When she catches his eye across the room she feels like she’s in a cheesy Hallmark movie because it really does feel like time stops and everyone else is just swirling around the two of them. He looks just as shocked as she feels and the hand that was buried in his pocket is now rubbing the back of his neck.

He isn’t wearing a wedding ring.

Single women in their 40s have 20/15 vision when it comes to spotting rings on hot guys their age.

And man is he still hot.

He’s filled out a little more since the last time she saw him, but he’s still lanky and just a little too thin. His hair is parted respectably and there is gray at both temples. He’s got a five o’clock shadow today and somehow that’s incredibly hot too.

And she doesn’t know why but the fact that he’s still so attractive makes seeing him again so much harder.  Maybe with a pot belly and a toupee he wouldn’t look like he stepped off the front cover of a magazine called ‘Pam’s Regrets.’

Finally the spell is broken by an adorable little girl tugging on his hand and then he’s walking towards her and she’s not even sure she can breathe let alone talk to him.

“Hey,”

“Hi,” Before she realizes it his arms have enfolded her; it should be awkward hugging the dad of one of her kid’s friend’s Dads in the middle of her kids 4th grade classroom. But it’s not because he’s Jim and she’s been in love with him for years and she somehow knew this day would come again.

Except she expected to look gorgeous and it to be in a somewhat more romantic setting.

Like a gallery opening or a park or Paris or even the grocery store- hell even jail.

Instead her fingers are still blue with chalk stains from the art project she was helping her daughter with and there is a stain over her left knee where Josh spilled some apple juice on her skirt earlier. She knows her hair is falling out of the messy bun she piled it into before starting on the art project and…for God’s sake they’re standing in a reading corner filled with knee high furniture and stuffed animals.

But she lets herself really enjoy this hug for once and she curls her fingers into her palms to avoid staining his suit with blue chalk and she finally squeezes back. She’s pretty sure she hears him sigh into her hair.

The spell is broken by the little cherub she can only imagine is his daughter tugging his hand towards the stuffed animals and soon he is crouching low to the ground to inspect them with her, he manages to grin up at Pam and she can’t help but be disconcerted by the fact that Jim is someone’s Dad.

Ok, so now she feels Old.

When his daughter has finally settled into the nook, flipping pages that are obviously too advanced for her to read, he finally turns back towards Pam.

“So what are the odds huh?”

“I would say it feels like ten bazillion to one, but then again we’re the same age and we both used to live in this town, so I guess it isn’t so unlikely that our kids go to the same school,” she’s smiling so widely that she thinks her face might crack.

“Yeah, but you left and I seriously thought I was never going to see you again.”

“Well, I came back a few years later, started working at SCC, met a guy, got married, and had two kids. I got a job teaching at Scranton U and last year my husband and I got divorced so here I am,” she laughs at the end, “Who says you can’t sum up your life in two sentences?”

He laughs to but she can tell it’s a nervous one.

“So what brings you back here to our little town?” she asks the question even though she can guess the answer given the fact that ‘Alex’s mom lives in Paris or something.’

He motions her over a little bit away from the reading corner and she leans against a half bookshelf. She glances over and notices that Annie has joined her little brother and Alex and they look like they’re all animatedly discussing the new J.K. Rowling series.

“Karen and I…well Karen left me last spring for her boss, they live in Paris now. And since I didn’t have the first idea what to do with a four-year-old girl we moved back to Scranton to be closer to my parents.”

“I’m really sorry,” she says and she takes his hand and squeezes briefly, “If it’s any consolation, my husband left me for his secretary…I think he has a receptionist fetish,” she whispers the last part to get a laugh out of him.

“Why would your unhappiness make me happy?” he asks genuinely confused.

“It wouldn’t I guess, I’ll take stupid jokes for four hundred Alex,” she says with an embarrassed grin.

“Ooh I’m sorry, you’ll have to phrase that in the form of a question,” he quips back quickly; she can’t help but smile at the way his eyes light up a little at their banter.

“I guess the correct answer would be misery loves company?”

“Yeah…and we thought we were the normal ones in the office,” she’s glad to see he’s smiling still instead of the grimace disguised as a grin he wore when she first saw him, “The worst part is that Michael and Dwight are in healthy, well-adjusted marriages.”

“I can top that, Kelly- happily married for 8 years to a man who adores her,” she pauses for a moment, “Wait, how do you know what Michael and Dwight are up to? I thought you moved to Corporate with Karen?”

“I did, but when I moved back I became the new Regional Manager of Dunder Mifflin Western Pennsylvania.”

“Oh, you so have so much to tell me,” Pam exclaims and if she didn’t turn 40 today she would have referred to the sound she just made as a squeal.

“Do you want to do something after this, with the kids I mean?” he points towards the three of them still animatedly conversing about sorcery.

“Sure, I still have to pick up some stuff from Annie’s Art Class,”

“I came here so Alex could show me some of his writing awards,” and from the look of pride on his face Pam can tell that Jim is a phenomenal Dad.

“That’s great. Let’s say meet at Adventure Zone at 8:00?”

“Done and done,” he says as he turns towards his kids, his hand catches her wrist for a moment and even though they’re looking in different directions she feels him interlace his fingers with hers and squeeze.