Pam felt like she was high on life. Jim was taking her out for official dates now, after their first date in the park, they had decided to distinguish between their now traditionally entrenched ‘best-friend dates’ and ‘date-dates.’ This meant that Jim had taken her out to a restaurant for a romantic dinner for the last two Fridays, and Pam had invited Jim to her place a few times for movie nights without Mark or Larissa around – although those still happened too. Things were going really well as far as Pam was concerned, dating your best friend was a blast. They managed to make each other laugh all the time – even while making out like teenagers on the tiny couch in Pam’s living room, Pam blushed.

Jim looked up from his desk to see Pam blushing with a far off look in her eye, and he couldn’t help catching her eye to grin slyly at her, imagining what she might be thinking about over there behind reception. Pam was dressed up as a cat for the Halloween party today, with whiskers and a nose drawn on her face and her hair down and held back by a cute headband with ears on it. Jim loved it when Pam wore her hair down, she looked so beautiful and carefree, and he loved the feel of running his hands through it.

Pam met Jim’s eyes after he caught her attention and she had to look away at what she saw in them. The unabashed emotion warmed her heart and she couldn’t help but feel like she was blushing even harder now. Pam thought back to two weeks ago when he had given her a similar look after she revived him to run the Office Olympics. Pam knew now that was the look Jim got in his eyes when he was passionate about something – in this case her. Pam had felt invincible after feeding off of that look, and even Angela’s snide comment about Pam Pong hadn’t broken her stride that day. Pam didn’t care what the office thought or if they figured it out – but she wasn’t going to be giving away any clues either. The cameras had been especially relentless after her drunken kiss at the Dundies, and Kelly had only just this week stopped speculating about it in her presence. Jim had had the forethought to pick Kevin to throw people off in their impromptu round of ‘Who Would You Do’ after Ryan set the building on fire last week. Pam was almost grateful that Katy had shown up to take Roy out to lunch, ending up as the crowd pick for the male office members.

Pam was actually surprised that Katy was still hanging around with Roy, she seemed to be nice and smart. If Pam was honest with herself though, Roy had cleaned up his act a lot since she had left him, and the fact that she may well have been holding him back stung. Pam hoped that she wasn’t holding Jim back. Was that why Jim didn’t have something to strive for like she strove for her art? Pam was concerned by this revelation, because she didn’t know what Jim wanted to do big picture, and she felt like she should. Pam’s thoughts were interrupted by Michael calling her into his office.

Jim listened as Pam debriefed him over coffee in the kitchen about her latest experience in Michael’s office. She had just finished telling him about Michael saying that he needed to fire someone and her attempt to brush it off by saying that she just answered the phones.

“And then all I could think was, ‘Escape, Evade, Survive,’ over and over in my head from that war movie we watched last week with Mark, and so I complimented his costume, giggled a bit, and got the hell out of there,” Pam wrapped up her report.

“Well, let me tell you Beesly, I am glad you lived to fight another day,” Jim teased her, loving the way she curled in on herself, utterly failing to stifle her giggles.

“It was a close call, he was all ‘And sometimes you let them go to voicemail,’ and I just,” Pam giggled, “I couldn’t even defend it, because you know how little work actually gets done around here!”

“Says the one who got promoted to Administrative Assistant,” Jim challenged her, “I thought that was supposed to come with increased responsibilities?”

“Please, all that did was make my Michael Wrangling official,” Pam sighed, “At least it pays for my art classes.”

“There’s my Beesly,” Jim beamed, “Always looking at the bright side.”

“You know,” Pam trialed off as though she was about to suggest a prank.

“I really don’t,” Jim said with a smirk, wondering what she had cooked up, “Please enlighten me.”

“Consider yourself prematurely elucidated friend,” Pam winked at him and leaned in to whisper conspiratorially, “If we could get Dwight a job somewhere else, nobody would have to get fired!”

That was how Jim ended up hunched behind Pam at the reception desk, only too aware of the ever present camera trained on them as they bounced ideas back and forth to create Dwight’s fake resume. After posting his resume and getting a few bites, Jim returned to his desk to lay low, but he was shaken from thoughts of his self-imposed exile when he heard Pam answer the phone.

“Dunder Mifflin, this is Pam,” Jim saw movement in his periphery and looked up to see Pam trying to get his attention, “Hang on one second while I transfer you to our Regional Manager, Michael Scott,” she said before his phone started to ring.

She was so good, perfect, even, was all Jim could think as he picked up the phone to impersonate Michael in order to provide a reference for Dwight’s resume. Jim hung up the phone and meandered up to reception where Pam was positively beaming at him. Jim loved that smile, that smile was a job well done, but now Jim knew it also meant ‘I love you,’ among other things.

“Hey, don’t take this the wrong way,” Pam trailed off as Jim leaned on her counter, and Pam saw the corners of his mouth tug down into a slight frown, but pressed on, “You should look into some of those postings, they pay like, double you make here, have better benefits, and you know… might actually be challenging for you,” Pam felt a stab of fear as his frown deepened, had she pushed too far? The boundaries of their new relationship were still relatively untested, but Pam just wanted to see Jim in a job that brought him joy, was that really so bad?

“Jim,” Pam pleaded as his lips drew into a line and his back straightened, “Stairwell?”

Jim nodded reluctantly, and they made their escape as the film crew was busy filming Dwight talking to the hiring manager from Cumberland Mills. By unspoken mutual agreement, they sat down next to each other on the landing, and waited for someone to break the silence.

Pam broke first, she hated not being able to talk to Jim, “Why are you mad at me,” she asked in a small voice.

When Jim still didn’t respond, she prodded again, “I just wanted to encourage you to go after something like you’ve always done for me, I know you don’t want to sell paper as a career, but… I also don’t know what your dream job is, and I want to,” she added quietly, silently begging Jim to meet her gaze as he stared determinedly down the stairwell.

“Listen, I’m sorry if I overstepped,” Pam started before Jim cut her off.

“You didn’t overstep,” Jim assured her, and Pam was relieved to hear no anger in his tone as he finally met her gaze.

“It’s just, when you get excited about something, like the Office Olympics, or the games we did in the parking lot, you get really into it and do a great job, but you work here, so… I guess what I’m trying to say is that my wish for you, is for you to have a job that brings out that side of you,” Pam got out, and gave Jim a small smile.

“Pam, can I be completely honest with you,” Jim asked with a small smile of his own.

“I should hope so,” Pam shot back with a raised eyebrow.

“Right now, my dream job… is being your boyfriend, and I don’t know if that’s weird or what, but it’s true. Career-wise? I have no idea, and I’ve been wrestling with that for a while now, and I’m sorry that I let you think I was angry at you; I wasn’t. I’ve just been really frustrated with the ‘What do you want to be when you grow up’ question for a while now,” he sighed and shrugged, and all Pam wanted to do was hug him for letting her see his insecurities, his weakness. Roy had never been this open with her.

“Oh Jim,” Pam leaned into him and started idly rubbing is back, “Thank you for letting me in,” she felt Jim wrap his arm around her shoulders and sighed contentedly, because these were the hallmarks of a healthy relationship in her mind, being open and accepting of one another. Explaining feelings and talking instead of shutting the other out.

They sat there together for a few more minutes before Jim reluctantly let go and said they should get back, and shortly after making their discrete return to the office, Jim got pulled in to the conference room for an interview with the film crew. Jim knew the drill by now, and so he sat and waited for Greg to start asking him questions, preparing his answers for the probing questions they usually gave him about Pam. Surprisingly, there were no questions about Pam today, the focus was on how Michael was going to decide who to fire, and when Jim finished his answer he heard a throat clear to his left. Jim looked over to see Michael scowling at him, and followed him into his office, dragging his feet. Jim met Pam’s eyes and saw the concern there and tried to reassure her with a smile before closing the door behind him.

Pam was worried when she saw Michael pull Jim into his office with grim features. Someone was getting fired today, and she refused to believe it could be Jim – everybody loved Jim. The evidence to the contrary was stacked against her right now though, as Dwight make a throat slitting motion with his finger and chuckled darkly. Pam waited anxiously for the door to open, and when it did, she sprung from her chair and suddenly she was holding Jim’s hand.

“It wasn’t me,” was all she needed, as she felt the relief flow through her.

Jim pulled her towards the breakroom, and she didn’t resist, following along behind him. Pam sat herself down heavily and Jim went over to the vending machine.

“Phew,” Pam exhaled, “I don’t know what I’d do if you left,” she said earnestly.

Jim quirked an eyebrow at her as he set a coke down in front of her, “This coming from the one that was just encouraging me to look into other job offers?”

“Just because I want what’s best for you doesn’t mean I can’t be selfish too,” Pam stuck her tongue out at him, glad that they could so easily fall back into their dynamic of playful banter.

“Well, I appreciate your concern, but you’re not getting rid of me that easily.”

“And thank god for that,” Pam raised her coke in a cheers motion, and he clinked his grape soda can with it.

The last hour of work was filled with shouting from Michael’s office, as first Creed, then Devon, were called in to be fired. Michael finally managed to fire Devon and tried to offer him a Chilli’s gift certificate on his way out. When Devon invited ‘Kevin, Jim, Pam, Toby, Oscar, Meredith, Phyllis, Stanley, and The Temp’ to Poor Richards, adding that the rest could ‘Go to Hell,’ Pam looked over to Jim to gauge his reaction. Jim jerked is head towards the door and shrugged, Pam shrugged back. With that decided they grabbed their jackets and ditched the after-work Halloween party in favour of a couple of drinks with Devon.

Pam stuck to Lite beer and Jim ribbed her for being a light-weight, but Pam replied coyly that she didn’t need liquid courage to kiss him anymore, and Jim promptly paid their tab and escorted her home ‘To test that theory’ as he put it.

The day had had its ups and downs, but in the end as Jim kissed her senseless on her doorstep, Pam acquiesced that any day with Jim was a good day.