“Mommy, tell me a story.” The curly haired little girl whined. She was about five years old, very tiny for her age, had bright green eyes like her mother, and looked just like her father.

“Janie honey, it’s late. And you have to go to school for the first time tomorrow.” she smiled.

“Please mommy.” Jane begged.

She couldn’t resist that face. Whenever her daughter made that pouty face, she looked just like her father. Finally caving, she asked, “Okay baby, what story?”

“Do you even have to ask?” Jane said while snuggling up beside her mother.

“I guess not. Okay, once upon a time-“

“Mom! Tell it right!”

“Alright. Here goes.”

-----------------------

“Welcome to Dunder Mifflin! I am Michael Scott, as you already know, so let me introduce you to the rest of our little busy bees.”

Her new boss seemed okay. A little, well, no words could really say it. At least he was better than Roy had described him. Although, he had already started to make her feel uncomfortable. She never was too good at being the center of attention. As he introduced her to everyone, she shook hands, waved, said hello, whatever seemed appropriate. With one girl, Kelly was it, she actually got a hug, and Michael had to drag her away because she wouldn’t stop talking for like five minutes. Except for the few weirdo’s here and there (was somebody actually ordering dear urine off the internet) everyone seemed nice. When they got to the last person, Michael had started to say something, but the guy stood up and cut him off.

“Hey there, I’m Jim.” He said as he held out a very large hand for her to shake.

He towered over her, but then again, everyone did. She was only, what, 5’5”? He was very boyish, but in an attractive way. His hair was a nice colour brown, not too different from her own, and it flipped up at his ears and collar. His eyes were a beautiful shade of green, with some brown just noticeable. Pam felt a little weird, because she realized that she had been standing there for a few seconds checking him out and not responding.

“Hi, I’m Pam.” She finally said, shaking his surprisingly smooth hand.

“Welcome to Dunder Mifflin Pam. Have fun.” He let go of her hand and winked.

Wait, did he just wink at her? Why? She had a felling she would find out.

“Okay Pamela-ramela-dana-lana-ding-dong! Our little tour ends at your new desk. Your home away from home. Welcome, and if you have any questions, feel free to lay ‘em on me! Huh, that’s what she said.” Michael stood waiting for a laugh, but when he realized he wasn’t going to get one, he turned and walked back to his office.

The day went by pretty slowly. At 10:23, she got her first call. Well, her first call that wasn’t Michael calling to ask her if she had any questions for him. She spent most of the morning setting up her desk with pictures and personal touches, confirming her company e-mail address from corporate, and watching the people who worked at Dunder Mifflin Paper Company. Around 12:30, her solitaire game was interrupted by a friendly,

“Hey.”

“Hey Jim. What’s up?” Jim had already been to her desk a few times, you know, just to re-introduce himself, get her up to speed on some things, help her with her phone, and stuff like that.

“Um, you know you have an hour for lunch right? Or were you planning on not eating today?” he asked her.

She looked at the clock above her head, and saw that it was 12:30 already. Crap. “Oh, um, oops. Lost track of time. I’ll just grab something later.”

“Okay, but I thought maybe you might want to go grab something at a cool little place I know down town. If you’re hungry, that is.” He said, standing up and grabbing his coat of the rack.

She just sat there for a second, not sure if she should go out to lunch with this very attractive almost stranger, but when he asked, “Are you coming?” she forwarded the phones, grabbed her purse and coat, and went to lunch with Jim.

-----------------------

“Sweetie, are you tired yet? She tried to say through a yawn.

“No mommy, just finish the story please!” Jane whined.

She figured hopefully the story would make her daughter tired, so she rubbed her eyes, and tried to hold her sleepiness at bay.

-----------------------

When they walked into the restaurant, a deli, the smell of fresh bread, soups, and possibly the best roast beef in the world, hit her nose. She smiled and breathed it in. They walked up to the counter, and as Pam read the menu, Jim ordered.

“Hi, yes. I’ll have the ham and cheese on white please.”

He looked down at her and she was smiling back up him. They were both sickeningly cute.

“What?’ he asked.

“Nothing, just, could that be a more boring lunch?” she asked playfully.

“Oh, okay, lets see you do better little Miss I-have-such-a-more-interesting-lunch-order.”

She took one last look at the menu. She could feel his eyes on her, so she made a cute little thinking face, which made him chuckle.

“The roast beef on rye looks great. I’ll also take that last bag of French Onion Sun Chips and a coke.” She smiled up at him as if to challenge him to question her.

“Wow, very wow Beesly, I didn’t think you had it in you. I’ll think I’ll have the same, sans the chips.” He told the cashier.

What was that? Did he just call her Beesly? Did she even mention her last name this morning? Maybe Michael had mentioned it. Anyways, however he found out, she didn’t care. It was cool that he called her that.

Once they were back at the Dunder Mifflin building, they took their sandwiches and sat a picnic table near a tree.

Taking a bite out of his sandwich, Jim asked, “So Pam, how you liking it here so far?”

“If by that you mean,” she nodded towards the building, “Then great. But I’ve actually lived in Scranton almost my whole life.” She finished while taking a sip of her soda.

He nodded. “Interesting…..”

“What?” Pam asked, suddenly feeling very self-conscious and unnecessarily smoothing out her hair and wiping her mouth of food that wasn’t there.

They caught eyes, and he gave her a small smile and said, “Nothing, its just, so have I. Weird huh?” he chuckled.

She giggled in return, and suddenly, they burst out into uncontrollable laughter. And they didn’t stop for what seemed like hours. They would momentarily stop, and then look at each other holding it in or breathing it out, and start all over again. At one point they were laughing so hard Jim fell off the bench. Just then, someone interrupted their fun.

“Hey babe! What’s so funny?”

“Hey Roy. Oh, um, Jim this is Roy Anderson, my fiancé. Roy this is Jim Halpert, he works upstairs with me.” She said calming down a little and helping Jim up off the ground, then going to stand over by her fiancé.

Jim felt a little embarrassed as he dusted off his pants and held out his hand to shake Roy’s. “Yeah, um, I think we’ve met before. You work in the warehouse right?”

“Yeah.” Roy shook his hand, but let go rather quickly. An awkward silence fell over the three. Pam figured she should say something, but she didn’t know what. Just then,

“What are you guys doing? Your lunch hour ended exactly,” he looked at his watch. “Two minutes ago. You’re late, and I’m going to have to tell Michael.” The guy named, Dwight was it, said smugly.

“Yeah. Okay, babe, I’ll see you after work.” Roy kissed her cheek, and then turned to shake Jims hand once more. “Nice meeting you Jim.”

“Yeah, you too.’ He said.

As Roy was walking away, he turned and yelled, “Enjoy the rest of your day Pammy!” Then he walked into through the shipping doors, and was gone into the warehouse.

Dwight followed Jim and Pam back up to the office to make sure they did not deviate from the intended route.

About an hour later, Jim came over to talk to Pam.

“Hey.”

“Hey. So, I think now is as good a time as any to ask you this.” Jim smiled.

Pam tilted her head and smiled. “What?” she asked with a hint of a smile. She tried not to, but she couldn’t help it.

“Okay, so Dwight. I think he deserves a little something, for today you know, don’t you think?” He gave a cute little half smile.

“Oh no. What are you going to do?” Even though this was her first day, she had a feeling he did this a lot, and that it wasn’t anything good for Dwight.

“Oh, it’s already done. I just need your help.” At seeing the confused look on her face, he continued. “I need you to create a distraction. Now, usually I can do it myself, or wait for him to go to the bathroom or something, but it’s weird. Today, he hasn’t gotten up once. Are you up for it?”

Pam, not quite sure what was going to happen, could never back down from a challenge. And Jim had challenged her. So, she shut down her solitaire game and asked, “What do you need me to do?”

Later…

“Hey Dwight.”

“Good afternoon Pamela.”

After Jim had told her his plan, she racked her brain to find a way to distract Dwight. She didn’t know him that well, so she didn’t’ really know how to do this. Should she ask him to talk privately in the break room, put an anonymous note on his desk telling him to go outside for some reason? But all her ideas seemed childish, or had dead end in them. But then, just as she was about to give up, he walked onto the kitchen to get a coffee. She took her chance.

Pam walked out of the kitchen, looked over at Jim, and gave him a discreet thumbs up. Dwight followed with his coffee in hand. She sat down at her desk, and watched Dwight carefully inspect his desk without touching it. Jim had told her very quickly that this wasn’t the first time he had done this particular prank on him. He had done it 2 times before. She was excited and a little scared to see what his reaction would be.

Dwight sat down and went back to work. Jim was on the phone with a client, Michael was in his office, and everyone was at least making it look like they were busy. Her phone rang, and that brought her mind of Dwight.

About fifteen minutes passed. Pam was getting bored. Ten times her phone rang (“Dunder Mifflin, this is Pam.”). Four times she looked up and smiled at Jim, who smiled back. Twice Michael came up to her, called her a ridiculous version of her name, and talked about something meaningless. Thirty-four times she blew up in a game of minesweeper. Once she won in a game of solitaire. Three times she made her foot fall asleep. Wow, she thought. What a boring job. She hadn’t expected it to be non-stop entertainment and stuff to do, but come on. Just as her foot was falling asleep again, she heard a scream.

“JIM! This is not funny!” Dwight screamed. He had a plate with a jello mold on it, and what looked like a bunch of pens floating inside.

Jim looked up from his computer, and very casually replied, “Dwight, how is it my fault you keep putting your stuff in jello?”

“You will be fired! Damage to company property, and, oh, um, being idiotic and childish and under qualified for selling paper. I’m telling Michael!” He screamed while still holding the mold in one hand, making it jiggle and slide violently on the plate.

“Tell me what Dwight?” Michael, hearing Dwight’s ranting, came out of his office to find out what was going on.

Dwight jerked up to face Michael, and the funniest thing happened. The jello slipped of the plate, and landed right in the face of the person sitting in front of him. It just happened to be Jim. Everyone who was paying attention started to laugh, and Jim sat there with his face scrunched up, covered in jello.

Dwight, still holding the plate, sat down with a satisfied look on his face. “Never mind Michael. Jim and I were just settling something, and I have won.” He said proudly.

“You have not won Dwight.” Jim said, his eyes still closed for fear of getting jello in them.

“Okay then. Jim, if I were you, I would get myself cleaned up. You look like a newborn baby. All covered in, the placenta and the-”

Jim stood up and interrupted Michael. “Thanks Michael, I’ll go do that right now.” Jim walked toward the washroom.

Michael turned to Pam and asked, “How’s your first day going Spamster?”

When Jim got back to his desk about 10 minutes later, nothing seemed out of the ordinary, except that he had a new e-mail, from the new receptionist.

To: jim_halpert@dundermifflin.com

From: little_miss_beesly@yahoo.com

Subject: Jello

OMG! That was so funny. Do you do that all the time? It sounded like it. You couldn’t even think of an original idea for me to see? Anyways, I found your address in the directory (I’m not a stalker), so give me your normal one so we can IM, its much faster.

:)Pam

Pam’s computer dinged as Jim messaged her.

OP: Hey Beesly, watch it. I am a very original prankster. Notice the name.

Artgirl: Wut does it stand for?

OP: OMG! U are so lame. Original Prankster, the song. D’uh!

Artgirl: I love that song! How old is it?

OP: Never let Dwight here u insult The Offspring.

Artgirl: LOL!

OP: geeze Beesly, LOL? Now who’s lame?

Artgirl: I never called u lame, u called me lame!

OP: I did no such thing.

Artgirl: Oh really? Scroll up genius:)

OP: ……

Artgirl: That’s right! Bow to ur master

OP: Wow. Should I be scared? BTW, got any big plans 2night?

Artgirl: um, I dunno, y?

OP: well, a group of us were planning on going out 4 drinks after work. Interested in getting to know the weirdest of the Scranton weird?

Artgirl: yeah sure, count me in.

OP: cool. Okay, well, I’m gonna try and get some work done, so…

Artgirl: Yeah right…

“Hey babe, what’s up? You ready to go?”

“Yeah. Um, hey, would you mind if we went out for drinks with some people here. You know, get to know them.” Pam asked Roy while gathering her things and shutting down her computer.

“I don’t know, Monday night football, the guys are coming over.”

Damn it, she thought. About two months ago, they had a fight because all Roy wanted to do was watch TV, and all Pam wanted to do was go out and do stuff together. So they came to an agreement that they would try to do more stuff together. Unfortunately for Pam, that meant sitting around with Roy and his buddies watching sports and cooking for them almost every night.

“Okay. Yeah I can go out with them any time. But night football, can’t miss it.” She said.

Roy missed the sarcasm. “Exactly. Come on, if we’re fast, we can do it before Darryl gets there.” Roy said a little too loudly for Pam’s comfort.

“Okay, hey I’ll meet you at the car. I need to do something real quick first.”

“Alright, hurry up though, Darryl’s getting there around 6:00.”

She stood behind her desk and watched until Roy disappeared through the door. She was a bit upset. She had really wanted to go out tonight and get to know the people she would be working with for god knows how long. But arguing with Roy was useless, and it usually ended with him tickling her for a truce. She just wasn’t in the mood. Since Jim was the one that invited her, she felt she needed to let him know. Since he wasn’t at his desk, she dialed his extension and left a message.

“Hey Jim, its Pam. D’uh. Um, you aren’t at your desk right now, obviously, and I don’t know when you’ll be back, and, um, I have to leave like right now. So, um, yeah. Anyway, turns out I can’t make it out with you guys tonight. Monday night football, you know. But have fun, and let everyone know the weird new receptionist says hi. Okay, um, see you tomorrow.”

-----------------------

“Okay kiddo, the story’s over, and you can barley keep your eyes open anymore. Come on,” she said as she tucked Jane. Just then, her two favorite men walked in.

“Hey mommy, someone’s hungry.” Her husband said, referring to the tiny one month old baby boy in his arms.

“Oh, give him here. I was just finishing up Janie’s story.”

“Oh god. Please tell me it wasn’t that one again. By now, she could tell it to us.” He said, handing the baby over and sitting down on the bed.

“I could not. You and mommy tell it better. I tried to tell it to my friends at snack time once, and I messed it up.”

“Why do you like it so much?” he asked, letting Jane curl up in his lap.

“Because I know you guys fell in love on that day.” Jane said simply.

She smiled at her daughter. “And just how do you know what love is?”

Jane held up two fingers to count off of. “Well, in the Princess Bride, they explain what true love is, and that is my favorite movie. Second, I see you guys being in love all the time.” She said simply.

Jim and Pam looked form each other, to their daughter, and back again. They couldn’t believe it. If it was that easy for a five year old to see in a story, why was it so hard for them to see? If they actually looked back, it really was love at first sight. Even when they finally could do something about it, it took an outrageous outburst from Michael in front of everyone to do something about it. But worrying about the past was pointless. Right now, they were sitting in their house with a terrace, Pam holding their son Patrick, their daughter Jane curled up in Jim’s lap falling asleep. There wasn’t much that could make this better.

Jane piped up just before she drifted off to sleep. “Mommy, can you tell me another story?”

The End