Jim realized the next morning, once he and Pam decided to actually get up, that they only had a couple more days in Australia. At least, he did, and from various hints that she had dropped he assumed that Pam had weaseled his trip details out of Toby somehow, at least in terms of dates, so he suspected she did too. And in either case, they only had a couple more days in Australia together, and that was an important consideration anyway.

He started the day asking Pam, over brunch at the Silly Tart, what she wanted to do that they hadn’t done yet. To his surprise, this time she didn’t have to think about it at all, blurting out “koalas!” in an excited voice.

“Not that I want to do koalas, mind you. I hear they all have Chlamydia. But I do want to see one, live in person.”

“Wait, what? Chlamydia?” He stared at her. “Are we thinking of the same koalas? Cuddly, bearlike, primarily eat eucalyptus, genuinely idiotic, massively cute?”

“Uh, yeah, Jim. It was all over the news. Like, every single koala in the world.”

“Wow.” He leaned back in his chair. “And you still want to see them?”

“We don’t stop seeing people just because they have STDs, Jim. Otherwise when would we see Meredith?” She slapped a hand across her mouth. “I did not just say that.”

“Uh, I’m afraid you did. And I don’t think she’d be as embarrassed as you are about it. Have you and Meredith been having parties in my absence? Because I didn’t think there was much risk of you seeing her…” He grinned as she blushed deeper.

“No, but…that was really mean of me.”

“It was a little.” He shrugged. “But you know if we’d brought it up at work she’d probably have been the one to announce it herself. Like the time a couple years ago she walked in, high-fived Phyllis, and told us all she’d gotten laid.”

“That was pretty special.” Pam’s skin tone had returned to its normal hue from the beet red it had been a moment before. “But still…”

“I mean, we’re here in Australia. No one is going to tell her. I’m certainly not. Scout’s honor!” He did the three-finger salute.

“Were you really a Scout?”

“Yes.” He waited a beat. “For a few meetings, anyway. But I still have my honor.” He raised his fingers again. “And also, I have no real incentive to embarrass you in front of Meredith, even if I do love making you blush.”

“I think you have other ways of doing that.”

This time they both blushed.

**

Pam quickly found out from an information desk at King’s Cross station that there were two relatively easy places to see koalas in and around Sydney, both wildlife reserves or zoos (unsurprisingly, they didn’t exactly roam wild in the city streets). One was across the water, a short trip from the quay she’d walked by before she found Jim the first time. The other was, like the kangaroos had been, a metro ride and then a bus away. However, the nice lady said, you could always see the koalas up close at the further one, while the closer one required advance notice.

She went back and forth between the two, looking at the two brochures the lady had given her and forcing Jim to read her one while she compared its details to the other. He had pointed out early in the process that the advance notice appeared to just be calling ahead, so they could head back to the hostel and do that before getting on the boat; but that had just made the decision harder, because both were equally possible. Jim had insisted that this was her choice, because it was her activity, and she could see the justice in that, but since she didn’t actually know either park, she was worried about choosing the wrong one. Eventually she just sat there staring at both brochures and shuffling them a bit in her hands until Jim popped her out of her trance with his voice.

“Have you developed a preference, yet, Beesly?” Jim cocked an eyebrow at her and smiled, and she couldn’t help but smile back.

Suddenly, she realized that since either one was fine, either one was fine. There wasn’t a right choice, necessarily, but that also meant there wasn’t a wrong choice. Why was she wasting the time she could be spending with Jim on deliberating? She had two good options. In the one case, they spent a long time leaning up against each other on the train. On the other, they were together on a boat crossing the bay.

If there was no wrong answer, then there was instead an opportunity. Jim was teasing her about making a choice? Well, she could tease him back.

“Well, I don’t exactly mind a long train ride with you…” she started, and watched his eyes dance at her tone. “But then again, I do have these recurring thoughts about what I might do with you if I ever got you on a boat again…”

She watched his eyes focus harder as he registered what she’d said. “What do you think?” she asked, holding his gaze. “A couple hours together on the train? Or are you ready for another…cruise?”