The last day of work is warm and sunny. Pam thinks about wearing jeans but puts on a skirt and her blue-striped shirt, her same old black shoes.

Michael bought Munchkins and is crying again. It's been a teary fortnight. Pam rolls her eyes and turns on her computer. The office is weirdly empty with so much stuff packed up, and still one or two corporate types that she thinks have something to do with accounting, waiting to kick them out. After a while Phyllis starts going around exchanging e-mail addresses with people who'll give theirs out.

"No," says Angela, and stares down Phyllis until she goes away. Pam gives Phyllis an extra nice smile and writes down her cell phone number too. She asks what Phyllis is going to be doing now.

"Well, Bobby's receptionist just quit," says Phyllis, and Pam's stomach does something confusing -- excited and horrified -- does she want...? "So I'm going to be doing that for a little while, I guess," Phyllis finishes, and Pam gives her another smile through the wash of disappointed relief.

"Oh, good," she says. "Well ... good luck. With everything."

Michael comes out of his office just before noon and makes a tearful speech about how he really really really hopes they can all still be friends, like the family that they are, and then announces that he ordered pizza. It turns out his corporate credit card's already been shut off so when it arrives everyone has to pool their cash to pay the delivery guy.

Jim pushes up from his desk, loops around the group where Dwight is counting out change and taps her desk with his knuckles.

"Come on," he says, without pausing, and she follows him without looking back.

He goes up to the next floor, then around the corner to the ladder to the roof, and stands back to let her climb up first.

When she comes out of the hatch she has to squint because it's so bright. She steps away from the opening and watches Jim pull himself up and through. The sky is blue and clear and bright and curves over the building from horizon to horizon.

Pam waits for him to say something, but he just puts his hands in his pockets and wanders around the roof, kicking bits of gravel, so she goes over to the railing, leans over it. The parking lot looks small from up here, all their cars in neat, boring rows. There's a breeze and she shivers a little, wishing she'd brought a sweater. In the far distance she can see sunlight glinting off the windshields of cars on the highway.

Jim comes up beside her and bends over to rest his elbows on the railing, looking down at the parking lot, too. Pam's chest feels tighter and tighter and it suddenly all seems so real: that they'll never do this again, any of it. She'll go off and get a new job somewhere, and so will he -- maybe he'll even move somewhere -- and maybe they'll keep in touch for a while, but when all's said and done he's just her work friend, right? And in five hours they won't even be that anymore.

"Here's the thing," Jim says suddenly, still looking down off the edge of the building, then looks up at her and stops. Pam's crying silently, hand over her mouth, not looking at anything.

"Pam," he says, straightening up, then looks lost. Pam turns her face away, wiping her tears.

"I'm sorry," she says, "I'm sorry. This is so stupid. We're, like, free, right?" She tries a watery smile. "I don't know why I'm being so ...." She trails off and takes a deep breath. "What were you saying?"

It's Jim's turn to look away.

"Oh," he says. "Um. Nothing."

Pam laughs, choking on it a little.

"What are we going to do now?" she says and when she glances up he's watching her with a steady, inscrutable look that makes her start babbling. "Maybe we'll get, um, that prisoner thing where you can't live outside the bars. Like the guy in Shawshank Redemption."

Jim chuckles and the moment eases.

"Yeah, maybe they should give us probation or something. Meet up once a week with Dwight and the cameras."

"Oh, he'd love that," says Pam. "He could tell us all about all the time he's been spending with the beets."

"Well, beets are very needy," Jim says.

Pam takes a deep breath and smiles, bounces a little on her toes, pretending like things are fine.

"Hey, what time is it?" she says, grabbing his wrist so she can see his watch. Not late enough.

"Hey, so," she says, as she lets his wrist drop. She carefully doesn't look at him, tries to keep her voice casual. "We can still hang out and stuff, right?"

"Yeah," he says quickly. "Yeah, of course." She looks up at him, squinting in the sun. "I mean, there's Thursday night Bingo, right?" he continues. "And competitive bowling, and the knitting club." She laughs and shakes her head, as he grins at her. "Oh, and I'm thinking of taking up beekeeping," he says. "If you wanna come along for that."

"Shut up," she says, but she's still smiling. It's hard to hold onto, though, because time still feels like it's running out. Things will be different, and yeah, her job sucks, but maybe she liked some things about it. She's no good at change.

She turns around like she's looking back at the parking lot so he won't see her starting to cry again. This is so stupid. She must be PMSing. It's too late though, because he reaches out and touches her shoulder, turning her back to face him.

"Hey," he says softly, frowning and she sniffles, the world's grossest noise.

What?" she says, just as Jim reaches up to brush away her tears with his thumb. He just smears them all over her face, though, making her feel more soggy than ever.

She reaches up to wipe them off herself but Jim catches her hand in his. He tangles his fingers with hers even while he's using his other hand to tilt her chin up and lean in and kiss the corner of her mouth, just for a second. It could almost be a cheek kiss that missed.

He pulls back a little and Pam doesn't move, doesn't look up, doesn't breathe, and then he leans in and really kisses her.

Pam's pretty sure this is what a heart attack feels like. Jim is so close she can feel the heat from his body and he kisses really carefully, and she's kissing him back before she even thinks.

Then her brain catches up and she thinks, I should stop, I should stop, stop stop, but she's already here, so just one more second--

A car backfires somewhere below them and they jump apart, ridiculously. She almost wants to laugh but he's looking at her with these terrified eyes and she feels dizzy.

"Um," she says, and he doesn't look like he's even breathing. Pam realizes suddenly that she's twisting and twisting her ring -- her engagement ring. Her engagement. She feels a wash of guilt and takes a step back, then another.

"I have to go," she says, biting the inside of her lip so she won't cry again.

"Wait--" Jim says and she shakes her head and turns toward the hatch. She's halfway there when she feels Jim's hand on her arm. "Pam, wait," he says again. "I'm, um, I'm sorry. I didn't--" The wind is ruffling his hair and he looks so worried and she feels like there's a hole somewhere behind her heart.

With sudden wild clarity she knows what she's about to do, just before she reaches out and pulls on his collar. He takes a step toward her, surprised, and she stands on her toes to kiss him before he can say anything.

It only takes a second for him to bring his arms around her and she sighs just a little, sliding her hands down his chest. She can feel his heart pounding under her palm. His tongue brushes her lip and it sends a shiver down her spine that she knows means she has to stop immediately.

She pulls back, pushes him away, takes in a lungful of air. He's staring at her, looking shellshocked, and she doesn't feel much different.

"Oh, God," she says, bringing a hand up to cover her mouth. "Oh my God. I really have to go."

"Pam," Jim says. "No, wait, really." He holds his hands up in the air and takes two steps backwards. She'd laugh if she weren't so freaked out. Instead she backs up too, till her shoulders are against the wall of the roof access hatch, and her hands are behind her back.

Jim drops his hands and looks down, then back up at her, a hard look that makes Pam's stomach turn over.

"Remember the thing Michael told you?" Then he stops and shakes his head. "That's not what I mean. Um." Pam hadn't thought her heart could pound any harder, but it is. The wind blows her hair in her face and she pushes it back behind her ear.

"Here's the thing," says Jim, again. "You're right, this should be the best day ever." He laughs a little, turns his head to look out at the horizon. "I mean, no more Michael, no more Dwight, no more ever debating the merits of three-hole punch versus regular, if I'm lucky."

He looks down at the cement of the roof and Pam has to strain to hear him.

"It's just that, um. I don't care. I mean, I don't care about all that, if you're around. Because you're around."

"What?" says Pam in a small voice and he looks up at her.

"Pam," he says. "I'm-- it's not just a crush, Pam, and I'm not over it and. I didn't want you to leave without telling you."

Pam feels like she can't breathe, and she's crying again or still. It's like her whole life is falling apart at once.

"I, um. I can't... I can't deal with this right now."

"Right now?" he says.

"Um," she says. "I don't..." He's still staring at her and she's getting angry. That he's doing this now, today. That he lied to her.

"You lied to me," she says and he blinks. "In the kitchen, you said that you were... That it was--"

"I know," he says. He looks away.

Here's how she thought today would go: that it would be weird, but kind of a relief. That at the end of the day she'd hug him, and make him swear they'd keep in touch. Now she feels like she's lost him already, in a way she hadn't even expected. Nothing like this has ever happened to her.

"I'm going inside," she says in a small voice. He doesn't try to stop her this time.

**

Inside she has to blow her nose twice at her desk and when she looks in the bathroom mirror her eyes are red but nobody looks at her twice.

Oscar and Angela are carefully stacking the severance checks and Pam goes over to pick up hers and Roy's. Angela doesn't want to let her sign for his, but Oscar gives her a look and hands both envelopes to Pam. Angela huffs but doesn't say anything. Pam isn't going to miss Angela.

Jim comes back inside after twenty minutes and carefully doesn't look at her. Which is fine since she's not looking at him either and then Michael comes out with one last video for them all to watch. For once no one even grumbles on the way into the conference room.

**

At the end of the day she rides down in the elevator with Phyllis and Toby and Ryan and Oscar and Jim. Roy's waiting outside by the door, and he shifts his weight as Phyllis hugs Pam.

"Well, bye guys," says Oscar, and Toby mumbles a goodbye.

"Bye," Jim says, and he's looking at her when he says it.

"Bye," says Pam. "Um, later."