Jim stepped into the reception hall and glanced around to find Karen. She was sitting on the edge of the stage with Kevin and the rest of his band members. Jim thought she looked so beautiful under the stage lights. He knew he had made the right decision to return to her.

Or maybe not.

Jim’s thoughts turned off of Karen and on to Pam. He wondered if she had made it home okay and whether she was crying. He hated to see her upset. He didn’t mean to hurt her, but he felt like his hands were tied. He couldn’t leave Karen. She had moved three hours to work in a lowly paper salesman job at his request. For this reason, Jim felt obligated to stay with Karen.

Most of the guests in the reception hall were starting to migrate towards the door and others stood lingering around their tables and their drinks. The dance floor was empty except for some scattered trash and the newly wedded couple swaying to the final song of the evening. Jim remembered the time when he and Pam had stood outside Dunder Mifflin swaying one late evening. His memory was interrupted by the scene that he had witnessed earlier in the night--Pam and Roy slow dancing. He felt his heart sink at the thought of Roy having the honor of lightly touching her back and her hand. Jim wiped the emotion off his face and walked towards Karen.

“Hey hun. Where have you been?” Karen said as she rubbed Jim’s arm lovingly.

Jim scratched the back of his neck. “I had to find my charger before I could plug it in. It was under the passenger seat.”

“I see. Well, you missed out on all the fun. They played Kiss by Prince. It was hilarious.”

Jim laughed and mockingly sang, “You don’t have to be beautiful, to turn me on….”

Karen chimed in and they both started laughing as the people around them glared in horror. “You sound just like Prince. You should definitely take up being a Prince Tribute Artist.”

Jim waved his hands in terror. “No way. I have already ventured down that lonesome road to stardom once and will not take it again.”

“Well, I will be right behind you every step of the way. Does that help?”

Jim couldn’t resist Karen’s cunning side. He pulled her in close, “A little bit.”

-----

The party had dwindled down to a handful of stragglers. Meredith was schmoozing with some waiter, Creed was passed out in his seat, Roy and Darryl sat with their beers clutched to their hands, and Michael was stuffing the leftover shrimp into his jacket pocket.

Ring. Ring. Ring.

As soon as the ring had sounded everyone that was still conscious checked their pockets and purses. Roy stood and dug in his pants pocket and raised his arm in the air to let everyone know that it was his phone. Jim tugged on Karen’s arm to lead her towards the door. He was tired and had some things on his mind. He needed to get away from everyone.

Just as Jim and Karen were walking past Roy and Darryl’s table, he overheard Roy’s conversation with the person on the phone.

“Hey, it’s okay. We were about to leave anyways…”

Jim, uninterested in the conversation, kept walking past with a nod to both Roy and Darryl. Roy smiled and waved to Jim while he snapped the phone shut. Then Jim heard something that stopped his heart momentarily.

“Who was that, man? Lisa?”

“No. Pam.”

“What did she want?”

“She said she needed…..”

Jim’s heart wasn’t the only thing that stopped--his feet had stopped at the mention of her name. Karen, linked arm in arm with Jim, stopped when he did.

“Jim? Are you okay?”

Jim snapped out of his trance and turned his head to look at Roy who was getting up from his seat, putting on his jacket and pulling his keys out of his pocket. Jim started feeling queasy and light headed. She had called Roy. What could she want to see Roy for? If she needed help wouldn’t she have called Kelly or Angela? Or at least him?

“Uh, I thought I heard someone say my name. You didn’t hear that?” Jim said to cover his confusion.

“No babe. How much did you drink tonight? You look a little pale.”

“Oh, I think I’m just tired. Let’s go.”

Jim proceeded to lead Karen out the door and to his car. He opened her door, jogged around to his door and sat down quickly. He didn’t know why he was rushing to get out of the parking lot but, he knew he wanted to leave all the memories of the past hour and a half behind him. Karen reached over, grabbed Jim’s hand and held it as he drove her to her house.

Karen was a really sweet girl. He would always love that she would want to hold hands while they sat on the couch or that even if she couldn’t hold his hand, she just wanted to sit close to him. He liked that she adored him. After their long late night talks, he was certain that she had real plans for them. He hadn’t even thought about the future with her, he was just trying to get by.

He stood at her door waiting for her goodnight kiss. She pulled slightly on his tie to initiate the kiss and he leaned in like usual. He gave her a quick kiss and a hug.

“I’ll talk to you later this weekend right? Saturday or Sunday?”

“I will call you when I’m done shopping tomorrow. Thanks for the ride.”

“No problem. See you tomorrow.”

“All right, love you.”

“You too.”

Jim’s head throbbed when he heard himself say it. He didn’t even realize he was saying he loved her all this time. How long had he been saying that? It had never registered before tonight. The hairs on his neck subsided from their prickling as he drove towards his house. He pulled up in the driveway and got out of his car. He remembered his cell phone in the console and went back for it. The phone had charged half way and he noticed that there were three messages ready to be answered. He checked the list and saw that Karen had called twice earlier in the evening, probably to find out where Jim had gone off to.

“Jim? If you get this I’m waiting by the stage with Kevin. See you soon.”

He deleted it and proceeded to the next one.

“Where are you? It’s been twenty minutes? I know your phone is dead so I don’t know why I’m calling, but Dwight was coming over to me and I needed to look busy. Hurry up!”

Jim chuckled and deleted it and moved on to the next one. The number wasn’t registered so he decided to check it later and remove his suit before getting too comfortable on the couch.

He pulled off his suit pants and replaced his collared shirt with an old school t-shirt. He walked down the stairs to find something to watch. He reached over to his phone to check his last message.

Jim pressed the phone close to his ear to listen. No one was speaking but he heard a sob and a muffled sound, then he heard the phone hang up. Jim furrowed his brow as he thought who could have called him. He thought about all the numbers he didn’t have on his phone yet. Thinking back to the message he knew that there was only person new home number he didn’t have. He dialed the number hoping to reach Pam. No answer. He ran up the stairs to his room and pulled on a pair of jeans and his sneakers. He grabbed his keys from his suit pants and ran out to his car.

-----

After calling Pam’s cell and home phone several times, he decided to try calling Kelly. She might have a clue what Pam needed and where she actually lived. He hadn’t been to her new place yet.

“Hello?”

“Kelly, this is Jim. Did Pam happen to call you?”

“No. Is she okay? When she left early tonight I was kind of worried.”

“I don’t know what’s wrong. She called my cell and I missed it. Do you know where she lives?”

“Yeah. She is living at the Sunny Cove Apartments near Riverside Drive. I don’t know her apartment number though.”

“That’s fine. Thanks Kel.” He was going to hang up to concentrate on driving but he heard her start to say something else.

“Hey Jim?”

“I’m here.”

“Don’t hurt her.”

“Too late. I gotta go Kelly. Bye.”

He hung up the phone and felt a lump develop in his throat. Kelly was giving him advice about Pam. How did she know that he was going over there to reconcile with her? Maybe she just assumed, he thought.

He found himself going over the speed limit. He didn’t feel like he needed to speed, but adrenaline was telling him to get to her as quickly as possible. He wasn’t sure why she had called. He just wanted to allow her to say whatever she called for. He didn’t care if all she wanted was a bag of chips, he would still have raced over to her apartment to meet her need.

---

He finally made it to the apartment complex and circled the parking lot three times before spotting her car. He parked in a visitor space and jumped out of the car with his phone in hand, dialing her one more time. Both her phones rang with no answer on the other end. He hung his head and decided that he need to figure out which apartment was hers.

He glanced at the three story building and decided that he should start at the top and make his way down. He climbed the metal stairs in haste. taking most of the stairs two or three at a time. He had long enough legs that he could do this gracefully without tripping. As he climbed to the top level, he heard a familiar voice. He didn’t move, but stayed where he was, hidden in the stairwell.

“You get some sleep. You look miserable.”

“I’m planning on it. It’s been a crazy day. You have no idea.”

“Let me know if you need anything else.”

“Night.”

Jim stood frozen at the voice and the conversation. He didn’t know where they were, but he feared moving would give away his position. Jim went into covert operation mode. He moved his foot slightly on the metal stair and his shoe squeaked. He immediately pulled his leg up to silence the noise. As he did, he saw Roy below on the second level headed down the stairs to his truck. Jim’s body froze. He didn’t want Roy to see him and plus, he was frozen due to pure shock.

He heard the door the shut and saw Roy pull out of the parking lot. Jim sighed, relieved, and decided to go back down one flight of stairs to where he heard Pam and Roy talking. One door had several potted plants and flowers surrounding it. He knew Pam would’ve put plants at her door. It just seemed like something she would do.

Here goes, Halpert, Jim thought to himself.

He pushed the doorbell and heard Pam moving towards the door. He heard a smooth movement next to the door then a rustle of latches and locks. She opened the door in a sweatshirt and pajama pants with her hair pulled into a loose ponytail. Jim had never seen her look so comfortable and beautiful at the same time. He smiled when she came face to face with him.

Her face was red and tear stained. He let his smile droop into a look of concern.

“What are you doing here?”

“You called me and I wanted to see what you needed. Are you okay?”

“Jim, I think you’ve done enough for one night,” Pam said as she slowly pushed the door closed.

Jim caught the door with his left hand.

“Wait.”

“What now?”

“I tried to return your call, but you didn’t answer.”

“Yeah, can you not take a hint? I made one stupid phone call after thinking about our conversation and I decided not to leave a message after all.”

“Well, I’m here now.”

“I don’t need anything from you…not anymore.” Pam’s face crumpled as she started to cry again.

“Pam! I came here tonight to see what you needed. What’s the problem?”

“I can’t talk to you right now. This is exactly why I didn’t return any of your calls.” She grabbed the bottom of her sweatshirt and wiped her eyes. Jim let go of her door and stood back to give her space.

“Pam, what do you want me to do?”

“Nothing. I just need a few days alone. Thank you for your concern but I just can’t face you. I’m sorry.”

Pam wiped her tears again and shut the door. Jim caught the door again with his foot. He was shocked at his action. He had never thought in his wildest dreams that he would be putting his foot in some girl’s door.

“Listen. This isn’t us. We don’t do this. What is wrong?” Jim said as he motioned between the two of them.

“Jim, you know what’s wrong? You going back to Karen.”

“You went back to Roy after I kissed you. And now he’s coming over? When did that start happening?”

“That’s none of your business.”

“Are you seeing him again? Apparently you are, since you were being all buddy-buddy on the dance floor tonight.” Jim said as he ran his hand through his hair and turned his face away from Pam.

“It was just a dance and besides, he is the only guy I know that cares for me right now. Who else was I supposed to ask?”

“Me, Pam! I would have gladly danced with you and you know that. I thought we were fine until I saw you resort to dancing with him. I don’t understand you sometimes.”

“Same here. You pour out your heart and then you turn around and date someone else. That’s what I don’t get. You dropped me in an instant for her.”

“Do you realize how hard that was for me? I thought you were married Pam. I thought we were through, forever. I found out from Michael that you were single. How’s that for calling your best friend?”

Jim knew this conversation wasn’t going to lead anywhere. He stopped to calm down before saying things that could leave lasting scars. He didn’t want to hurt her anymore than he already had.

“I called you because….I wanted to tell you tonight that I’m leaving,” Pam said. “I’m taking the full graphic design internship in NYC. I wanted to tell you before we had our discussion but it didn’t end up that way. Roy came over to bring me some boxes. That‘s all.”

“When you say ‘full internship’ do you mean you are moving or going on weekends?”

“Moving… I told Michael on Friday that I would be leaving in a few weeks.”

“Congrats Pam. I’m happy for you.” Jim nodded in disbelief.

“You don’t look happy for me.”

“It’s just a little shocking. You telling me after you decided. You would normally tell me way before anyone else.”

“That’s the way I felt when you transferred to Stamford.”

“I don’t want to leave on a bad note like this,” Jim said as his phone rang. He pulled it out of his pocket and saw that Karen was calling. He glanced up at Pam and she put her head down to hide her anger. He hit the silent button and looked up to see the door shut in his face.

Jim turned with tears in his eyes and jogged down the stairs to his car. He sat for a few minutes gaining his composure. She had slammed the door in his face twice, in one night. He knew that he did not want to let her leave without reconciling their friendship which was now in shambles. With one swift decision, Jim headed for his next destination. He had to fix this before it was too late.