Pam unbuttoned another button in her blouse and leaned back in her chair, letting out a defeated sigh. She picked up a file from her desk and began to fan herself half-heartedly, cocking an eyebrow as she noticed Angela looking at her curiously from over the cubicle.

“Yes, Angela?”

Angela ducked down quickly and Pam rolled her eyes putting down the file and resting her face in her hand idly. She felt another drop of sweat roll down her nose and she let her forehead fall to the desktop with a dull thud.

“Did you know that with certain cases of premenstrual syndrome, women experience intense heat flashes raising their body heat significantly?”

Pam kept her eyes closed against the cool surface. “Yes, Dwight, I am aware of that.”

She could hear him awkwardly shuffle in front of her desk and she looked up at him, squinting in confusion. He leaned down a little, as if he held a deep dark secret.

“It must be really bad, huh?”

He was looking at her with wide eyes behind his obnoxiously large glasses. She gave him a blank stare.

“How come every time there is something wrong with me, you think it’s my period?”

“I have experience in these matters.”

“You have experience in premenstrual syndrome?”

“That’s not what I-“

“Go back to your desk Dwight.” She cut him off abruptly, turning in her chair to face her computer screen. She heard him let out an indignant sigh and retreat carefully back to his desk. She looked over at him and felt her eyes rest almost automatically on the back of Jim’s neck.

Ever since him and Karen had gotten back from New York that morning, he hadn’t even glanced in her direction. Even when she smiled at him when he came in and asked him how it went, all he muttered was a barely coherent ‘fine’. Karen had let out a cynical chuckle and Jim shot her an exasperated look, his brow tightening and jaw clenching. Pam had given him a questioning look but he was no longer looking at her, he was already half way to his desk.

Pam stood up from her desk miserably and felt another wave of heat come over her. She placed her hands on either side of her keyboard and closed her eyes as she swayed uneasily.

She let out a breath and opened her eyes. Dwight opening his mouth to say something but she shot him a glare and his jaw snapped shut immediately. She gave a small smile and walked around her desk to the kitchen, trying in vain to cool herself off.

She opened the freezer door and closed her eyes, letting the cool air flow over her face. She let out a small sigh of contentment, not hearing the kitchen door open.

“You feeling okay?”

She jumped slightly, whipping her head around and looking at Jim who was awkwardly leaning on the counter by the door.

She met his eyes but he averted them away quickly. She shut the freezer door and took a step closer to him. He visibly tensed and she stopped, turning to face the counter, drumming her nails lightly on the toaster.

“Yeah, I’m fine. I think I just caught a bug.”

“You look hot.”

She turned her head to look at him, raising an amused eyebrow and his cheeks reddened suddenly.

“Oh! Uh, I meant that you look warm, not that you don’t-“

“Jim, it’s fine.” She chuckled, turning back to the toaster. “I know what you meant.”

He let out an exasperated sigh and looked up to the ceiling for a moment as if it held some secret to life. Pam continued to trace the edges of the toaster, waiting for him to say something. She was always the one starting these days. It was his turn.

“Karen’s mad at me.”

Pam swallowed hard. “Oh?”

“Yeah.”

“Why?”

She heard him shuffle and take his hands out of his pockets and cross and re-cross his arms. It alarmed her how she could see what he was doing when she wasn’t even looking at him. But then again, it was Jim and she was Pam.

“I turned down the job in New York.”

Her hand stopped abruptly on the toaster but she willed herself not to turn and look at him. She didn’t want him to see the hope she knew was burning in her eyes.

“Oh?” She said again, this time fainter. She didn’t see him smile slightly at her repetition.

“And she found the note you left for me.”

She wiped the back of her hand against her brow as another heat wave hit her.

“She found it and asked me why you would leave me a note and what it meant and when I didn’t answer she just-“ He paused, gesturing at nothing in the air.

She resumed tracing the plastic coating of the toaster. “Well, I’m sorry I made you two fight.”

“Are you?”

His question was quiet and calm but it caused a flare of anger to rise in the pit of her stomach.

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“I mean, are you really sorry? First the beach and now this, it just seems like you are doing things just-“

“You think I would do that? To you?” She spoke with deliberate calm, turning to look at him. He took a half step back.

“I don’t know, Pam, that’s why I am asking-“

“You were always the one who told me to speak for myself, to say something, to not be satisfied with settling. In fact, I think you were standing in that exact spot when you yelled at me for not going after what I want. And now, now you think me finally gaining courage has to do with sabotaging your life? Yes Jim, I am an evil genius hell-bent on destroying you and Karen’s relationship.”

“I didn’t, that’s not what I’m saying.”

“No, Jim. That is what you are saying. And I can’t believe you would even think that. You have known me how many years and you think I am that shallow, that maniacal, to sink to that level?”

He looked uncomfortable, his hands back in his pockets, averting her piercing gaze. She was unaware of her hand clutching the metal toaster.

“We both changed when I left.” He whispered.

She felt her heart plummet and a sharp pain shoot through her hand.

“Damn it!” She recoiled her hand from the toaster and cradled it to her chest, looking at the burn mark already forming. She looked at the toaster and then back to her hand.

Jim took a step closer to her, reaching out a hand. “Are you alright?”

She wrenched her wrist out of his grip and closed her hand. “I’m fine.”

He looked at her, eyebrows knit in concern. “Pam, you burnt yourself.”

“I’m fine. I wouldn’t want my evil behavior rubbing off on you.” She spat out. He looked at her carefully for a moment, the hurt clouding in his eyes. He nodded to himself, clenched his jaw, and backed out of the room.

Pam only felt a slight bit of guilt as she re-opened her hand and looked curiously at the burn. Her heat wave had completely passed and she was only slightly sticky from the sweat, not uncomfortable with the heat. She winced as she traced the outer edges of the burn with the forefinger of her opposite hand.

She looked curiously back up at the toaster that had burned her so suddenly. She felt her eyebrows knit in confusion when she saw that the toaster was unplugged. She reached out her unharmed hand and pulled the toaster over to her, looking inside and carefully feeling over the top for any residual heat. When she felt none, she carefully touched the top, metal part.

It was completely cool.