“This better be good,” she mutters as she pulls the robe around herself. Who on Earth could be knocking on his door at 11:30 on a Thursday night? She stifles a yawn as he walks drowsily to the door rubbing his face and eyes with the back of his hand.

Karen can see that the rain is coming down in sheets outside the window- you’d have to be crazy to be out on a night like this.

When Jim finally opens the door, there is a flurry of motion and all of a sudden Pam is the apartment motioning and dripping and laughing and Jim seems to be responding with excitement and then concern as he examines her arm.

Karen really needs some coffee.

“What’s going on?” she calls out as she walks towards them.

Pam’s eyes are shining with unshed tears but the smile on her face is so dazzling that Karen is momentarily taken aback. Karen has never seen anything like that on the receptionist’s face before.

“I got in!” she replies breathlessly, “I just got into my first MFA program.”

“That’s great, Congratulations.” Karen replies perfunctorily. Why couldn’t this wait till morning. It’s not like she just won the Nobel, even that would be a stretch for pulling us out of bed. Jim doesn’t seem to think to agree as he literally beams down at Pam and a little green eyed monster whispers in Karen’s ear that she can’t remember the last time he looked at her like that.

“So what happened to your arm?” Jim asks pointedly then shakes his head in consternation, “God you’re soaking wet, let me get you a towel.” He says as he rubs Pam’s arms, carefully avoiding the growing bruise on her right forearm.

“I’ll get it,” Karen replies automatically as she sighs, this was going to take a while. She wondered if there was a way she could politely excuse herself and go back to bed.

“I um…well, I don’t want you to get mad but…” the conversation trails off as Karen enters the bathroom but she can Jim’s veritable explosion of anger from inside the linen closet.

She hurries back with two towels to see Pam trying to desperately hold back a furious Jim from putting on his coat.

“What the fuck is going on?” Karen asks and they both turn towards her, Pam has started to finally cry quietly and she opens her mouth to speak but Jim waves her off.

“Look what that bastard did to her,” he says his voice wavering as he point to the growing bruise. “I’m going over there.”

“To do what?” and Karen can tell that her tone is harsh even to her own ears, but honestly is she supposed to sit back and watcher her fiancé go get his face bashed it protecting somebody else’s fiancé’s honor. This is ridiculous.

Pam jumps in at that moment and Karen isn’t sure if she is pleased or irritated,  “I left him Jim. It’s over, this was just his attempt at talking him some sense into me,” she says with a bitter laugh.

“You have to call the cops,” and Karen can tell from the way he drops his jacket that Pam has convinced him to stay.

Pam shakes her head again, “I will if he tries anything else, but I don’t think he will,” she says with a sad shrug of her shoulders, “He had a right to be mad I guess, I just told him our 7 year relationship was over…Oh God.” And it’s as if the full magnitude of her words just collapses on to her as Pam begins to sob. Jim enfolds her in an embrace and she clutches his t-shirt in her fists as he makes soothing noises and gently smoothes her hair.

Karen feels like a spectator in this touching tableau and she’s suddenly coming to terms with some hard truths of her own. Since they had moved to Scranton she had been dealing with a few inalienable truths regarding their situation. 1) They were getting out of here as soon as the company got back on it’s feet and they could transfer out 2) Jim was a pathetic boyfriend but would make a great husband, father and provider someday, she just had to wait out these particularly dull years with him to get to that stage 3) Pam was in love with Jim and thus could be counted on to play back-up girlfriend whenever wanted to do anything Karen wasn’t interested in 4) Jim viewed Pam as a platonic buddy but was also fiercely protective of her. 5) Pam was too weak to ever move out of scranton, break up with neandrathal fiancé or make a move for Jim. 6) The Jim-Pam relationship was a perfect distraction for Karen to live out her own more interesting side pursuits without jeopardizing her long term relationship strategy with Jim.

Suddenly all of that wasn’t necessarily so true anymore. Over the course of the evening Pam had shown that she had significantly more mettle than Karen had given her credit for.

Now Pam was single. Of her own volition,.

And in love with Karen’s fiancé.

Said fiancé was still whispering soothing words into Pam’s hair and Karen could see that he was pretty close to loosing it himself. She heard him mumble the words, “my fault,” “sorry he hurt you” “it’s going to be Ok”.

And Karen just stood there.

Normally she wouldn’t be afraid of Target loving, futureless receptionist making a play for her man; but this was Pam, Jim’s best friend and life long partner in crime. And Karen had just made a couple of mistakes herself recently.

Big ones.

Jim had been increasingly distracted with a tournament at the Boys and Girls Club and Karen had taken that as an opportunity to spend a weekend in Philly with some of Taylor’s friends. One of them had been a hot engineer working on assignment in Scranton. Coincidentally he even lived in her building. He went to Brown. He was really hot.

After a few appletinis those qualifications seemed to be really important to Karen in making a new friend and soon they were getting to know one another better in Karen’s hotel room. She woke up the next morning with a tan arm draped over her waist, a crushing sense of guilt and a hangover the size of the Grand Canyon. Since then she had only seen him twice and slept with him only once (alright maybe 1.5 times); but she knew it had to be over. Now.

She snapped out of her reverie to watch Pam trying to extricate herself from his embrace. They seemed to be arguing softly and Karen couldn’t handle Pam being that intimate with her fiancé.

“What’s up?” she asks as they both jump a little, almost as if they had forgotten that she was there.

“Pam’s trying to leave, she wants to drive out to her parents tonight even though they live like two hours away,” he says this while looking at Pam as if it was the most ridiculous idea in the world.

“And?” Karen knows she’s being harsh but it’s time both of them remembered that she was here, that she is here.

Jim has the good grace to look a little abashed, “I told her that she has to stay here tonight, the couch pulls out and she should probably change into something dry.”

Pam still looks like she wants to cry but her voice is surprisingly steady, “No really, I can’t put the two of you out like that…I don’t even know why I came over really, I mean it’s silly and it’s late and I’m sorry so I’m going to go, Ok? Thanks for everything,” she gives them both a sad smile as she hands the now somewhat soggy towel back to Karen.

Karen knows it’s her turn to say something, to implore Pam to stay- that would be the nice thing to do.

Karen doesn’t feel very nice.

So she’s surprised when her fiancé blocks the door and shakes his head, “Nope. No way, I’m getting you some pajamas and you’re sleeping here. End of story, it’s poring rain out and I’m not going to be able to sleep worrying about you getting to your mom’s.”

This time Pam is too tired to fight back so she just nods and sits down on a barstool while Jim goes to the bedroom. Karen can hear Jim rummaging through his things to find something dry that Pam can wear. Karen could offer her some of her things. She decides against it.

“So where did you get into school” Karen asks. She’s just trying to make conversation so she doesn’t have to look at Pam’s tear stained face anymore.

The edges of her mouth quirk up even though the smile doesn’t reach her eyes. She manages to mumble, “Stanford”

“There is an art school in Stamford?” Karen asks as she fiddles with the sash on her robe.

“No Stamford, you know in California”

It’s the second time tonight Karen’s been surprised by the mousy little receptionist in the payless shoes. First leaving the ape and now having the chutzpah (not to mention the talent) to move cross-country to go to school.

Jim chooses that moment to walk back in and he freezes as he hears the name, Karen can tell that it’s just for a second, but it’s there. “California, huh?” he asks his voice cracking a little.

Karen winces, he can be so sentimental sometimes; it stopped being cute two years ago.

‘Yeah,” Pam says as she shakes some of the sadness out of her face, “I applied as a joke, I didn’t think I would get in at all,” she looks down at her finger where her ring used to be, “But now why not?” and when she laughs it’s harsh and it echoes in the tiny room.

Jim hands her the clothes and his eyes are full of concern as they follow her to the bathroom. He turns towards Karen and he places his hand on her shoulder pulling her to him.  Something about the gesture is reassuring to her, the knowledge that he wants her closer to him.

“Thanks for letting her stay,” he whispers into her hair as twirls a silky strand around his finger.

Karen wants to scream or at least stamp her foot in indignation, It wasn’t my choice jackass, you decided to let her stay. But right now isn’t the time to start a fight- right now is the time to make him realize how lucky he is to be with her. He’s said it a thousand times before, how he’s never sure how he landed someone like her; how all his friends are amazed that he did so well for himself. Now’s the time to make him remember that.  So she pulls his head down to hers but when his lips are mere millimeters from his she whispers in her hoarsest voice, the one that always makes him hard, that she would do anything for him and she drags out the word anything before pulling his lips to hers. Out of the corner of her eye she sees Pam walk back into the living room looking like hell, she sees Pam blanche at the sight of them almost making out, and Karen rejoices a little as smiles into his mouth.