Karen’s jaw dropped, and she flipped the phone closed with a resounding snapping sound. “Who was that?” she asked in a horrified sort of voice.

Jim clenched his fists compulsively on the steering wheel, then let go with one hand, holding it out to Karen. “Give me the phone,” he said, ignoring her question.

“Tell me what the hell is going on,” said Karen, clutching the phone to her.

Jim exhaled slowly, counting to ten in his head. “Nothing is going on,” he said in a strained voice. “It was just a prank call from an old basketball buddy of mine.” It wasn’t completely a lie. He had played basketball with Roy in the past. Once. He continued, “Now just give me the phone. Please.”

Karen wasn’t fooled. “No,” she said. “Tell me the truth first.”

“Look, Karen, it’s a really long story. I just need to make a phone call, and then I’ll try to explain it to you.”

“You’re going to call Pam, aren’t you,” said Karen. It wasn’t a question, yet her voice sounded some how smaller and quieter as opposed to the more aggressive, firm voice she usually used when discussing Pam.

“Seriously, I have an idea of what may have happened tonight, but I just have to talk to her first and confirm it, okay?” Jim replied.

Karen just looked at him as if debating in her head whether or not to acquiesce to his request. Jim was about to lose his patience and just grab the phone out of her hand, when suddenly it began to ring.

Karen immediately flipped it open. “Hello?”

There was a moment of silence, then, “Oh, hi. Is this Karen?” It was Pam.

“Yes, this is Karen,” replied Karen. “Who’s this?” she added challengingly.

“Oh, sorry, this is Pam Beesley, from the office….. Is Jim there, please?”

“I’m here, Pam,” said Jim. “Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, it’s fine, I just--sorry--am I on speaker? I need to talk to you for a minute….”

Karen looked at him with her eyebrows raised, lips pursed as she waited for his reaction. Jim met her gaze for a moment, then looked away from her and held out his hand for the phone. Karen slapped it into his hand a little harder than may have been strictly necessary, then crossed her arms and turned to look out her window.

Jim turned the speaker off of the phone and held it up to his ear. “What’s going on, Pam?” he asked her.

“Something happened tonight--and I just thought that--I figured you should hear it from me, rather than, I mean--you know Kelly, or Kevin, or someone.”

Jim’s phone beeped, signaling that someone was calling. He ignored it, and Pam continued.

“So we all went to Poor Richard’s for Happy Hour after you guys left for the cocktail party, Roy too, and I just wanted to be--to be, you know, totally honest for a change. I’m so stupid,” said Pam desperately. “I just, Roy’s been so… so together, for like six months now, and I thought that we could make it work. Only--I knew it wouldn’t unless we were, you know, truthful with each other, and so…..”

Jim’s phone beeped again; someone was still trying to reach him. He ignored it again.

“And so?” he prompted.

“I told Roy about Casino Night,” Pam said in a rush. She blew out all the air she had been holding in her lungs. “Jim,” she said, “It was horrible. He totally freaked out. He started yelling, and throwing things, and Kenny, his brother, started in too, and they totally trashed the bar.”

Jim said nothing. The sound of Karen’s phone ringing barely registered somewhere in the back of his mind.

“Anyway,” continued Pam, “It’s over between Roy and me. For good. But everyone from the office was there, and maybe they didn’t hear what we were saying, but they saw what happened, and I just thought you should know. And Jim,” she said, a bit more urgently, “I think Roy might be a little--well, a lot, really--upset right now--you should be careful.”

Jim gave a somewhat bitter laugh at this. “Yeah, he left me a message already tonight.”

“Oh God,” said Pam, “What did he say?”

“Oh you know,” said Jim. “An invite to tea, some idle chit-chat, a couple of death-threats. Normal, friendly Roy stuff.”

“Jim….God, I’m so sorry. Just, please, be careful.”

“Yeah, I’m not scared of Roy,” said Jim definitively. He glanced over at Karen who was now talking on her own cell phone and seemed to be ignoring him. He lowered his voice. “Are you going to be okay?” he asked Pam.

“Oh…. Yeah,” said Pam. “It just, you know, shook me up a little bit, but yeah.” She was silent for a moment, then, “Jim?”

“What is it?” he asked her.

“This whole new honesty thing,” she said, “It didn’t work out so well for me tonight, but--I’m not ready to give up on it just yet, and if it’s okay with you, I’d really like to talk to you sometime soon about… just… some things.”

Against his will, Jim felt his heartbeat pick up its pace just slightly at the tone of her voice. He shook his head-- It doesn’t mean anything, he told himself sternly. Forcing himself to adopt a light-hearted tone, he replied, “You bet, Beesley. Just let me know whatever, whenever.”

“Oh, um, okay,” she said, sounding slightly hurt by his tone. “I’ll just let you go for now, then. You probably want to get back to Karen, and driving, and everything.”

“Right,” he said. Are you sure you’re okay? he wanted to say. Do you want me to come over? he wanted to say. Call me if you need anything, he wanted to say. Instead he said, “Well, I’ll see you on Monday then. Have a good weekend.”

“Yeah, you too,” replied Pam. “Bye, Jim.”

They both remained silent on the line for a moment. “Bye,” said Jim. He snapped his phone shut.

He stayed silent, lost in his thoughts for a moment, before it registered that Karen was still sitting beside him, talking to someone on her cell phone.

“You’re right,” she was saying. “It’s great advice, and it rhymes….. Yeah, she definitely was a very smart stripper….. It’s so true, Ben Franklin is a total sleaze bag….. I know…. I know….. So that’s why you don’t need to keep it a secret from me,” she said. “Yeah, he is…. Yeah, a great friend--you’re so lucky to have such a great best friend! I would never want you to betray anyone’s confidence, I’m just trying to protect him…..” Karen glanced quickly at Jim to see him looking back at her, eyebrows raised warningly. Narrowing her eyes back at him, she said quickly into the phone, “Look, you don’t have to tell me everything that you know, I just want to know who this Roy is and why he’s so angry with Jim.”