Pam was staying late at work that night. Technically, Michael didn’t need her for the big report he was finishing but she stayed anyway. She couldn’t handle another night of takeout, there was nothing in her fridge anyway, and she could just as easily eat ramen noodles here as at home. At least here, she could pretend that she wasn’t all alone. Could pretend that maybe she was needed and served a purpose.

She also had a theory about watching television. It was okay to watch prime time shows all night but there was something that had always struck her as monumentally sad about settling in with Dr. Phil at 5:00 and pushing on until the evening news.

Most folks had drifted out the door by 5:30 so she began a rousing game of solitaire. Three losses in a row convinced her that Lady Luck was not going to be kind to her tonight. She switched over to perusing the internet. She idly passed through Give Me My Remote, Television Without Pity and ended finally at Go Fug Yourself.

At 6:30, unable to look at even one more Sienna Miller fashion disaster, she made her way to the break room to heat up water for dinner. She was too impatient to wait for the carrots to reconstitute and kept coming up on chewy little bits in her soup.

She was re-reading her horoscope for the third time when Creed suddenly appeared in the doorway. He gave Pam a quick nod and then went right to the refrigerator. He stood there with the door ajar for several minutes, pulling out bags and containers, sniffing them in turn.

Pam idly watched, assuming he had forgotten what he had brought. She wondered if Creed had any brain cells left, or if he even had a home to go to.

Finally, he pulled out an insulated lunch bag with the logo of the Lackawanna County Sheriff’s Department. Written in bold black marker on every surface of the bag were the words “Property of Dwight K. Schrute”. Creed unzipped the bag and sniffed it. Pam saw his head snap back in revulsion. Then he shrugged and pulled out a sandwich and started munching happily.

Pam chuckled a bit and then returned to reading the comics page of the newspaper. Puzzled at how obtuse one of the strips was, she glanced over to see that it was drawn by her blind date from the previous week. She wrinkled up her nose at the thought of the man who had behaved like a complete ass. There had been zero chemistry between them. Not like her and…

Jim. Why did all thoughts have to lead to Jim?

Pam felt a sob welling up within her and the hot sting of tears running down her cheek. Nobody understood her like Jim. Nobody had ever loved her like he had. And she had broken his heart and sent him away. She laid her head on the table, crying hard, not even caring that she wasn’t alone.

Suddenly, Creed was sitting opposite her. He reached over and gently tilted her head up so he could see into her eyes.

“Hey,” he said softly. “Hey what’s wrong, honey?”

The unmistakable smell of sardines assaulted her but she managed to choke back her tears a bit, “Oh, Creed, I just miss Jim so much.”

“You’re in love with him.”

Pam was shocked that he was so perceptive. “How do you know?”

“Well, missy, I’ve been all over this crazy world and I’ve seen a thing or two. I’ve studied with Shaolin monks, I’ve…” he looked off into the distance and paused for a long moment. Pam thought maybe he’d fallen asleep with his eyes open when all at once he continued, “I’ve been through the desert on a horse with no name. I’ve loved and lost.”

He looked back at her, “I have a creed. I call it my Creed creed. Here it is: get as much love as you can from as many people as you can because one day, you’ll be dead.” He leaned forward and said gravely, “Missy, life is too short!”

Despite his seriousness and her sorrow, it took every ounce of restraint she had not to burst out laughing. If Jim were here, this is just the kind of thing she would have run right out to share with him. This was just the kind of thing they would have laughed about.

Then Pam thought about Creed’s words. Life is short. Life is too short. Maybe it would be okay to call Jim. Maybe it was best to start by sharing something funny with him. Then maybe they could tackle all the other things that needed tackling.

Suddenly, she felt like she couldn’t get to the phone fast enough. She jumped up and gave Creed a small kiss on the cheek.

“Thanks!” she said breathlessly as she headed for the door, “That was the best advice I’ve heard in a while. I’ll tell Jim you said hi!”

Creed watched her go, a smile on his face. Then he frowned and said, “Who’s Jim?”

He shrugged and returned happily to his pilfered sandwich.