“I really can’t believe corporate is still keeping all the branches open today.”

Pam’s voice was decidedly dejected as she and Jim trudged through snow up past their ankles to the front door of the office building. The snowplow obviously had been delayed in clearing out the parking lot. She walked behind Jim who was blazing a path to the front door. Mainly he was only succeeding in getting his shoes covered in snow.

“How much you want to bet we’ll be some of the only ones who actually come in today?” Jim asked as he held the front door open for her.

“Thanks,” she said as she passed him on her way into the lobby. “If there’s eight or more people in by ten I’ll give you a back rub when we get home tonight.”

“Hmmm,” Jim’s eyebrows shot up with a pleased expression. “So, by that token if there are seven or fewer people, which include you and me you know, I owe you the back rub.”

“That’s right,” Pam gave him a saucy grin as they stepped into the elevator.

The elevator doors closed and Jim took a few steps to stand close to her. “Deal.”

He leaned down and sealed the bet with a kiss. Caught up in the moment, they almost missed when the doors opened on their floor. They went through their normal routine of opening the office for the day. Jim turned on the lights while Pam made her way to the kitchen to start a community pot of coffee and brew a pot of tea for herself. She brought Jim a mug on her way back out to the main office. No one else had shown up yet, however her phone was blinking with the signal for new voicemails. Dutifully she listened to them.

“Toby, Kelly, and Ryan are all going to be no-shows for today,” she announced when she hung up her phone.

“Can’t blame Toby,” Jim said. “I think it’s his holiday with Sasha so he’d want to spend as much time as he could with her.

The ringing phone prevented Pam from replying to him. “Dunder-Mifflin, this is Pam. Oh hi Oscar. Yeah, no we got in, barely though. Kind of slippery in some spots, but the salt trucks were out. Sure, if I see Michael, I’ll let him know. Okay. Have a Merry Christmas. Yup. Bye.”

“No Oscar?” Jim didn’t bother looking up from his game of 3D Pinball.

“No Oscar,” Pam confirmed. “You do realize that if only three more people call in, I’ll win the bet.”

The corner of Jim’s mouth snaked upwards. “You mean I’ll have to take my wonderful girlfriend home with me and run my hands up and down her back? Oh, horror of horrors!” he deadpanned. “What ever shall I do?”

Pam laughed and threw a crumbled up post-it note at him. It bounced off his monitor to land on his desk. The rest of the morning progressed quickly. One by one, over the next half hour, every other employee of Dunder-Mifflin Scranton called to say they were not going to make it in. Her grin of triumph for winning the bet was wide. Jim just gave her a lopsided smirk as she excused herself to use the restroom before they too headed for Jim’s townhouse. When she came back, Jim was standing near the coat rack. She quickly ducked behind her desk to turn off her computer. She was slightly delayed by the sight of a white envelope on her keyboard. Her grin stayed intact as she plucked up the card. She finished shutting off the computer before she turned to Jim while opening the envelope. The red and green letters on the envelope were written in the same blocky script.

On the Twelfth day of Christmas my office gave to me

“Back to where it all started?”

“What can I say? I’m a sentimental kind of guy.”

Pam had a suspicion as to what or who would be on the card. She wasn’t disappointed. A ring of twelve miniature pictures of Kevin on his drums surrounded a large jar of M&M’s.

Twelve Kevins drumming
Eleven Dwights a-piping
Ten Michaels leaping
Nine Kellys dancing
Eight Moses milking
Seven swans a-melting
Six geese a-flopping
Five teal teapots
Four calling phones
Three pointless meetings
Two Olympic doves
And a Dundie in a paper tree

Putting the last card back into its envelope, Pam reached up to bring Jim’s face to hers for a deep kiss. She held him close as his lips glided over hers. She wasn’t really expecting it when he took a step forward which had the effect of pressing her against the edge of the reception counter. Passion started to simmer within her as Jim deepened the kiss. Reluctantly, she broke from him and leaned backwards when he tried to re-establish their lip-lock.

“Not here,” she said soothingly.

Jim took a deep steadying breath and leaned his head on her shoulder. After a moment he looked up at her. “As you wish.”

She gave him a peck on the cheek to take some of the sting away. “You do owe me a backrub when we get home. A proper one at that, and to my mind a proper back rub includes the use of massage oil.”

“Oil?” Jim perked back up. “Interesting Beesly. Wouldn’t massage oil ruin that lovely sweater though?”

Pam leaned forward to whisper in his ear. “Who said I’ll be wearing a sweater?”

Despite the snowstorm, it seemed they made it back to Jim’s place in record time.