Pam was very grateful that the next day after she moved out of her house that she’d shared with Roy was the weekend, because she didn’t think she could have born it if she’d had to go into work.

As it is, there were three increasingly angry voicemails on her phone (she’d turned the ringer off after Penny came to help her move out), all from an also increasingly drunk Roy, the last of which (when she forced herself to listen to them) was so sad that she cried for him even though she had (and will continue to have) no intention of getting back together with him.

The other two, after all, were just mean, so that helped as well with that particular decision.

She made the mistake of listening to the first of those with her family in the room, but on the plus side at least her parents became even more willing to let her move back in for a bit than they’d already been.

Although she actually wasn’t going to move in there long-term, unless something went very wrong in the intervening month: Penny was at college in Scranton, at Marywood, just far enough from the family home outside of town that she had her own off-campus apartment, and she was on break until Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, which meant another month. Her roommate was going to be back in California the whole time, so she offered to let Pam just stay there while she was home for break—“housesitting” she called it, though Pam would have called it “charity” and taken it anyway—and figure out her own apartment situation after that.

After all, she’d pointed out, she didn’t have a job to go to during that month, and someone had to beat their dad at Mario Kart over winter break, and heaven knew Pam wasn’t any good at it.

She’d hugged her sister for a long time over that one, and she was still a bit teary-eyed about it.

She promised she’d spend a lot of time at home anyway over the break, shoved most of her stuff in the garage (the off-campus apartment didn’t have storage that wasn’t already being used anyway), took Penny’s keys and their parents’ spare car, and on Sunday night drove herself back to town with two suitcases and a clearly labeled handwritten map of Penny’s apartment with which bedroom was whose.

The roommate might not be in town, but she still didn’t want to invade the wrong room.

Work on Monday was weird and uncomfortable. At least Roy wasn’t in town yet, but she did have the sense that Darryl and a couple of the other warehouse guys might know what had happened, because of the way they avoided her when she pulled into the parking lot at the same time as them. Darryl looked a little sheepish, which probably meant they weren’t going to make any trouble for her, but still…it was awkward.

Also awkward was upstairs, where Michael was doing his own stupid little apology tour for the last day they’d been in the office, and she was just so sick of it.

Honestly, the only thing that made anything better was that Jim sauntered up to her desk, rapped on it, and leaned up against it like nothing had happened at all.

“So, Beesly, why no guilt?”

Her heart sank. OK, maybe that wasn’t good after all. How did Jim know? And why was he saying she should be guilty?

“Hey, hey, hey, I was just asking because I saw the big bag of it when we were playing dreidel and I figured you could take a break from the jellybeans for a little while!” He stood back up with his hands up and she realized with a start that she’d misheard him.

He’d asked not about guilt, but gelt.

“Oh. OH!” She stuttered. “Uh, I like the chocolate too much to give it away.”

He smirked.

“Didn’t seem like that at the party. You spun so many shins it was like a orthopedic office in there.”

“Jim Halpert, are you suggesting I’m bad at dreidel?”

“I’m just saying, Izzy and I had a lot of chocolate to eat over the weekend and the only reason you had any was that you brought the bag.”

“Oh yeah? You want to go there? Well, the only reason you had any was that I gave you my favorite green dreidel, the one that lands gimel more than half the time.” She clapped a hand across her mouth.

“Beesly!” He grinned. “Are you suggesting you cheat at dreidel?” Then he seemed to realize exactly what she’d said. “Wait, are you saying you cheat at dreidel for me?”

“I just wanted you to have a good time!”

“Oh, believe me Beesly, I was going to do that anyway. Gambling, fried potatoes, good company…what more could a party have?”

“Don’t forget the Halpert Family Applesauce.”

“I would never.”

“Good.”

He smiled at her, and she let herself bask for a moment in the glow of it. It was nice to remember that even when everything around her was falling apart, she had at least one person she could rely on to raise her mood. Maybe that’s what led her to play along just a little further.

“But now that you know I was cheating, even if it was on your behalf…I’m afraid I am going to have to insist on a rematch. With a fair dreidel this time.”

He cocked an eyebrow. “Oh really.” He reached a hand over the desk. “You’re on. Name the time and the place, and I will absolutely kick your butt at dreidel, green dreidel or not.”

“You’re on.” She reached out and shook hands with him.

“So, when and where?”

“Tonight?”

He nodded. “Your place again? I don’t exactly have a large supply of dreidels at mine.”

“Sure…oh!” She pulled him closer, only realizing then that neither of them had actually let the other’s hand free. “I’ll have to give you my new address,” she whispered.

Not softly enough, as it turned out. Kelly had just walked into the main bullpen to give Dwight some paperwork and her ears were definitely tuned to gossip, because she gasped theatrically and ran over screaming.

Not much work got done after that, but—public embarrassment aside—at least everyone knew by the end of the day that she and Roy were no longer an item.

And Jim was still coming over for dreidel.