February 27th 2003, 3:34 pm

“Dunder -Mifflin this is Pam.”

Jim looked up from his expense report to glance over toward reception. Pam had a slightly bored expression on her face as she transferred whoever it was on the line. She looked up at him and gave him a little roll of her eyes. He smiled and looked back down at his work.

Five minutes later he looked up again, his eyes drifting toward reception, just to catch a glimpse of her. She had her chin propped up in her hand, staring at something intently on her computer screen. He got up and headed toward her.

“Hey do you have a copy of that memo Toby sent out? I lost mine.”

Pam nodded and reached into her inbox, handing him the top paper. She didn’t look up from the computer.

He watched her for a moment as he rolled the paper in his hands, “Working hard or hardly working?” Inwardly he cringed and mentally berated himself for being such an idiot.

She looked up, slightly embarrassed, “Oh. Uh.” Her eyes darted toward Michael’s office, “It’s Freecell.”

He grinned, “Nice.”

She relaxed and turned back toward the screen, “I figure I should try to do something productive during the day.”

Jim moved to the other side of her desk and leaned over so he could see her computer screen, “My personal favorite is Spider Solitaire.”

Pam nodded, “Also a good one. But not as good as Freecell. So suck on that.”

Jim’s mouth dropped open a bit as she gave him a look that said, ‘yeah, I talked trash, what are you gonna do?’ His eyes lit up in admiration, “Wow. Pam Beesley. Little bit passionate about our computer games are we?”

She ducked her head, “You gotta find something around here to be passionate about. And it’s definitely not paper.You have messing with Dwight. I have Freecell.”

He nodded in defeat, “I’ll give you that one. But messing with Dwight is not the only thing that gets me through the day.”

“No?”

“No. There’s also… Well, the nothing. I am completely passionate about the nothing that I do. See, I figure only about half my day is spent doing actual work. The other half is spent doing nothing. And I am very passionate about that.” He pointed at the screen, “Four on five.”

Pam looked and smiled, “Thanks. I didn’t see that.” She clicked on the card and dropped it in its place. Looked up at Jim, “I wouldn’t call it nothing.”

“Well, I’m not exactly feeding starving children in Somalia.”

She grinned and glanced back at the screen, “You know this isn’t all I do. Sometime I answer the phones. And highlight things. Look at dirty web sites.”

Jim smirked, “Do you?”

“Oh yeah. You know all those obscene e-mail forwards? They’re all from me.”

“Figures.” He pointed out another move on her screen, “It’s always the quiet ones. Sitting up here talking trash and looking up porn.”

She blushed slightly, “Well it’s not all porn. Sometimes I just look up random things. I found a whole website on palm reading I plan on perusing one day while Michael’s not here.”

“Sounds interesting. But only if you promise to read mine first. I really need to know if this is a good month for me to change my hairstyle.”

Pam giggled, “I think that’s astrology.”

Jim looked disappointed, “Damn. But hey. You could look that up too right?”

“I’ll check it out for you. If I can find the time.”

“Oh right. All that stuff that needs to be…”

“Highlighted?” They smiled at each other until they heard a shout coming from the kitchen. The whole office looked up to see Angela and Dwight emerging from the women’s bathroom. She had her hands on her hips and was staring up at him menacingly.

“How many times do we have to tell you to stay out of there!”

“I happen to have top secret information. You’re obstructing a law enforcement agent from his business!”

“You’re a volunteer sheriff’s deputy! Not a law enforcement agent. And stay out of our bathroom!” Angela crossed her arms and glared at him. Dwight stared down at her for a moment and then stormed out in a huff. Everyone watched as he sat down at his desk muttering under his breath and glaring at the bobble heads assembled in front of him.

Pam turned to Jim with wide eyes, “What was that?”

He suppressed a grin and shrugged slyly, “I sent Dwight an anonymous e-mail from a concerned female employee about the illegal activities occurring in the women’s bathroom.”

Pam laughed loudly and then covered her mouth when Dwight glared in their direction, “You didn’t. What kind of illegal activities are supposed to have gone on?”

“I didn’t really elaborate. But you never know. It may be where Phyllis runs her drug ring from.”

“Phyllis is dealing drugs?”

“Oh yeah. You better keep your eyes open the next time you’re in there. As Dwight would say, ‘Be Vigilant.’”

Pam’s shoulders shook as she laughed, “Oh. Jim, thank God you’re here.”

He looked down at her with a surprised expression, trying to keep the red from spreading up his face. His tongue darted out between his lips, “Thanks.”

“I’m serious. You’re the only person here I can talk to.”

He looked thoughtful, “There’s always Angela.”

Pam giggled, “We don’t exactly have a lot in common. I’m not a big cat person.”

“Thank God.” He sighed in relief and folded his arms so they rested on the desk, “Well, I would spend more time over here. But I just have so much to do.”

“Ah, well I’ll just have to come up with an excuse to get you to come over and visit me.” She nodded toward the paper in his hands and grinned, “A real excuse.”

Jim opened his mouth, his face turning red, “You caught me.” He shifted his body, momentarily uncomfortable, “So what did you have in mind?”

She thought for a moment and then brightened, “What’s your favorite candy?”

“You’re gonna use candy? Oh, that’s low Pam. Even for a trash talker like you.”

She smirked, “I play dirty Jim.”

He raised an eyebrow, “Fine. Jellybeans.”

“Jellybeans? Your favorite candy is jellybeans?”

“What can I say? I’m easy to please.”

Pam nodded and then looked over as the door opened and Roy walked in. Jim straightened up and took a tiny step back from the desk.

“Hey babe. Halpert.” Roy and Jim nodded at each other and Jim went to sit back down at his desk. He scratched the side of his face and pretended to stare intently at his computer screen.

Throughout the rest of the day his eyes continued to drift over to her desk. It had become an involuntary action. Like breathing.

At five o’clock he waved goodbye to her and watched as the rest of the office filed out. When he was alone he closed his eyes and rubbed his face. He didn’t like where this was going. He didn’t like the fact that he had begun to need those simple glances in her direction. By all accounts he barely even knew her. She was just this woman that he spent nine to five every weekday with.

He couldn’t pinpoint the exact moment that it had happened. But somewhere in the midst of their conversation that day he had gone from having a small harmless “thing” for the cute receptionist to having a really big problem that dug at the very core of his heart. A problem that was getting bigger every time he glanced in her direction. Every time she smiled at him.

Or maybe it had happened long ago and he was only just beginning to see the way she had taken over his thoughts. The way she consumed him.

He hated it.

Needed it.

He stood up and grabbed his bag. Determined to forget. He wasn’t so far gone that he couldn’t jump out of this mess in the making. He could go home and forget about her. Convince himself that nothing would ever happen. She was engaged. She was in love with another man.

And that would have to be enough to make him turn away.

Only, it wouldn’t be. Because the next day there was a jar of jellybeans on her desk.