Jim had finally managed to get the kids to sleep before joining his wife in the living room. Pam was sat on the couch, with her legs tucked underneath her and wrapped in a crochet afghan. As Pam noticed her husband enter the room, she moved along the couch to give him space.

“Both gone,” Jim said in reference to their sleeping children upstairs.

Pam reached for the television remote as Jim sat beside her, his arm loose around her shoulders as they sat back into the couch. 

“Do you mind what we watch?” Pam said as she began mindlessly flipping through the different channels. Jim shrugged as Pam stopped the channel at an old basketball game.

They sat in a comfortable silence as the sound of the TV blared in the background. Eventually, Jim spoke.

“I couldn’t believe the audacity of Ryan today,” Jim almost laughed as he said it.

“My God, me neither,” Pam sat up further to look at her husband “You don’t think Kelly will go back to him? She’s been pretty predictable in the past.”

Jim nodded in agreement as they sat thinking about all the times Kelly inevitably went back to Ryan.

“You know what bothered me the most though,” Jim’s voice was laced with both laughter and anger “The fact Ryan said he doesn’t want to be with her, but he doesn’t want Kelly to be with anyone.”

Jim waited for Pam to respond, but instead, she just sat silently, prompting him to continue.

“It’s horrible. It’s manipulative almost.”

Pam sat in silence, chewing on her bottom lip. Jim inevitably noticed this.

“Hey, what’ya thinking?” Jim brushed a stray hair of Pam’s face.

Pam continued to be silent, contemplating whether or not to tell her husband her thoughts. As Jim’s thumb continued to stroke her cheek adoringly, she knew she couldn’t sit in silence forever.

“It’s just, the idea that ‘I don’t want to date you, but don’t date anyone else’, isn’t that crazy, not to me.”

Jim almost laughed, but didn’t. He had a quizzical look on his face as Pam continued. 

“I remember when I was still engaged to Roy and you would be dating different women. Every time you went on a date or every time you brought your girlfriend in, I would flare up with jealousy. And I knew I had no right to. I was engaged. I told myself I didn’t want to date you but that doesn’t mean you should be dating Katy or Jess or whoever it was that month.”

Pam’s voice began to crack as she remembered those years. Being stuck in a lifeless, loveless engagement while having an unjustifiable jealousy over a man she wasn’t dating. The jealousy that she felt as Jim dated objectively beautiful women. Women who curled their hair every morning and bothered to put makeup on every day. 

“Are you really comparing us to Ryan and Kelly?” Jim joked.

“You know what I mean,” Pam rolled her eyes as she settled in the crest of his arm, head on his shoulder.

And he did. Jim did know what she meant. Memories returned to when he was happily dating Karen and Pam went on the occasional date. He managed to keep his jealousy at bay when she went on the rare date with one of Ryan’s business school friends. However, when Pam started dating Roy again, Jim was flooded with feelings of sadness and jealousy. He knew he’d never marry Katy or truth be told Karen. But the jealousy he felt when he thought he lost Pam for good? Jim knew what Pam was saying all too well.

“Yeah, I do know what you mean,” he said – barely above a whisper – before kissing the crown of her head.

They sat in silence for the rest of the game before Jim turned off the TV. He swept another stray hair out of Pam’s face before pressing his lips to hers. 

“I love you,”

“I know you do,” Pam gave him a chaste kiss in return before continuing “I love you too. Let’s go to bed.”