Whether it was because she still was dressed in her robe and slippers or because she was headed back to bed, to Pam’s initial relief, Roy’s aunt decided not to accompany her to the house.

But after she handed over the spare key and through her yawns told Pam to bring it back over later with Roy so she and her husband, Keith could toast them together, Pam realized it would have been better if she had. She knew she couldn’t come back later because she wasn’t the same Pam that would be here tonight with Roy.

Palpably aware she had to get the key back right away and had only a small window of time before Janet went back to bed, she rushed over to her house’s front door and unlocked it without going in. Taking a quick detour at the car, to tell Michael he was free to leave now, she returned to Janet’s, thankfully before her soon-to-be-aunt retired back to her bedroom to take a mid-morning nap.

“Pam, honey, you’re back?” she asked as she opened the door once more for her future niece. “Did I give you the wrong key? I’m a little discombobulated this morning after the late night making phone calls. You know we’re all just so excited for you two, and Vicky wanted everyone to know right away.”

She gestured for Pam to come in while she turned back to the table from where she grabbed the correct key earlier.

“No, the key was right. Thank you. I wanted to return it right away because I don’t know if we’ll make it over later. I remembered we are going out to celebrate ourselves tonight and I’m not sure when we’ll be back.”

It wasn’t a complete lie. They were going to Poor Richards for a few drinks after work as they often did Friday nights. And least they had in her history. Who knew, maybe in the new timeline Roy would have another surprise for her and would suggest going out for a fancy dinner after they hung out with the warehouse crew. He might even propose they skip the bar altogether and just spend the entire night with each other.  Pam knew it wasn’t likely, even if this whole thing was a dream, and the longer it went on the more she was acutely aware it was happening for real and not just in her head, Roy was still Roy and unless she suggested going somewhere like Anna Maria’s or Christopher’s, they weren’t going anywhere but home with a take-in pizza. And she distinctly remembered arguing over whether to get it with extra cheese or pepperoni.

“Oh okay, well then another time.”

As she leaned in to offer a congratulatory hug, Pam could only hope the fluffy coat concealed the pungent odor she was sure to be giving off.  With all she’d gone through yesterday in her many trips; not only the one that took her on a sprint back in time, but the shopping excursion with Michael and the cruise that left her with the scent of the lake in her hair and on her body, plus all the nervous energy and piercing confusion that had to be escaping out of her pores, she was certain she did not smell like a person who had showered for a day of work just a few short hours ago. At least if Janet did catch a whiff, she might assume it was her own eau de not-yet-bathed as it was obvious she’d also not taken one herself yet.

If she had smelled anything she gave no indication when she wrapped her arms around Pam and spoke the same words she had when she called Pam that very day.

“Congratulations dear and welcome to the family. We are all so thrilled that you are becoming an Anderson at last.”

It had to be coincidence the time of day was almost exact to the moment as the call that had come from Aunt Janet in her other reality, the one she no longer would get at Dunder Mifflin because Pam showed up at her door instead.

---

As she walked, her pace a little slower on this trip, back to her house, Pam wondered if that little change would make a difference somehow in the time continuum, or if it would just be that one less member of the Anderson clan would call her to offer her congratulations on this day. Last night, in both versions, it seems no one in the family had gotten to go to bed until the entire phone chain had heard the news and marked the date in their calendar. That is except Roy, who that night was out like a light before Pam had even returned from washing up in the bathroom.

So much for continuing the romantic evening that began on the boat with dancing and kissing and promises of passionate sex when they got home. Still even if he hadn’t fallen asleep, Roy was probably too drunk to anyway. He’d had a lot of snorkel shots when she left him unattended and while he was superfluously romantic and amorous all night, he was also very sloppy.

If truth be told, it was much better he was out cold when she returned to the room. On other nights when his drunkenness interfered with his abilities, he would either try for way too long to get it to work, which was more exhausting than pleasurable for Pam, or on occasion become angry and place the blame on her, through slurred speech and hurtful words assert she wasn’t sexy enough to arouse him properly.

Still, the last night of two weeks ago she’d been too worked up to go right to sleep, but not because she was thinking of the sex they didn’t wind up having. What kept her up was a mind filled with all that was to come, the excitement of planning the wedding, of meeting with florists and listening to bands, dress shopping with her bridesmaids and her mom and finally walking down the aisle as she had been dreaming of for years.

Thinking back on it as she walked into the house today, she could practically hear Roy’s snores in her head and she recalled how she occupied herself as she listened to the noises coming from her future husband on that night from her past. 

Taking care not to be too loud, she’d sat on the edge of the bed and fully opened the drawer of her nightstand, rummaging through it for the magazine that had her dream dress dogeared to return to when this day arrived. 

With all that she piled in the only real private space of their shared room, from the sketch books and scrunchies, saved trinkets like the pretend gold medals from the office Olympics and silicon charity wristbands from who knows where, it was not easy to find the three-year-old Modern Bride that she swore she stashed there when they first were engaged. Before she found it, however her excited fingers landed on something else. It was a photo, but not one of model bride in a white gown. Instead, it was a 3 x 2 headshot of a dorky, teenager, just one of the items planted in her gift teapot, the bonus gifts that he’d surprised her with at the office holiday party, the photo included just because he knew how much it made her smile.

And once again, for a beat, it did.

But this smile had different pulse than the ones that surfaced both of the other times the photo was discovered first in the book itself and then in her Secret Santa present. It was subtler, less carefree and more introspective, and it dissipated quickly, as if wiped off by the disruptive snort that escaped from the other side of the bed.

What triggered this altered smile and what Jim didn’t know, was that on that night, a night that had begun with flashbacks to her own high school days and not-so-fond memories of feeling awkward and out of place at rowdy parties, a part of her had been thinking what if she’d met Jim then, in high school, before she’d started dating Roy. Would they have been the good friends they were now? Could they have been more?

A memory almost forgotten until now, the heaviness she felt then as she came across his photo seemed to return, except now there was the added weight of what she had learned last night.

Back on that night, with guilt rising up like heartburn in her chest, she pushed aside the photo, pushed aside her thoughts of him, not wanting to reflect any further on their earlier exchange. She’d brooded too much over the mist of confusion that arose from their uncomfortable silence. There was room only for one cloud that night, the one she’d been floating on since Roy proposed the date.

Today, it was not as easy to wipe clear the haze.

She still was riding on that pillow of joy about her upcoming marriage. Hugging Janet reminded her again what a warm, caring family she would soon be part of. She felt truly blessed in that way.

Being in the home she had with Roy reminded her of the life they shared but she couldn’t help but think of everything that was said last night by Jim. And now it was no longer just what she heard in the silence some two weeks ago.

Today the fog in her head was amplified by what she stumbled upon in this new dimension, the words he’d shared with Michael.

She hoped a hot shower would help; the pressure of the jets would somehow wash away the contamination of her knowledge. That as the bathroom filled with steam from the heated spray, her confliction too would cling to the mirror only to evaporate as the cool air rushed in when she opened the door.

The shower did help, at least it did until she stayed so long the temperature dipped. But even as the water went from luxuriously hot, to still warm enough to be soothing, to tepid and on the verge on going completely cool, she remained under the water’s flurry, not ready to face the cold awaiting her on the tile floor.

Twisting back the handle when the last bit of warmth had run out, she pulled back the curtain and took the five steps to the vanity where she’d left the fresh towel and wrapped it tightly around her body, a single shiver escaping before she acclimated to the climate of the steam-filled room.

On the way back to the bedroom, the makeshift turban keeping her wet hair off her back began to unravel and she let it cascade down her back like a veil, the same way she used to when playing at being a bride as child. She smiled, thinking of the memory and how her childhood playtime nuptials were soon to be a reality. She was getting married and an actual veil was just one of the many items she would need to decide on and soon, now that the date was set and five short months away.

They hadn’t done much yet in the way of planning aside from discuss the honeymoon and kick around some wedding venues, one of which was the hotel they had just returned from a few days ago after their quick winter getaway in the Poconos. These two weeks she suddenly found herself with might prove to be a blessing, affording her some extra time to research the places they might hold the reception, as well as many of the other details they needed to work out.

Now where had she put that folder with the wedding packages offered at the hotel?

Wrapped only in her towel, her still drenched curls now cascading around her, rivulets of water running over her shoulders and back leaving a trail of droplets down the hall, she wandered the house looking for them, checking all the places they might have be left.

Returning to the bedroom, she head to the tall dresser thinking maybe Roy could have taken another look and placed them upon it afterwards. It didn’t seem likely as his interest in being part of the planning had died out after one consultation with the wedding planner at the hotel. In fact, she could sense his annoyance during the women’s detailed speeches and photo showcases of past events. Pam had promised him it would be quick and as the meeting ran longer than she had anticipated, it began to interfere with their morning slope time. She tried to suggest they ski in the afternoon instead when the woman stepped out of the room to grab the menus and package brochures, but he just grumbled that would cut into happy hour instead and he was damned if he would miss out on twofers of the overpriced beers served at this resort. When the planner returned to the room, a stack of papers in her hands and sat back down to go through the options, Roy abruptly cut her off letting her know they were perfectly capable of reading the menus on their own and didn’t need her to recite off every appetizer available to them. Without even waiting for her response, he stood up to leave, at least issuing a thank you to her for the meeting and information. Mortified at her fiancé’s behavior, Pam apologized for his abrupt exit, gathered the papers that were spread out on the desk in front of her and with her head down and a mumbled thank you, also left the office to catch up with Roy.

She didn’t think they could be in her bedside drawer but she checked there all the same. But just as she thought had no luck. Running out of thoughts where they could be, she even thought about looking in his night table, breaching the sacred privacy of the drawer where they each could keep their personal possessions. But before she crossed that line, it came to her why she couldn’t find the wedding package folder.

They hadn’t been on that trip yet.

She was only confused because in nothing but her towel, the ugly purple splotch, now tinged with vicious streaks of yellow, quite like the shade of one of Dwight’s shirts, was still there on her thigh. This version of herself had already took a tumble on a blue run she knew she was not quite a good enough skier to traverse, but the other Pam hadn’t.

She didn’t even have to wonder if it would happen again. Roy would no doubt still be frustrated having to stay with her on the easier runs and so she would once more make the choice to take the lift with him up to the mountaintop where the harder blue and black courses took off from.

When she’d skied it last week, it started okay, maybe even better than okay. Though taking it very slow, she was handling herself well and had made it down about halfway, her confidence growing as she managed to keep herself upright while she slalomed around the little moguls along the way.

Roy had even praised her and though she asked him to stay close, he yelled out she’d gotten the hang of it and sped on ahead telling her he’d meet her at the bottom. Even without him there, she started feeling rather proud and even dared to let herself go a touch faster and that is when the flurry flew past in the form of a pack of teenage snowboarders who went crisscrossing in front of her and whipping up white powder as they weaved around her, disturbing her concentration and her equilibrium and before she knew it, she was down, both her skis off in opposite directions and her pride hurting slightly more than the leg than she knew would sport a sizable bruise by the next day.

Releasing her hold on the metal grip of the night table she sat back on the bed and touched down on the ugly mark, to see if it still was tender to the touch, and found that yes, it was. Curious the nature of a bruise, how something so unsightly and so clearly unnatural caused so little pain until one pushed upon it. It was a little like the issues she knew existed in her own relationship with Roy. She could ignore the ugliness as long as she kept it out of sight and didn’t press and so that’s how she handled it.  She covered it up as best she could so she wouldn’t have to look and avoided putting any pressure on what she knew would be sore if she did.

The difference was that with a bruise, time was the healer, and as it passed all the unsightliness and soreness eventually went away until it became as if it was never there. Because Pam believed the main welt in their relationship was the three years she waited on him, the hideous mark grew larger and larger as time marched on. But now with that behind her, the injuries would heal, the color of their relationship would fade back to it the flesh tone it once had been.

Despite the time dedicated to the mystery of the missing bridal package menus and what followed as she daydreamed about wedding stuff, she was still on track to be ready when Michael returned for her. Though she was explicit in telling him to not honk when he pulled up just in case Janet was up again and paying attention, she wanted to be waiting at the door to make sure, so she ate her lunch in record time after she’d gotten dressed.

What did set her back was packing, mainly because she had to do it twice. The initial go-around was a complete failure.

In her first attempt, she pulled out her regular overnight bag and piled it with her most comfortable and favorite weekend wear, happy not to have to bother with pencil skirts and tights for a bit. However, after she loaded in her cable knit sweater, her fluffy fleece pull-over, some casual tops, a few pairs of leggings and a second pair of jeans to go with the comfortably, broken-in pair she put on, it came back to her what Michael had said about his grill, what would my other self do without it?

And then she was unpacking. And changing.

She knew she couldn’t take most of the items she had packed and dressed herself in. If all of sudden, half her wardrobe disappeared, well, she didn’t know what her other self would think except that maybe she was losing her mind. With a weekend coming up, and then a ski trip with Roy, she couldn’t take any of her regular casual wear, nor could she take much of her standard business attire since she would have a full five days of work next week.

The only items she had doubles of were the skirt, button-down and cardigan she’d worn for two days now and these were in serious need of a washing. However, the duplicates she found hanging in the closet and even though it might be puzzling to her other self how they wound up in the hamper, at least they would still be there to find.

Gathering clothes for her stay at the Stewart’s place, even if she could return back to do a wash and swap things out in a few days, was somewhat time-consuming. She had to find items that wouldn’t be missed but she could feel presentable wearing in public.

She started in the laundry room grabbing a few pieces from the shelf where she kept clothes in need of the mending she never got around to. Well, she had time now to do some of that while she waited out the weeks, so along with the items, she grabbed the matching color spools of threads and the buttons that had fallen off from her small sewing kit. From the spare bedroom they used for storage, she pulled out her retired clothing box, and retrieved a pair of jeans that upon trying on, decided were actually not all that bad and a few other items that had noticeable stains or holes that had rendered them unwearable, except in extreme situations such as time travel.

Next, she hit the go-bag, the emergency duffle that after the devastating event of 9/11, became a staple item for most households, or at least the more prepared ones as she had pointed out to Roy when year after year, he teased her for updating the medications and checking the batteries shortly after the holidays. About a year back he insisted nobody kept one anymore and it was a waste to keep buying Advil and Pepto that expired while it sat unused in the bag. Thinking perhaps he was right and she was being overly cautious—the extra clothes she stored in the bag were after all items she did like when she bought them even if they were specifically purchased for keeping stored for emergencies, some even still had tags on them—and so she asked Jim the next day at work if he had one.

He said he didn’t, at which Dwight interrupted to tell him he was crazy and added that Pam’s bag was grossly understocked. That without a 10lb container of salt, water purification tablets, a portable solar panel, machete and the most important item, a shotgun, she would never survive a zombie apocalypse. By the time he was done with his list, they were both doubled over in laughter, to which he’d replied.

“Just wait, you’ll be sorry when I’m the only one in town prepared for Armageddon. I promise you Schrute Farm will be the only safe haven and you two will not be invited.”

At this, they had to leave for the kitchen, unable to keep themselves or their overflowing giggles contained.

The next day, however, Jim was at her desk waiting to tell her how he he’d spent the night setting up his own emergency bag, but not one filled with night vision goggles, weapons and a hazmat suit. Instead, his was an old gym duffle which he packed with a bunch of spare underwear and socks, medicines and flashlights and some extra cash, the last item one Pam had not thought of before. After work she returned the clothes she had taken out the night before back to the bag and added a few twenties and a ten to a side pocket.

Today, as she grabbed the warm boots, the new casual pants, sweater and the $50 cash, she silently thanked Jim, and even made a mental nod to Dwight. It wasn’t quite the doomsday he predicted, but time travel was certainly not something she would ever have thought she would need the bag for, and here she was thankful she had a pair of old snow boots, the only item from his list she decided to add. But how she wished she had left herself a decent bra. The one in the bag, aside from being slightly stretched, had the underwire poking out and a clasp off the back missing. She probably should have just thrown it away and replaced it in the go-bag a long time ago with a newer, better fitting, more comfortable one, but she didn’t so this was what she was stuck with.

From the many different sources, she managed to pull together a decent enough wardrobe to get her through at least four days without gaslighting her other self in the process. She assumed she could make a trip back later with Michael if she found there were something else she needed from home, but for that she would need to find that spare key. With packing having taken twice the time she thought it might, she was already running up against the clock even if Michael was late, as she predicted he would be. Unless the key was in the next place she looked, she was not going to be there to meet him as he pulled up.

And of course, it wasn’t.