscar and Creed, who had shown up again just as mysteriously as he had disappeared earlier. “Pam, come look at this.”

“What?” She looked down at the newspaper clipping he held in his hands. “Bratton family matriarch struck down while saving husband and grandson from runaway horses in Christmas Eve tragedy,” she read slowly before snapping her head back up to look at the three of them. “Shut up.”

“See.” Creed nodded smugly at all of them. “I told you so.”

She opened her mouth to say more but before she could, Michael was yelling that it was happy hour at Poor Richards and the first round was on him. The office was empty in less than three minutes.

“Are we going with them?” Jim asked, helping Pam into her coat.

“God no.” She shook her head forcefully. She’d had enough of her coworkers for the day. “Please just take me home.”

They were quiet on the elevator ride down to the lobby. “Creed’s grandma got run over by a reindeer,” Jim said suddenly.

She nodded, still dazed from the abrupt ending to their day. “Michael stole the baby Jesus.”

“I still have so many questions about that.” He turned to her. “All I Want for Christmas is You, huh?”

She rolled her eyes. “I never should have told you that. Go ahead and mock me, I don’t care.”

“Aw, you’re cute. Yes you do.” He chuckled as the elevator doors slid open. “But don’t worry; there won’t be any mocking of you over this song.”

Pam raised an eye suspiciously at him. “There won’t be?” she asked warily.

“Nope.” Jim leaned over and reclaimed the Santa hat she’d forgotten she was still wearing. “After what just happened?” He shook his head and leaned forward to kiss her, making her dizzy all over again .

“I think it’s my favorite Christmas song too.”