Jim stared at his computer screen.  He was focusing intently at something but, as he peeked around his shoulder, he noticed the camera pointing at him and quickly minimized the screen.  He glanced over at Pam and smirked.  Pam blushed and lowered her head.  Something was going on between Jim Halpert and Pam Beesly.

It was a normal Tuesday at Dunder Mifflin Scranton.  Michael was in his office avoiding work and updating his Facebook profile with pictures of Jan.  Dwight was researching instructions for digging an outhouse and everyone else seemed to be busily working.  What the office and the cameras didn’t know was that Pam and Jim were engaged.  They had told no one about their engagement and over the past few days they had been researching destination weddings.

Jim cleared his throat, pushed away from his desk and sauntered over to reception.

“Hey, Miss Beesly, ready for a break?”

“Why, yes please, Mr. Halpert.”

“Meet you up top in ten?”

Pam nodded.  Jim turned quickly on his heels and returned to his desk.  He sat down with a smirk on his face.  The next two weeks were going to be the most exciting time of his life.  First of all, he was planning a trip with Pam and, as if that wasn’t enough to distract him, they were also planning their wedding.  A wedding that would consist of the two of them on a beach feeling warm breezes and hearing the ocean waves as they became man and wife.  But, right now he didn’t have time to think about sand between his toes and Pam in a wedding dress.  Jim had to find the perfect wedding location.  He had noticed that the film crew had just gone on their break, so he grabbed his mouse, clicked on the bar at the bottom of the screen and—

“Question: Why are you smiling so much lately?  It is my experience that when you are smiling you are usually up to something.”

Jim sighed, rolled his eyes and looked at Dwight.  “You wouldn’t believe me even if I told you, Dwight, so don’t even ask.”

Dwight squinted his eyes and continued to stare at Jim.  “You may as well tell me now because with my relentless investigational skills, I will formulate a plan to find out what you are planning before you even have a chance to implement your…plan.”

Jim folded his arms and a lop-sided frown formed on his face.  He slightly glanced over each shoulder and leaned forward on his desk.  Dwight mimicked Jim’s actions and they huddled close together.

“Okay,” Jim said in a whisper, “If I tell you this, you have to promise not to tell anyone.  Not Pam, not Andy, no one.”

Dwight shot a quick look at Andy, who was sitting across from him and whispered, “I promise.  Go on.”

“Ok, someone has been putting duct tape in Michael’s office.”

“Duct tape.  What do you mean?”

Jim motioned Dwight to come closer and lowered his voice.  “Everyday Michael comes in to his office and there is a little piece of duct tape in his office.  Sometimes it’s stuck on his desk, on his computer, sometimes it’s on the door.  Everyday it moves to a different spot and it’s driving him crazy.  He swore me to secrecy and he wants me to look into it, but this is too big for me.  I just don’t have the skills to mount this kind of investigation.  So…”

“So, you’ve come to me.  Jim, for once, you’ve made a smart decision.”

Dwight pulled a small notebook out of his desk drawer and started scribbling notes down.  “Question:  What colour is the duct tape?”

“What colour?  What do you mean?”

“Jim, any idiot knows that duct tape comes in many different colours: red, green, black, silver.”

“It’s silver.”

“Uhh, that’s a problem.”

“Why?”

“Because that is the most popular colour, Jim.  It will make it harder to trace.  Eff…I can see why you can’t handle this.  You have no aptitude for this whatsoever.”

“Exactly.  So, what’s your first move going to be?”

“Well, first I’ll need to examine the piece of duct tape and then I’ll have to visit all stores in the Scranton area that sell duct tape to see if I can determine a match.”

“That sounds like a great idea.  You should definitely get on that.”

As soon as Dwight had pulled out his notebook, Jim had turned his attention back to his computer.  He had carried on his whole conversation with Dwight while printing off pages of possible wedding destinations.  He knew this little investigation would distract Dwight all day, if not all week, so he could now get some serious planning done.

He looked up at Pam and she was not at reception.  Time for a break.  He placed his papers in a folder and headed towards the roof.

Pam sat on a well worn green lawn chair on the roof.  She had a folder of her own on her lap.  She heard the door open and watched him stride toward her excitedly.

“Hey, you.”

Jim sat down with a sigh on the lawn chair beside Pam. 

“What were you and Dwight whispering about?”

“Oh, I just sent him on a little goose chase to get him out of my hair.  He was starting to get suspicious of my constant smiling.”

“Well, he should be.  That’s usually a dead give away that you are plotting against him.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know.  But this time he’s way off base.  I’m smiling like an idiot for an entirely different reason.”  He leaned forward, grabbed her hand and kissed her tenderly.

Pam pulled away and slowly opened her eyes.  “Mmmm…if that’s what I get every time you play a prank on Dwight, you should continue to do that daily.”

Jim smiled. “Done.”  His eyes lingered a moment longer on her face before he turned his attention to his folder.  “So, I printed off a few pages of possibilities.”

“Me too!”  She clapped her hands excitedly.  “You go first.”

He smiled as his eyes went wide and his shoulders lifted up.  He opened up his folder.  “Okay!  So the first one I looked at was The Bahamas.  There’s this place called Grand Bahama Beach on Grand Bahama Island.  It’s only 50 miles off the shore of Florida.”

“Ooooo!  That sounds nice.  Okay, give me another one.”

“All right.  I also looked at this one.”  He handed her the page.  “It’s Ocho Rios, Jamaica.  There are all different hotels there and there’s this amazing waterfall that you can climb.  Marriage and adventure all rolled into one.  And then there’s—“

“My turn!”

“Okay, Beesly, settle down.”

“I know!  I’m sorry.  I’m just so…ahhh!”

“Excited?”

“Yes!  I mean the only place I’ve ever been on a plane is Florida and looking at all of these places is just, I don’t know, I just feel like my whole world is opening up.”

Jim looked at her lovingly.  “Yeah…God...I love seeing you like this.”

“Hyper?”

“No.  Happy.”

“Well, get used to it, because you’re going to see this goofy grin for the whole trip.”

“I can handle that.  So, what have you got to show me?”

“Okay.  So, I love all of your places so far, but…”

“But?”

“I printed off a bunch of different options, but they are all for one place.”

“Okay.  What’s the place?”

“Hawaii.”

“Ahh, very nice.  But hey, what if I secretly want to go to Vegas and have Elvis marry us?  You’d better plead your case and try and convince me.”  He folded his arms and sat back in the lawn chair.

“All right!  All right.  So it all goes back to when I was 6.  My sister gave me a few of her Barbie Dolls.  She was tired of playing with them and I loved playing with them so, it was awesome.”

“Okay, Barbie dolls.  This is interesting.  I have no idea what this has to do with our wedding, but I can’t wait to see where this goes.”

“Oh, it gets better.  So my favourite Barbie was Hawaiian Dreams Barbie.  I created this whole world for her.  I made little palm trees out of twigs and construction paper, she lived by a lagoon and I even made her a real grass skirt out of grass.  She had a boyfriend named Troy, who was a surfer, and they used to go on dates and hold hands and watch the sunset together.  Seriously, I had a whole back story made for her.”

“Beesly, I don’t know whether I should be impressed or scared.”

“I know, it was a little much, but some of the best artists in the world have been insane.  I’m in good company.  Anyways, because of Hawaiian Dreams Barbie I’ve always wanted to go to Hawaii.  I know it may sound crazy to want to go somewhere because of a doll, but…It’s just…I’ve spent my whole life day dreaming and fantasizing about what I wished would happen in my life.  Now that I’m with you, I feel like some of those things that I’ve always wanted could come true.  So…Hawaii…Can’t you just picture it?  It would just be…God, Jim, it would just be amazing.”

Pam looked at Jim with a beaming smile.  He had never seen her look so beautiful.  Her cheeks were flushed and a piece of her hair had fallen in her eyes.  Her eyes sparkled and danced.  How could he not take her to Hawaii and marry her?  If there was a flight leaving that afternoon, he would have raced with her to catch it.

“So…you want Elvis, but more “Aloha from Hawaii” Elvis than “Viva Las Vegas” Elvis.”

“You got it!”

“Ok, if it’s good enough for Elvis, it’s good enough for us.  Let me see what you’ve got in your folder.  I’m sure we could find somewhere suitable in there.”

Pam clapped her hands with glee.  She started pulling out her papers but then she glanced at her watch.  “Oh crap.  We’ve been up here for twenty minutes.  Someone’s going to come up here and drag us back.”

“Yeah, I guess we should get down there.  We can do some more planning tonight.  How about you come by my place?  We could get some take out and pour over your printouts of beautiful Hawaii.”

Pam lurched forward, squealed and squeezed Jim tightly.  “I can hardly wait!”