“I don’t understand how you can stand cinnamon flavored toothpaste, Jim. It’s disgusting.”

“And this is coming from a girl who claims oatmeal is a real food.”

“I hate you.”

“Yeah right.”

“I do!”

“How come I find that hard to believe?”

“Don’t ask me.”

“You know, hate is a very strong word.”

“Fine. I dislike you intensely.”

“No, you don’t. You love me. Ju st admit it.”

“Nope. Not gonna happen.”

“Say it.”

“I refuse.”

“Well then, I hate you too.”

“What?!”

“Now you know how it feels.”

“Okay, fine. I love you.”

“Too late. My heart is bruised forever. Happy now?”

“You’re such a bad actor, Halpert. I see that smile. You can’t hide it from me.”

Jim and Pam were getting ready for the arrival in Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas. After Pam got over her seasickness, they had enjoyed a peaceful night's sleep. There also wasn’t a rude interruption including an air horn. They awoke tangled in each other completely and felt more relaxed than they had in such a long time.

Once they got dressed, they went downstairs for breakfast and finished just as the boat docked. They made their way outside and onto the flat and steady ground, their legs a little wobbly due to the fact that they had been on a cruise for the past day. The sun was beating down and the sky was cloudless.

“Okay, Beesly, it’s only ten o’ clock. We have to be back at six, so we have plenty of time to hang out. Any ideas on what to do?”

“Actually, I do have a few. I was talking to Holly yesterday and she said that she has been here before. She told me how to get to a beach where there are hardly any people. What do you say?”

“Lead the way,” he said, smiling. She reached for his hand and they started walking. The city didn’t really have a beach surrounding it but instead, the water went up to either boat docks, a road, or a boardwalk. There were rocks jutting out into the ocean on one side of the main part of town.

“She said that it was on the other side of those rocks...” Pam said, with a little timidity in her voice as she looked at the tall boulders. Jim gave her hand a gentle squeeze before letting go. “We can do this,” he said with confidence.

“I trust you,” she replied with a small smile. He climbed over the first one with ease. “Here, I’ll help you up,” he said as he offered her his hand. She took it and he pulled her up. He stepped onto the next one and still managed to hold onto her hand. “Careful, this one is a little slick,” he said. She carefully stepped onto the other one, but she lost her footing for a minute and almost fell.

“Whoa, you okay?” he asked as he helped hold her up.

God, he is so sweet. Just look at him... Why did I get to be so lucky? Pam thought to herself.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” The slowly finished their way across the rocks managing not to slip. When they stepped onto the sand, they couldn’t help but drop their jaws at how beautiful the beach was. A few people were lying on beach towels and two little girls were trying to build a sand castle. Overall, it was quiet and peaceful. Best of all, there was no sign of Michael.

“I haven’t built a sand castle in so long!” Pam said when she noticed the little girls.

“Then let’s build one,” Jim suggested.

“But we don’t have any of the tools.”

“So what? We can improvise,” he said as he knelt down on the sand with his mind already made up as he started piling sand together in a mound. Pam knelt next to him and started helping him. He stopped for a second and looked around the beach until he saw a toy bucket lying abandoned in the sand near the rocks. He stood up and went to retrieve it.

“See? I told you we could do this,” he said as he got back on the sand.

“You’re such a dork,” she said with a smile and a nudge.

“Oh, really? I’m the dork? You’re the one who suggested we do this, so I wouldn’t be talking.” Pam couldn’t say anything back because he was completely right. She filled the bucket with sand and went over to the ocean where she filled it with water.  She flipped over the bucket on top of the mound. “You keep working on this while I go look f or seashells,” she said.

“Why seashells?” he asked.

“Because they are going to be decoration,” she replied as if everyone knew that. She walked around picking up every interesting shell she saw and attempted to hold them all in her arms, although many fell to the ground. When she sat back down next to Jim and dropped the shells on the sand, she couldn’t help but laugh.

“It looks awesome, Jim.”

“Well, I am the artist in this couple, so...” he said with a wink. She rolled her eyes.  “Ok, so it’s pretty pitiful...” he said with a chuckle. She started sticking the sea shells and even some little pieces of coral she found on the heap of sand they were calling a sand castle.

“And now, the finishing touch,” she said as she stuck a stick at the very top of the castle. “And our masterpiece is complete.”

“We should name it,” he said.

“How about... The Castle of Difflin.”

“Difflin?”

“Dunder and Mifflin merged together.”

“Right.”

She pulled the stick out of the castle and started writing the name in the sand near the castle. She stuck it back in and wiped the sand off of her hands as she stood and examined it.

“I think we need a picture,” she said. He reached in her beach bag and grabbed her camera.

“I’ll take it!” A woman who was walking past them said. One of the little girls that the saw earlier was holding her hand while the other was a ways in front of her, picking up seashells.

“Well, thank you!” Pam said and she started explaining how to work the camera to the stranger. Jim stood up and walked behind the castle. Pam made her way next to him and wrapped her arm around him and he did the same to her. Their knees and calf’s were covered with sand. He gave a thumbs up to the camera which caused her to laugh as the woman snapped the picture.

“It’s really cute,” the woman said. “You guys are really cute together.”

Pam blushed and smiled up at Jim. “We try,” he teased as he pressed his forehead against hers as she giggled.

“Mommy, mommy!” the little girl who was collecting seashells called as she ran up to the woman. “Look what I found!” She proudly held out her hand where a piece of sea glass was laying. The woman bent down next to her and smiled. “Good job, Joanie!” Pam couldn’t help but smile at them.

“Whoa, look at all those seashells,” Joanie said, pointing to the sand castle in awe. Pam couldn’t help but marvel at how precious the little girl was. She had a little lisp and had the brightest blue eyes she’d ever seen. The other little girl was still holding onto her mom’s hand.

“Do you want to look at them?” Pam asked. Joanie vigorously nodded her head and walked to the castle. “This is one of my favorites,” she said as she handed the precious little girl a perfect light pink shell.=2 0She took it off of the sand castle and handed it to her.

“It’s really pretty,” Joanie said as she stared down at it and held it in her open palm as if it was a breakable piece of Venetian glass.

“You can keep it if you want,” Pam said with a warm smile. She was bent down to the girl’s level. “Wow,” she replied. “Thank you very, very much.”

The other little girl who hadn’t spoken yet slowly walked up to Pam and nervously asked with a little stutter, “Can I have one, too?” This little girl had bright green eyes but otherwise looked the same as the other. They were probably twins, she thought.

“Of course!” Pam replied as she picked a small sand dollar off of the castle. She set it in the girls open palm. “Now take extra care of this shell. They are very hard to find and are special,” she said as she closed the girl’s hand over the shell.

“I cross my heart and hope to die,” she replied as he gave Pam a hug. “Thank you very, very much.”

“Mommy, mommy! This lady gave me a shell! Look!” Joanie said as she ran back to her mom who was smiling at Pam.

“Look at mine, mommy!” the other girl said following Joanie. The mother mouthed a thank you and Pam gave a little wave before the family walked back to their towels. Pam looked up at Jim. He was beaming at her. She stood up and couldn’t help but smile herself.

“I thought you said that kids always hated you,” he said. “But I think you’re great with them. Those girls looked at you as if you were a princess or something!”

“I always thought that kids were scared of me! But I don’t know... There was just something about those girls that just made me feel sentimental.”

“You’re going to be a great mom someday.” Her heart skipped a beat as she reached for his hand and gave it a squeeze. When she thought of her kids, she thought of Jim being their dad. She just had this feeling that he really would be the father of her kids. Actually, deep down, she was positive that that was=2 0true.

“And you’re going to be a great dad,” she replied giving him a soft kiss on the lips.

*****

For the next two hours, Jim and Pam switched from swimming in the ocean to relaxing on the beach.

“You know, when I was a teenager, my dad taught me how to sail a sailboat,” Jim said as they were lying together on a beach towel.

“What are you implying?”

“Well, I saw as we were walking down here that you could rent one out. I was thinking that we could pack some lunch and we could go for a sail around the island.”

“Let’s do it!” she said excitedly as she jumped up and grabbed his hand, trying to pull him up.

They packed up their beach tote, said good-bye to their sandcastle, and started back over to the rocks. Pam stopped walking and took one last20look at the two little girls who were kicking the sand and jumping up and down, their little shrieks and laughter audible from where Jim and Pam were standing. The girl who gave her a hug turned and waved to Pam with a big smile on her face. She saw that her hand was still clutched tightly and she knew that the little sand dollar she gave her was what she was holding.

Pam felt a hand on her back. She turned and saw Jim smiling at the girls, too.

“Maybe we will have kids like that someday,” he said. Pam felt the butterflies in her stomach start to take flight. This time, they were fluttering their wings one hundred miles per hour. She turned to look at him and smiled brightly and kissed him without notice.

“Maybe so,” she said dreamily.