“Attention in the Office!” Michael busts through his office door excited about what he has in store.

Pam had just sat at here desk ready to log onto her computer when she heard Michael. She can’t remember a time when yelling wasn’t involved in the morning greeting Michael had given every day of her employ. Some were actually normal ‘good morning’s’, but on some occasions he decided urgency was the best decision. Pam rolled her eyes to look over at Michael who had made his way over to her desk.

“On account of the holiday, there will be a special meeting in the conference room in about 5 minutes, so just hurry up.”

“Question: will this take long, I have a very important meeting,” as he said this, his eyes traveled over to Angela’s empty desk, “Can I perhaps skip this group meeting and catch up on the minutes later?”

“No, Dwight, this is a group activity. We must bring all together on this day of love, because when you love, you are together, and when you are together, you are happy.”

As everyone slowly piled their way into the conference room, they were greeted by the dry erase board boasting huge letters reading “Office of Love”, in red, naturally.

“Welcome to the Office of Love!” Michael seemed so proud of what he was about to say. “You may ask yourself, what is Office of Love? Well I will tell you. Office of Love is a competition.” Karen and Jim give each other a quizzical look from their little corner.

[Michael: Office of Love? Yea, totally my brainchild. I was sitting around the condo last night thinking of ways to improve togetherness for the folks of Dunder Mifflin, when it came to me. Competition. What can bring so many people together more than a friendly little office competition. It’s heartwarming, really.]

“You may ask yourself, why are their so many empty boxes and sheets of colorful paper?”

Pam couldn’t resist, this was too much, so she turned toward Jim who she had luckily grabbed a seat next to and whispered, “You may ask yourself, how did I get here?” quoting the Talking Heads. Jim smiled and let out a little chuckle.

“We are all going back to second grade today. Each of you will decorate your own personal valentine box, this is so everyone has a chance.”

“I am not wasting my time on that,” Stanley got up and left

“Fine, Stanley’s out, everyone else, decorate your box, next, and this is the important part, you will make five and only five valentines. You give them to the five people you find the most important to you. The person at the end of the day with the most valentines wins.”

“Michael, I thought everyone gave everyone a valentine.” Phyllis sweetly chimed in.

“I don’t know what school you went to but at my school, we lived in the real world, you had to fight for your milk, it was brutal.”

“But we went to the same school,” Phyllis added.

“Ugh, fine. You were a girl, it was different,” Michael responded emphasizing were for some reason, “Let’s get cracken!”

Pam actually liked this idea for once, aside from the fact people would be left out. She was just happy she got to use some creativity in the office for once. She went to decorating right away, making a lovely pink and red box. Then she went for the valentines, she knew exactly one person who she wanted to give to but had no idea what to draw. As she sat thinking, Pam was interrupted by the flower guy. This year didn’t bother her that she wasn’t going to get anything, until this particular delivery.

“Flowers for a Karen Filipelli?” the man called out as Pam stood dejected.

“Uh, yea. That’s me.” Karen replied, looking confused. She walked them over to her desk and sat down with a smile. She sheepishly looked over at Jim who gave her an approving smile and a wink. She started to blush. Pam saw this interaction.

[Pam: Does it bother me about Jim and Karen? No, that’s old news. Plus I’m starting to like her. She’s very sweet, and she makes him happy. She deserved the flowers; I mean Jim must be a good boyfriend. I just hope she doesn’t choke on them by accident.]

During lunch time Pam and Jim found themselves alone in the kitchen talking about how silly the valentine card game was.

“I really never had that great of an experience with Valentines Day,” Jim had begun to tell her. “It was always so pointless to me, I mean it’s just a day, why can’t you let people know you care about them. Plus I never liked getting valentines.”

“Oh, come on Jim, there has to be some good memory about Valentines Day.”

“Actually, you know what, there was one. My girlfriend in 4th grade got me this pretty cool valentine; it was Michelangelo and a slice of pizza with the phrase Kowabunga, Valentine on it.”

“Wow, how can you not resist that?”

“I know, right? So what about you? Any great valentines of the past?”

“I don’t know that I’ve had a good Valentines Day in a long while. I mean when I was little my mom had always gotten me little trinkets or candy or something like that. Just something little. I always loved that.”

Just then Karen walked in to grab her lunch and playfully smiled at Jim. Pam quietly excused herself as she heard Karen giggle, afraid to turn around and see what happened.

At this point she didn’t care; she was on a tiny mission. She ran directly to her desk and got out a pen and the paper for the valentines. She immediately googled images of Michelangelo for reference. She was going to recreate Jim’s best valentine. After about five attempts to make it perfect, she finally got it, adding the final touches.

It was unusually quiet that afternoon as people slowly milled around handing out cheesy little valentines all day when Pam noticed something. Dwight and Angela had gone missing. Playing investigator, she got up from her desk and walked to the break room, she had noticed Angela walk that way a few minutes ago. As she peered around the corner, unbeknownst to her that Michael had followed her, she saw Dwight and Angela sprawled out on the table making out.

“Oh, yuck! Dwight, this is just, Angela, really?” Michael yelled out making Pam jump back only to run with laugher.

“Woah, Pam, what’s the rush” Jim had stopped her as she ran into him on accident.

Breathless from the laughing, Pam just blurted out “Dwight! Angela! My eyes!”

“No way, I have to see this,” as he ran over seeing them walk back to their desks, clothes all disheveled.  

Michael came back shaking his head, “I know I meant for togetherness today, but not this way, Dwight, just, really?” he was still in shock. “On a less disgusting note, you all have 5 minutes to make you final deliveries. Some of us only have one.”

Pam grabbed her valentine for Jim, she hadn’t even made another for anyone else. As she walked over she felt nervous for some reason, this is stupid, she thought, it’s not like I’m telling him I love him or anything. She finally got to his empty desk, and placed it in the center. She caught Jim in the corner of her eye and quickly walked back. As she sat down she saw Jim had noticed the delivery. He didn’t look at her, but she saw him smiling, just then Karen walk over. “Hey, Jim,” as she said that Jim slid the card in his back pocket. Pam knew he liked it.

“Hey you, what’s up?” Jim asked

“Oh, I know we planned on leaving together tonight, but I have to go back to my apartment and change, I left my bag there this morning, is that OK?”

“Not a problem, I can just pick you up at 7.”

“Perfect” she said as she touched his arm. Pam had saw the interaction and hoped her flowers died by the time she got back to her desk.

“OK everyone; it’s time to reveal the winner. Everyone empty their boxes!” Michael was as giddy as every. As Michael dumped his he was surprised with a lack of love. “What, one? ONE? Who is it... Andy, thank you. Wow. OK, you know what. Game over. There is no winner. Lets just go home. Happy Valentines Day, you people.” And he ran into his office and slammed the door.

Pam hadn’t paid any attention to his outburst as she was frantically searching for a valentine from Jim. Nothing. She had got a few, but none from Jim. Creed had even given her one, but it read Have a good day, Dawn. Pam started to feel like crap, and sat down. This was exactly why she hated this day. Some how Pam hadn’t realized how late it was, and noticed she was alone in the office, of so she thought.

“Hey Pam, how’d you make out?” it was Jim.

“Oh, alright I guess. I got seven. Well technically six, one was for Dawn.”

“Creed?”

“Who else would it have been?”

"Well I better get going, have a good night. Happy Valentines Day.” Jim tapped his hands on her desk as he started for the door.

“OK, Jim, you too.”

Before he got to the door, he stopped and turned pulling something shinny out of his pocket. “Oh Beesly, you forgot one…” as he tossed Pam a little silver heart magnet. “Kowabunga, Valentine”

Pam caught it with a smile as she looked down and notice the little something he gave her. It was the first Valentines Day in 11 years that wasn’t horrible.