Pam’s eyes snapped open, as they did every morning, five seconds before her alarm clock went off. Well, if she’d had any doubt about how this thing was going (and how could she, after so many repeats of the same day?) she now knew that falling asleep somewhere else didn’t stop her from waking up at home. She knew that her and Roy’s bed was, in all reasonable meanings of the term, more comfortable than Melanie’s couch, but she couldn’t sit still. She wiggled out of bed, turned off the alarm, and hurried her way through shower, clothes, and breakfast.

Today’s job was to figure out when she could break up with Roy, and do it—and try to do it in such a way that she could still accomplish all the other things she was planning on: setting up Brenda and Toby and Kelly and Ryan, calming Michael as much as possible, doing something for Dwight and Angela, was there anything else?

Oh right, kissing Jim Halpert. Preferably not in front of his cheerleader maybe girlfriend—because if it turned out that in order to get out of this cycle she had to get him engaged to Katy, she was never getting out. That was just not on.

But to do that, she’d need to break up with Roy more easily, more effectively, and less messily than last time. Apparently “immediately before the cruise” was out, just as she’d found out that “on the cruise” was obviously suboptimal. One thing was for sure: she wasn’t going to skip out on the cruise this time around, since she’d missed it last time.

She contemplated other times to break up with Roy. During the workday seemed like the best option, since he’d be surrounded by friends and in a place (unlike the bar) where he couldn’t be too rowdy. She felt like a coward for contemplating that last point, especially since Roy had never actually been violent with her before, but one thing this set of repeated days had taught her was that she had to face these sorts of things head on. Dodging around these sorts of issues (Roy’s temper, her own feelings towards Jim) just meant another round of the same problems. She had to admit that it made her feel better to think about Roy finding out that she didn’t want to marry him—or even continue dating him—in a safely public place, or even a professional setting.

She sat in silence in the car, considering how she would phrase things when the time came. She was afraid to be too direct: Roy with his hackles up wouldn’t listen to her (witness last night). So she’d have to sidle her way around to it. But that was going to be hard to do at the warehouse, so…maybe she’d need to get him to confess he didn’t want to marry her? But he’d needed to be entirely foxed, hammered, smashed before he’d admitted it before, and she didn’t think he’d do that at work.

Oh well, something would occur to her. She bade Roy a distracted goodbye and headed upstairs and bought Dwight’s bobblehead.

“But it’s part of a set!” Dwight looked heartbroken.

“You’re right.” He perked up and she could almost see the thought that she was going to give him the bobblehead back move across his face before she pulled out her wallet. “I need to buy them all, or they’ll be lonely.”

“Gotta catch ‘em all.” Jim nodded sagely.

“Pokémon? Really, Jim?” Pam teased.

“Fact: Pokémon is short for ‘pocket monsters.’” Dwight intoned.

Jim rolled his eyes at Dwight. “Everyone knows that, and I’m not sure it’s relevant right now, Dwight.” He looked at Pam speculatively. “I’m more interested in how Ms. Beesly here recognized my reference so quickly.”

Pam thrust her chin up as she bought more bobbleheads. “I don’t have to answer to you about my hobbies.”

“Hobbies?” Jim looked delighted. “Are you telling me you’re a Pokémon master?”

“Yes, Jim, I am indeed the very best. Like no one ever was.” She winked and whisked her way out of the break room with her booty.

She was setting the bobbleheads up in a line on her desk later when Jim wandered up and reached over them to the jellybean dish.

“So,  Beesly, I’m going to need a bit more data here.” He idly tapped a bobble’s head and watched it wobble. “Favorite Pokémon? Are you an original 151 girl or are you open to modern innovations? Ash, Misty, or Brock?” He popped the jellybean into his mouth and grinned down at her.

“What do you think, Halpert?” She grinned back up at him.

“Hmm…obviously Misty—I can totally see you as a water-type specialist.”

“Very astute.”

He tapped each bobblehead down the row and pursed his lips. “I’m going to go out on a limb and say you’re not a traditionalist, but that you do…prefer the original 151.”

“Right again.” She wasn’t sure what it meant that Jim understood her feelings about imaginary Japanese monsters, but it made her feel warm inside.

“So…” he watched the bobbleheads sway for a moment. “A water-type, from the original 151.” She watched his fingers idly move across the heads of the toys and marveled at how attractive she found his hands. He glanced up and she blushed at the thought he’d caught her staring. He looked quizzically at her and continued looking down at the bobbleheads. “You strike me as a purist: no half-types for you.” He started placing jellybeans on the bobbleheads’ heads, pursing his lips in concentration, and she wondered what he’d look like looking at her with the same concentration—and then distracted herself entirely by wondering what those lips would feel like if he just leaned over and kissed her right then and there. She almost missed his words as he continued.

“I think you’re the sort of person who likes Pokémon because they aren’t real animals—you like the sense of whimsy—so nothing too closely connected to actual nature…” He started scooping up the jellybeans on the bobbleheads and eating them one by one, and she watched his mouth the whole time, glad his eyes weren’t on her to see the blush she was sure still stained her cheeks. “I don’t think you’d be too obsessed with the actual power of the creature, or in the combat mechanics of the game, so the real powerful ones are out…” He tapped the first bobblehead she’d bought and watched it sway again. “I think you feel sorry for the smaller, unevolved ones, and you probably got attached real early, so…I’m gonna go ahead and say Squirtle.” His eyes snapped up and pinned her in place.

She could hardly breathe. He was staring at her with exactly the degree of concentration she’d imagined when he was placing the jellybeans, and it was mesmerizing. She forced herself to shake her head gently and watched his face fall.

“You missed the fact that I got into the game through the TV show.” She didn’t know why she was whispering, but it felt appropriate for the moment. “I felt sorry for…”

“The Psyduck.” Jim nodded sharply. “I should have known.”

She smiled. “Yup.” She tapped the same bobblehead he’d last touched and focused her eyes on its irregular movement. “But when I started the game, I did pick the Squirtle, just like you said.”

“I bet you never let it evolve, either.”

“Nope.” She grinned up at him. “But you know, I don’t have to go through that whole rigmarole with you.”

“Oh?” He smiled back down at her. “Give me your best shot, Beesly.”

“Come on, Jim. You’ve admitted to liking the show, you know the original 151 like the back of your hand, and you’re a guy. It’s obviously Pikachu.”

He clutched his chest. “You wound me, Beesly. You think I’m that predictable?”

Her eyes narrowed. “Yes. Even more because you didn’t actually say I was wrong.”

“That’s because you’re not. I’m just hurt that you guessed it so quickly.”

She shrugged. “Pikachu’s cute. Nothing wrong with being a fan.”

“I’ll have you know I didn’t pick Pikachu because he was cute.”

“Oh?”

“Oh indeed. I was a boy, Pam, I didn’t choose based on something like cuteness. I chose Pikachu because he was a rebel who refused the pokéball.”

“You know that’s just the one Pikachu, right? The rest of them are normal.”

“It just takes one, Pam, it just takes one.” And with that he nodded to her and headed over to ask Stanley to figure out what today’s camaraderie event would be.

“It just takes one.” Pam repeated this to herself hours later as she headed down to the warehouse to break up with Roy. “Even if I get this wrong, I can do it again. It just takes one.”

“Hey, Pam. Roy’s over there.” She felt guilty at the way Darryl greeted her so friendlily. Not that she wanted him to be unfriendly, or anything, but she was about to drop a sad, angry ball of warehouse worker into his lap, even if he didn’t know it yet.

“Thanks.” She slipped around to the forklift, which Lonny was bringing into position with Roy spotting him.

“Hey, Pammy.” She gritted her teeth—Darryl got her name right, why couldn’t her soon-to-be-ex-fiancé?—as Roy waved and then hollered up at Lonny. “No, you idiot, a foot to the left.”

“Roy, can we talk?”

“Sure, go ahead.” He waved Lonny ahead. “No, your other left, dumbass.”

“Um…I was hoping to talk in private.”

He laughed. “Pam, Lonny has headphones in. Why do you think I’m making fun of him to his face?” He waved again at Lonny. “That’s right, shit-for-brains.” He grinned at her. “So, what’s up?”

If she hadn’t known she could do this again if it went wrong, she wouldn’t have had the courage, but she repeated to herself Jim’s accidental mantra: “it only takes one.”

“I…I think we should break up.” She blurted it out, and it felt as if the words were hanging in the air. “I don’t want to do this anymore, Roy.”

“Sorry, Pammy, I didn’t quite catch that.” He tugged something onto the forklift and turned to her. “What did you say?”

“I said I think we should break up.” To her surprise, he broke out into laughter.

“OK, I suppose I deserved that. I’m sorry, I’ll pay attention now. What did you want to talk about?”

“I meant what I said, Roy.” She was getting annoyed. How hard could it be to understand a simple sentence? “I think we should break up.”

“I…you’re serious. Is this because I didn’t come home last Saturday?” He looked concerned. “I told you, babe, I didn’t think it was safe to drive, and I slept on Darryl’s couch. Nothing else happened.”

She had to cast her mind back—“last Saturday” was five days ago for Roy, and more than two subjective weeks for her—but she did remember eventually that yes, she’d stayed up until 2am wondering if Roy would come home and had been very annoyed with him on Sunday when he’d stumbled in at about 10 the next morning.

“It’s not…actually, it kind of is about that, but not in the way you think.” She looked up into his eyes, willing him to understand. “It’s more about what we want out of life. You want to go out with the guys, and I want…”

He interrupted her. “You want us to get married, I know. I promise, Pammy, we’ll find a date soon. There’s no reason to get worked up.”

She shook her head. “Are you even listening to me? I want to break up, Roy. I don’t want to marry you.”

A scoffing laugh was his only response, and it put her back up. “I’m serious, Roy. I don’t want this anymore. We’re through.” She turned to go, but he grabbed her wrist.

“We’re through when I say we’re through.” His eyes were hard. “You are not breaking up with me this way, babe.”

“Then how am I supposed to do it?” The question was more than rhetorical for her, but she could see he didn’t know that—which made sense, given that he didn’t know she’d be doing this again—and he didn’t answer. He just tugged her closer to him and bent down to kiss her.

It was an excruciating experience. She didn’t dislike Roy’s kisses: they were fine. But this one just felt tawdry, and she couldn’t help but think “I hope Jim kisses better than this.” She pushed him off her as soon as she was able, and was dismayed to see that he seemed to think that embarrassment of a kiss was a legitimate argument for staying together. “Come on, babe, you know you love me.”

She started to walk away. “You’ll always matter to me, Roy, but we’re not in love anymore. It’s over.”

“It’s not over, Pam!” She could hear him yell at her as she walked up the stairs towards the office. She paused with the door ajar and heard him posture in a softer voice to Darryl and Lonny. “She’ll come crawling back.”

Her spine stiff, she headed back to the office.

She threw herself into the rest of her self-imposed tasks when she got back. She threw Kelly at Ryan, encouraged Brenda and Toby, and gave Michael softly phrased tips on how he might use the cruise for a “legitimate business purpose, like Jan keeps saying you need to have.” She ignored his “I’ll give her a legitimate business purpose,” complete with hip thrust, and slipped back to her desk.

The whole thing with Roy had made her forget again about ousting Katy, and the cruise itself was a disaster. She got a ride there with Kelly, who filled the time with chatter about Ryan, and spent the whole time ducking Roy, to the point where she was barely able to spend any time with Jim (to whose arm Katy was unfortunately glued all evening). The one benefit of ducking Roy was that she was able to begin getting the first inkling of how she might help Dwight and Angela. Hiding from Roy out on the deck, she noticed Dwight steering the ship—or seeming to do so—and Angela periodically slipping out talk to him. She wondered if there might not be some way to get Dwight to pay more attention to his lady-love than to the ship’s wheel, though nothing in particular occurred to her immediately.

By the end of the cruise she was exhausted, and after begging a ride from Phyllis when it became clear that Kelly and Ryan were heading towards Kelly’s car together, she fell asleep in the back of her car.

The next five cycles were no better, although she was able to determine by trial and error that Roy was no more open to being broken up with at lunch (at Cugino’s, in the office, or, in a desperate attempt inspired by Michael, at Hooters), after the meeting where they found out about the booze cruise, or in the parking lot before work (this last leading to him making a scene at the all-office meeting that made even Michael look at her with sympathetic eyes). She thought of the sequence in Groundhog Day where Andie MacDowell slapped Bill Murray multiple times in the same evening. They’d eventually gotten their happy ending, but she was afraid there was no such chance for her and Roy. After all, all Bill Murray had had to do was figure out what Andie MacDowell liked; she had to figure out how Roy could be convinced both accept their breakup and leave her alone. The double whammy was proving tricky, since he always got angry. Always.

And when he was angry, she never got a real chance to be alone with Jim. It was enough to make her cry herself to sleep—as indeed she did in the back of Phyllis’s car night after night.