Jim was staring at the door right in front of him. Dunder Mifflin, the sign read. Jim took a deep breath, and stepped into the office. The first thing he noticed as he walked in was the receptionist. She had reddish brown hair, big green eyes, and she was wearing a smile as Jim walked towards her.
“How can I help you?” she asked.
“Hi, I’m Jim. I’m new here,” Jim said, shaking her hand.
“Hi, my name’s Pam. Let me get Mr. Scott for you…”
“Ah! Jim Halpert!” Michael exclaimed, walking out of his office. “Come into my office, young man, and let me seduce you into the ways of our company.”
Jim gave Pam a confused smile, and followed Michael to his office. Michael went on about how his branch is the fun branch, and how Jim will be able to have a great career selling paper and having fun.
“Well, hopefully, this won’t be my career…” Jim started.
“What? Are you too good for this company?” Michael asked, offended.
“Oh, no, sir…I just meant that…”
“All of this sounded too good to be true?
“Yes…that is exactly what I was thinking,” Jim said.
“All right, good man!” Michael said, “Pam! Come give Jim a tour of our wonderful office! I just have so much work to do!”
Pam sighed, and got up from her desk. Jim walked out of Michael’s office, and towards Pam.
“So that was our oh so charismatic boss,” Pam said, smiling. “Okay, let me show you around.”
“All right,” Jim said, following Pam.
Pam showed Jim where the break room, the kitchen, and the bathrooms were.
“This seems like a very exciting place,” Jim said sarcastically. Pam let out a giggle.
“You have no idea…” Pam said, “let me show you to your desk.”
“All right, sounds great.” They started walking towards the main office from the kitchen.
“Enjoy this moment,” said Pam softly, “because you're never going to go back to this time before you met your desk mate Dwight.”
Jim laughed nervously as he pulled out his chair, “Thanks, Pam.”
“No problem, Jim,” Pam said heading back over to her desk.
Jim turned to his new desk mate, “Hello, I’m Jim Halpert,” Jim said, holding out his hand. Dwight stared at Jim for a few seconds, and Jim pulled his hand back, “Okay…”
“So you’re the new guy, huh?” Dwight asked.
“Yes, that would be me…”
“Question: do you know where you are sitting?”
“At my desk?” Jim said nervously, chuckling.
“Wrong, you are sitting in an office that contains two of the greatest salesmen this company has ever seen,” Dwight said, returning his gaze to his computer.
“That’s quite an honor…” Jim mumbled to himself. He heard some giggling from the reception area. He turned to his right, and saw that Pam was grinning at him, shrugging her shoulders in a “what did I tell you?” kind of way. Jim chuckled, and that’s when he knew.
“Hey, Pam,” Jim said walking up to her desk. Jim couldn’t believe that he was already working here for two days, and he was surprised to find that he and Pam were quickly becoming friends.
“Hello, Jim,” Pam said, smiling up at him. Jim grabbed a few jelly beans.
“So I woke up late this morning, and it seems that I forgot to pack my lunch,” Jim said, smiling back at her, “and I was wondering if you would like to go out to Cugino’s for lunch today. My treat.”
“Sure, that sounds great,” Pam said, smiling wider.
“All right, great…” Jim said shyly, walking back to his desk.
It was already 1:00, and Jim and Pam were going down to the lobby on the elevator. They both nodded to the security guard, Hank, and headed outside to the parking lot.
“So who’s driving?” Pam asked, smiling.
“I guess I’ll have to drive. I have to warn you that my car is kind of a big deal. I mean, I’ve seen plenty of people crying because I wasn’t able to give them a ride in my awesome car, so you should feel honored,” Jim said sarcastically.
“Oh, I do feel very honored…so which one is your car?” Pam giggled. Jim pointed to a maroon Toyota Corolla, and Pam burst out in laughter. Jim started to laugh as well, as he opened the door for Pam.
“So what kind of music are you into?” Jim asked, reversing out of the parking spot.
“I like everything,” Pam said.
“Wow, that’s pretty broad, Ms. Beasly,” Jim handed her his CD booklet, “Choose a CD then.”
Pam shuffled through the pages, and she picked out a CD.
“What are we going to listen to?” Jim asked.
“You’ll see,” Pam said, putting the CD into Jim’s stereo.
“Oh, I see you’re a Radiohead fan, bold choice,” Jim said, listening to the opening lines of ‘Paranoid Android.’ “Kind of a depressing song, don’t you think?”
“Well, I still like it,” Pam said, smiling. Jim couldn’t help but smile back. She was adorable…
“We should do this again sometime,” Jim said after they got back from lunch.
“Yeah, it was fun…” Pam said, brushing her hair back with her left hand.
Yeah, it was, Jim thought to himself, smiling. Their lunch had been great. Jim told Pam that he had to drop out of school, because his parents were struggling with money. So Jim decided to move back to Scranton to help them out for awhile, and his plans were to go back to college in a couple of years. Pam told Jim that she always wanted to be an artist, but she ended up working as a receptionist.
As Pam pulled her hand out of her hair, Jim saw something shiny from her finger. It took a few seconds, before he realized that she was wearing an engagement ring. How could he not have noticed before? Just then, a tall figure walked up to Pam, and gave her a quick kiss.
“Hey, babe, Daryl and I are going to Poor Richard’s after work today,” the guy said. Jim felt his ribs tightening in his chest.
“How am I going to get home?” Pam asked.
Roy looked around, and saw Jim. “The new guy can give you a ride home, right?”
“Uh, sure…if that’s okay with Pam.”
“Yeah, it’s fine…I’m going back to work,” Pam said, giving Roy a quick kiss, and going back into the building.
“Hey, I’m Roy,” Roy said, turning to face Jim.
“Jim,” Jim said, shaking Roy’s hand, trying with all his might not squeeze the hell out of it.
Jim’s first week was almost over. It was Friday, and he was about to go on his first sales call with Dwight. Jim leaned down to peer into the refrigerator for his lunch. He noticed a container of mixed berry yogurt, and it was expired. Just then, Dwight walked in.
“Halpert, let’s move!” Dwight said. Jim lifted his head out of the refrigerator, and nodded. Pam followed Dwight in, holding a camera.
“Before you guys go, Michael wanted me to take a picture before Jim’s first sales call,” Pam said, holding up the camera.
“All right. Make it quick, Pam,” Dwight said, moving over to stand next to Jim.
“Smile!” Pam cried happily.
“No!” Dwight said. Jim laughed, and Pam snapped the picture.
“Come on, Halpert, we’ve got some paper to sell!” Dwight ordered, walking out of the kitchen.
Pam smiled at Jim, and she headed to the refrigerator.
“Good luck, Jim,” she said opening the door.
“Thanks, Pam,” Jim said. “Oh, and that mixed berry yogurt that you’re about to eat has expired.”
Jim walked out of the kitchen, and Pam smiled to herself. And that’s when she knew…
