Pam played it cool when he walked out with Karen at the end of the day.  She still didn't look up from her desk and instead finished sending her faxes.  After checking in on Michael to make sure he didn't need her anymore, she grabbed her coat and purse, changed the phones over to automatic voicemail and headed home.  She was feeling a myriad of emotions from the second she stepped onto the elevator.  Anticipation, excitement and sheer terror ran through her veins.  Today was a major step in the right direction for the two of them, but she knew there was a lot of baggage that needed to be addressed and that was going to be painful.  As she walked out into the parking lot, she decided that Fancy New Beesley needed to take the reigns if this was going to continue to move forward.  After her display in the break room earlier that day, she had a newfound confidence that helped her believe that was possible.  Driving home, she turned her radio up louder than she normally would have.  She sang along with the music.  She enjoyed herself in her little car.

Jim and Karen had started carpooling to work since they lived a couple of blocks apart.  After they left the office together that night, they went for a quick dinner.  He had been making a considerable effort to make Karen feel at ease.  He was preoccupied with his thoughts but was determined it wouldn't show.  They chatted about their day and it was pretty uneventful until Karen brought up his "little meeting of the minds" with Pam.

"I had asked her how her art show went and we talked about her work," he explained.

"Really, because I could see the pained expression on your face and it seemed a little more serious than that," she said trying to hide her insecurity with a relaxed tone of voice.

"I had heard the show didn't go as well as planned, and was being empathetic.  I thought we talked about this- she's a friend."

"So it didn't go well," Karen tried to hide a little smirk.  "I imagine she didn't fit in with the art crowd with her little pedestrian sketches."

Jim knit his brows together at Karen's snarky comment.  These sorts of remarks had begun to pepper their conversations lately and he was tired of them.  "Um, I think for Pam, it's the creative act itself that's important, not so much the end product at this point.  She's new at this and she's developing her artistic style. I don't think you're being very fair."

Karen sighed loudly through her nose and shot daggers at Jim with her eyes.  "Whatever," she said and shrugged his comments off.  She wrapped her scarf around her neck and hastily pulled on her coat.  Jim was in mid-chew when she said she was ready to go.  He finished his mouthful, paid and followed her out the door.