Sometimes it infuriated her, the way they fell back into their easy routine. The flirtatious chattering, the smiles, the laughs. She knew it was there, it was burning in her skin, and she wondered if she had exaggerated Jim's feelings for her. After the booze cruise, she felt as if she had been ripped out of her own body and she was watching everything in slow motion. She went home that night, and despite the festive mood, watched Roy fall asleep. Forget romance, sure they just set a date and she might have thought it was a reason to celebrate, but was it really?  Few moments before that she was staring into Jim's eyes, begging him to take her.

She thought she saw his face drop as he watched her dance with Roy, and that made her own heart ache. So instead she focused on Roy's face, trying to sear it into her mind, to block out the images of Jim. Maybe their friendship was just that, a friendship and not dangerously bordering anything beyond that. She had to be misinterpreting things because as Jim leaned on her counter, smiling that mega watt smile of his at her, she wanted nothing more that to pull him towards her and smash her lips on his. How could he stand there so calm and controlled when she was battling to maintain even the smallest amount of dignity in here?

As he chewed his jellies and smiled at her, Pam wondered if he did kiss her on the boat, would she have kissed him back?

She tried hard not to focus on his full lips as he smiled. "Hey I got a joke."

"Wow, are we in third grade now?"

"My dad can beat up your dad." Jim frowned.

That made Pam chuckle. "Okay, shoot."

She watched as Jim rubbed his hands together and smiled. "Hey, is it just me, or does it smell like updog in here?"

Pam scrunched her face in confusion. "What's  ‘updog'?"

"Nothing much, what's up with you?" Jim said smoothly as he popped two jellies in his mouth.

She shook her head and laughed. "I cannot believe I fell for that. Gosh."

She blushed at the wicked smile that was on his face. He had a habit of making her feel like a school girl, getting easily flushed and flustered. How he can make an innocent stupid joke slightly erotic. And he was always making jokes to get her to laugh, to pull her out of that funk of working here.  In fact, she never laughed so much in her life before she met Jim. Even a simple facial expression from him could make her burst into fits.

The fun was over soon enough as Michael came in and leaned over the counter beside Jim.

"Ha ha. What? What? Where's the funny? Give it to me," he said, beating on the counter.

Jim glanced over at Pam and then back at Michael. "Um, is it me or does it smell like updog in here?"

"What's ‘updog'?" Michael paused.

Jim gave a devilish grin. "Nothing much, what's up with you?"

Michael looked confused for a good while and Pam bit her lip. He looked like he might give himself an aneurysm with how hard he was processing the joke. She guessed the light bulb came on as he slowly smiled. "Oh, wow. I walked right into that. Oh, that's brilliant."

Jim nodded. "Yeah it is."

"Wow."

Jim sucked in his bottom lip. "Yep."

"I have to try that."

"Sure, I mean, it's not copyrighted or anything."

"Whoa...ok. Watch me in action Jimbo." Michael replied and waltzed over towards Stanley.

"Hey Stanley. Is that jacket made of updog?"

Stanley rolled his eyes and covered his phone piece. Pam realized it was almost automatic now; he didn't even look up at Michael. "I'm on the phone."

Michael went around the office the next thirty minutes trying to do Jim's joke...unsuccessfully of course. Pam shook her head and continued playing her Soduko game.

"Dunder- Mifflin, this is-oh hey Oscar. Not feeling well? Oh no problem, I'll tell Michael. Okay? Alright. Feel better." Pam hung up the phone and jotted down the message. She'd give it to Michael when he finished harassing everyone.

She heard the soft ding on her computer.

I think I've created a monster.

She quirked her eyebrow and looked at Jim as he read her reply.

Meet the most unfunniest man in Scranton...nay the Universe, Michael Gregory Scott. BTW, don't you have cleaning to do?

Is "unfunniest" even a word?

Jim started typing back. He then hit the enter button and looked over at Pam, his arms crossed.

I'm thinking about cleaning my desk and completely throwing away all Dwight's possessions on his.

And unfunniest is the only word to describe Michael.

She laughed out loud and Jim wagged his eyebrows. Pam rolled her eyes at him and went back to her game. God, what is happening to me?

So she made herself refuse to look back up at Jim for the rest of the day. She noticed lately she had been doing that, taking small glances at him. Taking in his tall thin frame, his hair and how it curls at the nape of his neck, his broad shoulders and hint of a 5 o'clock shadow. How could she not notice? She was engaged not blind! And therein lays the problem. She loved him leaning over the counter, gazing at her. She loved the way he made everyday in this hellhole better for her. She loved how he seemed to fill that empty spot that even Roy couldn't fill. The only thing she didn't love was all the guilt associated with it.

Pam let out a sigh of relief as Kelly walked up.

"Oh my god, morning Pam. What are you doing? I'm waiting for a client call so I decided to just walk around and see what was going on. Oh are these bridal magazines? Cool!"

Pam just bobbed her head, knowing she wouldn't get a word in edge wise.

"Have you totally started planning since the booze cruise?" Kelly questioned.

She used to have so many plans about this wedding but after 3 years of waiting, she just started fling whatever she could together before something happened and the wedding would be postponed again. "I bought my veil."

"Oh my God, that is so exciting. Can I be a bridesmaid?" Kelly yelped.

Pam didn't know how to respond to that. "Um..."

"Listen, you don't have to answer now, but how are you going to do your hair?"

Thank god for subject changes. Pam started smiling again. "Okay, I was thinking about wearing it down. Kind of like, I don't know, like..."

Slowly, she reached back and let her curls fall down, pulling her fingers through her thick hair. She had never worn her hair down at work really, not seeing the point, and her curls could be a bit unruly.  "...loose with big curls."

Kelly gasped and covered her mouth with her hand. "You look like an angel; I'm seriously going to cry."

Pam really appreciated the compliment. All of a sudden she felt pretty and she almost looked over to see Jim watching her, but Michael came out of his office, making cat calls.

"Wowee, Mikey likey. Why don't you wear your hair down like that all the time? It's much sexier." He leered at her.

Pam felt her the corner of her mouth turn down and reached back to secure the barrette back in place. Kelly rolled her eyes at Michael as he walked away. She leaned over. "Well I do think you'll look absolutely gorgeous. This is so exciting! Think about the bridesmaid thing."

She got distracted by seeing Jim move behind Kelly and go into Michael's office. "Um...okay. I will think about it."

Kelly skipped away and Pam just went back to her game. Out the corner of her eye, she saw Dwight harassing Ryan and muttering to himself about surveillance. She would have to go to Jim about that, and maybe come up with a plan to stop him from harassing Oscar, who was out sick today. Pam directly called Michael if she was sick, and most of the time, just left it on his machine. But those times were rare, since she was saving up time for her honeymoon now.

Her honeymoon with Roy. And while finally setting a date should have her bursting with anticipation, it made her feel like she was drowning in a deep dark pool. She honestly didn't feel excited, she felt relief sure, she felt like they were finally moving forward instead of being stagnant for another year, but she didn't feel excited. And even when she was running into bridal shops on the weekends, she never stopped and looked at herself and said "Thank you god!"

She just never did. No, on the weekend while she was shopping, she often wondered what Jim would think about her bargain choices? What Jim would say about her veil, or her shoes? What Jim was doing this weekend? Would Jim come along instead of her mom to help her plan? Because she bet whoever was lucky enough to marry Jim, he would tag along with them instead of using the excuse of a pickup game with Darryl.

Her thoughts would always drift from her wedding to him and was just flying on auto pilot after awhile, nodding in the right places and just going along with the planning. Because she had to, right?

To distract herself from these thoughts, she clicked off her game and started rifling through her drawers. She was usually a tidy person, so clean up day was just a waste of time for her. But anything was better than glancing over at Jim, who was cleaning up the supply shelf.

She couldn't help but look when Jim was walking back to his desk, and Michael was badgering him about going to lunch.

Jim shrugged his shoulders at Michael. "I don't know, I'm probably just gonna eat my ham and cheese sandwich in the break room."

Michael didn't seem to get that Jim hated change. He ate his ham and cheese in the break room with Pam everyday, as it ought to be and it was pissing her off that Michael kept badgering Jim to eat lunch with him...and not her. "Oh, nonsense. No way, no. Why don't, uh- Why don't I take you out to lunch? My treat."

"Uh, no, that's all right. Thank you, though. It's- I gotta do some cleaning. I should probably stick around here." Jim tried to explain off.

"Hey, you know what we can do? Spread out a blanket in the break room, have a little picnic, order some 'za. Talk about you-know-who. The P, to the A, to the- "

Pam saw Michael glance at her, and she looked back at him but Jim interrupted Michael.

"Oh, um, nope. You know what, let's go out. That was a good idea. Let's go out."

"I know just the place." Michael smiled devilishly at Jim and Pam watched as Jim grabbed his coat and shrugged at her, and then followed a peppy Michael out the door.

She watched the door for a minute, wondering who she was going to eat lunch with now. When Jim wasn't back in 10 minutes, Pam huffed and grabbed her salad and ate at her desk as she flipped though her magazines. She had no desire to eat in the kitchen with Ryan or Kevin.

She finished eating and put her things away and then wiped down her desk. Suddenly Dwight was at her counter, leering at her. She clicked out of her Solitaire game because she didn't want Dwight to snitch on her.

"Yes Dwight?" She sighed heavily.

"Jelly beans. Yum." He began digging in the candy dish and shoving them in his mouth. So many that his lips were turning black and they stuck to his teeth. Pam grimaced as he devoured more. "Who took all the black ones? "

"That's a communal bowl." She said disgusted.

"So, how did Oscar sound when he called in?

Pam shrugged. "Sick. Like, lots of sniffling. I don't know."

"Sniffling how?" Dwight pushed. He reached into the candy dish again and Pam wanted to just tell him to keep it because he was just...gross.

"Um, how many different ways are there to sniffle?"

"Three."

Pam frowned at the idiocy of it all. "Okay, it was the second one."

"Okay, good. Thank you. That wasn't so hard, now was it?"

She shook her head as she watched Dwight write something down. "Hm-mm."

When he finally walked away, she grabbed the candy dish and chucked out the contaminated candy. She wouldn't let Jim dare eat that crap after Dwight had his filthy paws all on it.

She checked the clock again, wondering where Jim and Michael could be. Knowing Michael, they could be anywhere.  Her day was boring and uneventful without Jim, despite her crazy encounter with Dwight and her candy dish. Stanley had just walked up and placed a box on the counter when Michael and Jim walked in, laughing.

"That was hilarious. Hey." Michael replied and casually walked into his office.

Pam called Jim over to her. "What did you guys talk about?"

"Just, you know, politics. Literature." Jim replied and then held up a Hooters t-shirt.

Heat rose up in her face. "I hate you."

She was a bit jealous which was ridiculous. How could she be jealous of a bunch of boob-a-licious waitresses serving Jim lunch at Hooters?  It wasn't like they were coming on to him, it wasn't like Jim was that kind of guy...it wasn't like Jim was her boyfriend. Right? She frowned and clearing out her file cabinet to distract her.

There was much thinking about Jim going on. She was ashamed that she was sitting here, jealous of Jim at Hooters, when he wasn't her fiancé. That the thought of Jim leaving her even for an hour lunch was too much for her to bear.

She should be focused on Roy, on her wedding, and maybe if she kept telling herself that, she might actually do it. Roy, her wedding, Roy her wedding. Not fucking working.

She grabbed the box of assorted files and walked past Jim talking to Kevin. He glanced up at her and gave her a small smile and she cursed herself for giving one back. She really sucked at the whole "stop-thinking-of Jim" thing.

Pam walked in the kitchen and started putting paper in the trash bin when Jim walked in too.

"Hey."

He smiled back and went to pour some coffee. "Hey."

"Did you find anything good in your desk?"

"Uh, coupon for a free sandwich."

"Score." She couldn't help but stare at the way his lean muscles flexed under his work shirt or how sloppy he rolled up his sleeves.

"Expired in August. And my cell phone charger from two years ago."

Pam smiled and picked up her box to leave. "Big day."

"Big day. Hey, uh, listen..."  Jim started as Pam was leaving the kitchen, and she dropped her smile, concerned.

He seemed serious suddenly and she wondered what had happened with Michael at lunch. She found herself standing very close to him, leaning against the counter.

"Um... " he started, staring into his coffee cup, looking anywhere but at her. "I told Michael on the booze cruise- It's so stupid. Um...I told Michael, that I had had a crush on you when you first started here."

"Oh," was all she could say, it was like hearing him confirm it out loud, hearing him say what she wanted to say so badly but had so much shit hindering her... was almost deafening. Like he was shouting it at her.  

But he wasn't, he was so calm and quiet, almost too calm. She stared intensely at his face as he continued. "Well, I just thought that- I figured you should hear it from me. Rather than, I mean, you know Michael."

"Right." She said, her mind reeling. She knew she should say something, tell him anything, tell him she had a crush on him too, but it's grown into this... "thing" and she didn't know what it is because she's engaged to Roy. But her breath caught at her thoughts and she couldn't speak.

"And...seriously. It's totally not a big deal. Okay?" Jim said, finally looking at her, giving her a small but painful smile. "And when I found out that you were engaged, I mean- "

Pam finally found words, but they were jumbled. "No, I-I know. Like, I kind of- Like, I- I thought that maybe you did. When I first started..."

She threw that out there to see if he would say he still felt that way, because she sure did and maybe if she wasn't such a fucking coward, she could say she did.

He raised an eyebrow. "Oh, you did?"

"No, I mean, just 'cause we, like, got along so well."

"No, I know, yeah. You saw through me. Great." Jim joked. He always joked, and this was the only moment she wished he wouldn't. But she laughed anyway, because she didn't know what else to do.

"So are you gonna be, like, totally awkward around me now?"

Jim nodded and blurted out. "Oh, yeah. Yeah. Hope that's okay."

Pam laughed again, and burned his face into her brain with so many other images she had up there of him, special moments she could keep to herself. "Mm-hmm."

She walked away, barely because her legs felt like buckling, but she hadn't got out the kitchen door before Jim called to her again, a faint grin on his face. "And Pam... It was like, three years ago. So, I am totally over it."

With that, her heart felt excruciatingly heavy, like he had yanked something out of her and she couldn't breathe again. He took it back in that instance, the elation that she felt knowing he did like her at one point and she wasn't imagining all those moments. He took it from her with a simple statement like that. I'm totally over it. She just nodded, wanting to cry but she couldn't. She had no right to. "Cool."

"Okay," he said softly and turned to pour more coffee.

She tore her eyes away from him, and barely stumbled back to her desk, wishing this day was over. The rest of the afternoon, she concentrated on fixing Michael's schedule instead of looking at Jim, who she was almost certain was stealing glances at her.

No, there was no way to look at him right now, he made her excited in one brief moment; more excited than she was about planning her own gotdamned wedding and in mere seconds after that, he yanked it back from her. She felt robbed. She felt horrible that she was upset that Jim didn't like her anymore when she had a fiancé downstairs.

She walked in Michael's office as the day winded down and Michael was looking out the window, with a sad expression on his face

"Hey, here's your, uh, schedule for next week-" Pam frowned. "Are you okay?

"Yeah, I'm fine. Look. About you and Jim, I-" Michael started but Pam just didn't want to go into that with Michael right now.

"Oh, no, that's- You don't have to-"

"No, I just feel it's my responsibility as your boss-slash-friend-"

Pam shook her head. "No, it's really- it's okay. Um, I know that Jim had, like, a crush on me when he first started. But that was a long time ago, so..."

Michael looked confused. "It wasn't that long ago. It was on the booze cruise."

Pam froze. She knew she had felt it that night, the cold air, Jim's eyes set on hers, that silent pause that lasted forever; but no, he just confirmed he was over it long before then, didn't he?  "Jim had a crush on me on the booze cruise, or he told you about it on the booze cruise?"

Michael bit his lip. "Um...okay. Shut it, Michael. I'm done. That's it, I'm out."

It was like she stood there silent forever, taking in Michael's confession and Jim's confession in the kitchen. He did want her then, just like she did with him. He wanted her at his BBQ, she felt it...but why wasn't he saying anything? Oh, big hypocrite Pam. Maybe because she was taken and why would he? Jim's not like that, he's so much more than that.

As she put on her coat to go home, she glanced over at the tall young man who was making her question herself, making her feel things she didn't know she was ready to feel.

"Ready?" Jim asked as he approached her desk.

She nodded. "Yup."

Jim put on his coat and they walked towards the elevator and Pam couldn't help but look at him and see all those moments flash before her and she knew, she just knew.

And while they waited for the elevator, she wanted to say something, anything to him but what could she say when Roy was at home and she was getting married June 10th? What could she say? They stepped into the elevator and Jim was looking at the ground; she wondered was he afraid to look at her, afraid she would see him, and expose him. But exposing his feeling for her would do nothing but expose what she felt for him...and open up that big ole can of crap she was too afraid to open.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Pocono's were nice. No really, she liked it. She liked skiing, and when she suggested they go up there because they hadn't had "alone" time together, Roy was for it. Too bad she didn't get to ski as much as she wanted to, but it was nice to sleep in with Roy and snuggle close to him in a plush hotel room. It was almost romantic, but she kept thinking of Jim.

Maybe part of her was running away from the revelation that Jim liked her. Finding out he had a crush on her hadn't taken her too much by surprise, but it did frustrate her. Not because she didn't know, but to have it out in the air like that, made things...odd. Because she didn't need that, and it was destroying everything she had created with Roy. Her heart hurt so much that she just needed to leave, to rekindle what she had with Roy, before she did something stupid.

She did try to get it out of her mind as she seduced Roy almost 3 times a day, and he was honestly surprised at her stamina. She needed to because it distracted her from something that she couldn't bare to think of.

And suddenly she started to feel comfortable again,  remembering why she wanted to be married to Roy in the first place. Her life was going to back to normal, she was engaged to the man she loved for 10 years, like she should be and that was all that mattered.

So when she was on her way to work that morning, she glanced over at Roy who gave her a smile.

"Wow, I mean, it's hard going back to the warehouse after that." He chuckled.

She smiled too. "I know. I wish we didn't have to go back."

It wasn't that she didn't want to see Jim, she just knew that all the feelings she finally got back this weekend would crash as soon as he walked in the door.

Roy nodded and they pulled into the parking lot.  She shuffled into the office and sighed heavily as she went to flick on the lights. But she drew back her hand when she realized they were already on and someone must have been here early.

After walking around the office, she didn't see anyone and just settled back at her desk.

Thirty minutes later, people started filtering in. Pam smiled and gave simple answers to their questions.

It was nice.

We had a great time.

Michael came in, and Pam tried to smile. "Spamster."

She couldn't even muster a smirk. "Um...Pam, plus Spam, plus- "

"Hamster." Michael said happily.

"Right."

"Welcome back. How was your vacation?"

Pam knew this wasn't going to end well. "It was great."

"Yeah? Did you get lucky?"

Her mouth dropped and she couldn't say the words Screw you, like she wanted to.

Michael made a stupid face and smiled. "Oop! Boink."

This is why she could never have an intelligent meaningful conversation with Michael. She handed him his messages and prayed to whatever god would hear her for him to go away.

"I am Pam. Spicoli guy." He joked as he walked away.

Pam looked down to start a crossword puzzle but heard Michael screech. "Whoa! God! Yuck! Yuck, yuck, yuck!"

She snapped her head towards him. "What?"

"Yuck! Wow! What happened in there?" Michael replied, pointing inside his office.

"I don't know."

"There is stink in there. My God! What is- what is that?" Michael recoiled backward.

Pam walked over and a powerful foul smell filled her nostrils. She jerked back. "Oh, I don't know."

She watched as the camera zoomed in and the camera man cringed at the smell.

"Is that bird or something?" Michael asked.

Pam shook her head at the brown balls on his carpet under his desk. "Uh... I don't think it's a bird."

"Oh, God, how could that happen? How could-"Michael grew red and flustered. "Right in the middle of the carpet."

Kevin walked up, sipping his morning coffee. "What's going on?"

"Um, somebody vomited right in the middle of the carpet in my office."

Kevin went to walk in but jerked back at the smell. "I don't think that's vomit."

"Check it out." Michael demanded and Pam shot him a look.  

"Me?" Kevin asked.

"Check it out. Don't be a wuss." Michael stated and Kevin frowned, trying to hand

Kevin tried to hand Michael his coffee cup and Michael waved it away. "Just get, no, I'm not holding your coffee. Tell me what it is."

Kevin hesitantly went inside, grimacing at the nastiness in Michael's office.  "Oh, that's a real bitch."

"What is it?"  Michael yelled throw the door after he closed it trapping Kevin inside.

"Michael." Kevin began to panic, pulling at the door but Michael gripped the knob.

"What is it?" Michael said again, ignoring Kevin's frantic knocks on the door. "No, just tell me what it is."

"Michael, I gotta get outta here! I can't hold my breath that long." Kevin cried out and Pam pulled at Michael.

"Open the door up!" She barked as Kevin jerked the handle and Michael let go, causing Kevin to spill out.

By then Dwight, Toby, Stanley, Ryan, Oscar, Phyllis, Angela, and Kelly stood around, holding there noses. "Oh! Phew!"

"I can go check it Michael. If it is fecal matter, it must be removed before it spreads fecal spores into the air supply." Dwight replied.

Michael nodded and Dwight sucked in a breath and entered the office. He couldn't take it for long and gasped. "Ugh!"

Pam tried to hold her breath longer but couldn't. She began walking briskly back to her desk away from the putrid smell.  "Oh, no. Mmm-mmm, mm-mmm."

"I cannot believe a pipe burst and left that there." Michael shook his head.

 "That's no burst pipe." Toby replied simply.

"Well, how do you know that? What is it then?"

Just then Creed walked up and in a gingerly tone asked, "Hey guys. Somebody making soup?"

Michael frowned. "Pam call someone and have they done something about this."

Even waving paper in front of her face to fan away the lingering smell wasn't working. "Who?"

"I don't know...who takes care of things like this? Find it in the directory."

Pam huffed and called the janitor's station.

Five minutes later, Maria the cleaning lady came in with a bucket and gasped. "Holy mother of god!"

"Just-just get in there and do your magic." Michael replied, pushing her in the office.

Maria scowled at him and tried to clean the disgusting filth the best she could.

After 15 minutes and the use of a cleaning mask, Pam watched her exit as Michael lingered by the door way.

"Here she comes. All clean? Great." Michael replied and strolled in his office with Dwight close behind, only to exit again.

"Too stinky." Dwight gasped out.

Michael nodded. "That is worse."

"She probably scrubbed it into the fibers of the carpet. Total permeation." Dwight countered.

Michael held his breath and stared at Dwight. "I can do this."

"Yes you can Michael. Yes you can." Dwight concurred, watching with pride as Michael entered the office. The camera man shook his head and stayed by Jim's desk. Michael stayed in all of 5 minutes.

"Pam, call the guys downstairs. I uh...I think we need to get rid of the carpet."

Pam called downstairs. Roy answered and she told him what had happened.

"Someone did what?" Roy exclaimed on the other end.

"Crapped on Michael's carpet."

"I'm sorry...what?!"

"Yeah, I know. Sick. So um...we need to have the carpet removed. Can you?"

Roy chuckled on the other end. "Uh yeah. Whoa. A dump on Michael's carpet. Hilarious. Be there in like 2 minutes."

Roy and Darryl came up with masks and knee pads, ready to rip up the carpet. Michael greeted them of course.

"It's unbearable in there guys. I mean I'm usually unaffected by stuff like this, but uh...even I couldn't take it."

"Right." Darryl replied simply, slipping on his mask. "Step aside."

Pam went back to filing when she was greeted by a tall lanky sales man smiled at her brightly.

"Hey, welcome back."

" Thanks."

"So, how was the resort? Did you ski a lot?"  

Pam flushed a bit. She wanted to ski, she just didn't because she was to busy making up with Roy to forget about Jim. "A little."

Jim seemed to read between the lines of her response and his eyes dropped a bit. "Good."

He heard Roy and Darryl coming out of Michael's office and he turned to see. "What's going on here?"

Pam bit her lip and looked up at Jim. "Um...a lot's happened this morning."

"Like?"

"Like someone took a dump on Michael's carpet."

Jim gaped at her. "What?"

"Seriously."

"Stop."

Pam shook her head. "I could not even begin to make that up."

Jim was flabbergasted as he walked over to his desk and got a whiff of the horrible stench. "Oh. Wow."

He waved at Roy and Darryl who waved back. Roy pulled down his mask and mouthed "Help" at Pam. She could only giggle because it was just too funny.

Jim stood at his desk to see Michael sitting there, typing away. "Hey, Jim, I thought that we would be desk buddies while they change my carpet."

Pam watched Jim chuckle nervously. "That might be a little difficult with the one computer."

"Oh. It's-"

Pam watched as Jim looked annoyed. "But there's definitely a desk open in the back."

"Yeah..." Michael simply stated, still looking at Jim's computer.

Jim frowned and clutched the strap of his bag. "Which I guess I'll be taking."

"No, no, no, seriously. I don't mind sharing." Michael said half heartedly but Jim just kept walking.

"No, no, no. Seriously, I'll be in the back." Jim muttered as he grabbed a binder off his desk.

This sucked, she didn't want Michael out here at all, and having him usurping Jim's desk was too much. There was too much to talk about, too much to joke about-wait, no this might be a good thing.

She was trying not to fall back into the routine again, trying not to find herself looking at Jim or seeing him glance at her. Maybe this was a good thing, him being moved away, because Roy was around and she should be focused on having her fiancé near by.

She watched Jim retreat to the back near Kelly and Toby and even though she had just talked herself into believing this was for the right reasons, she felt heavy.

There would be later regret believing this was a good thing, as Michael started to babble on to Dwight about the "good ole Scranton day"s and how Ed Trucked sucked as a boss and all the asinine things he and Todd Packer did in the office.

Pam started to wonder if she ripped each of her own hairs out one by one, if that would equal the pain and agony she was feeling with Michael in her face. He wouldn't stop talking. It just kept going on and all and she wanted to just jump up and scream "JUST SHUT UP FOR ONE SECOND!" Anything to get him to close his mouth. And then to have Dwight nodding and brown nosing was almost nauseous. She turned and saw Roy pulling up the carpet in Michael's office.

But even looking at her fiancé through the window, her mind still floated to Jim.  She wondered if he liked it better back there with Kelly. If he liked being alone and able to be away from his desk. She picked up her phone and dialed his real desk extension as Michael walked around the office and began harassing Stanley about hamburgers or something like that.

She didn't know why she did it, or why she felt the need to leave such a stupid message on his phone. She guessed she like hearing his voicemail say, "You're reached Jim Halpert at Dunder-Mifflin. I'm sorry I am not here to satisfy your paper needs, but if you leave a brief message and return number, I will make sure to return your phone call. Beep."

She loved that message. She loved hearing his voice. She left a message and set down the receiver. Just then, Michael rounded the corner and hit an unsuspecting Creed in the arm.

"Uhh! Oh!" Michael laughed.

Creed frowned and rubbed his arm. "What did you hit me for?"

"Oh, Charlie Horse!" Michael exclaimed, laughing at a clearly unimpressed Creed.

"What?"

"Charlie Horse!" Michael exclaimed again.

"You shouldn't have hit me, Michael." Creed chastised.

"Okay. Gah." Michael looked at the camera laughing.  He came back to his desk and started chattering with Dwight.

Pam shook her head and picked up the phone again. She could still hear Michael yakking away and she pushed her screen around her desk to block him out. Ha! It worked! She had to share this with...with...?  She was pathetic. She had no will power what so ever.

Suddenly she heard some more commotion and Michael and Dwight were over at accounting, throwing papers around. Angela looked furious and Oscar just shook his head. Kevin rolled his eyes at the scene.

Michael started shouting. "Come on, come on, come on. Sales rule!"

"Yes!" Dwight exclaimed in kind.

They ran over near Pam's desk and started doing some idiot dance.

"Should we help them pick up their stuff?" Dwight asked concern. Pam figured that it was because of Angela.

"No, no, no, no. We don't do that. Watch out Pam. You're next." Michael stated, pointing at her.

Pam's face dropped. "You're gonna throw my things on the ground?"

"Maybe." Michael warned.

Pam glowered at him and Michael went to do some damage somewhere else. Now she understood why someone would take a dump on his carpet. Hell, if she didn't have home training, she would have done the same. She turned to see accounting trying to clean up and just wished someone would tranquilize Michael. And she missed Jim.

No. She didn't. Stop that! Stop that! A.) Stop acting like he's in another country when he's just in the back near Kelly and B.) Her fiancé is in Michael's office right now!

Another round of Soduko made took time away. She smiled at her results and picked up her receiver again.

As the day went on, she looked over to see Michael at Jim's desk, and chastised herself for the 37th time again today. She wondered how obvious this habit was, the glancing over to Jim's desk.

Michael sat clicking his computer mouse and Dwight kept picking up the phone and hanging it up. "Hello, am I the 107th caller? Hello, Rock 107, am I the 107th caller? Hello, Rock 107, am I the 107th caller? I'm totally going to win us that box set."

He reached to hang it up again and Michael stared at him, irritated. "Stop. Stop it."

Dwight reached to pick up the phone and Michael's voice got deeper.

"Stop it."

Dwight picked up the receiver.

Michael's eyes darkened. "Don't. Don't."

"I need to make a sales call. Please." Dwight stuttered out and Michael stared angrily at him.

"All right."

Slowly Dwight dialed the number and then leaned over to his side and whispered. "Am I the 107th caller?"

Roy walked up to her desk and pulled down his mask. "It reeks in there."

"Isn't it gross?" Pam teased,

"Yeah. Hey, I'm thinking, we should head back to that resort thing again, maybe in 2 weeks. Ya know."

Pam was taken back that Roy would want to do such a thing. He rarely liked to travel or go anywhere. "That is so soon."

Roy pouted. "But Pammy, it was so nice. Just you and me. I liked that."

Pam got quiet. She had wanted that too...once. Now, she was starting to feel like she didn't know what she wanted anymore. But as she took in the way Roy was leaning on her counter, in a totally different way than Jim, she realized she had to try to keep her life. "Yeah. Hey maybe we should go this weekend."

Roy agreed. "We'll go back. We'll go back in a couple weeks, baby."

Pam giggled. "Yeah, right."

Roy flashed those dimples that Pam grew to love years ago. "Okay, maybe another month then. Maybe for, like, Presidents' Day or something

Her heart lurch forward. She was desparately tried to regain her deep love for this man, who was standing here trying to be what she said she wanted him to be. But she felt heavy. That's all...just heavy. "Yeah, that's right. We can do a three day weekend."

"Yeah."

She tilted her head and looked at him. "And maybe when we get back, I can call in sick, and get a four day weekend."

"Maybe we can even, you know spring for a really nice suite."

"Are you kidding?"

Roy shook his head. "No."

Roy tapped the counter top and walked back over to Michael's office and Pam let out the breath she was struggling to hold. She had to try. She had to do better than what she was doing. Oh god, Michael was coming over. Pam grabbed the receiver and dialed to look busy. Coast clear, he swerved over there by accounting again.

Pam was typing when she heard Michael taking to Phyllis and everyone. He was challenging the sales team.

"Oh, and I'm not? Why would you say that? Because I'm having fun? You guys just are working for the weekend, aren't you? I'm working for the week. Sales team. Listen to me. This is what we're gonna do. I'm gonna up the ante a little bit literally. Right here, I'm going to put a crisp $100 bill. The person with the most sales at the end of the day gets to keep the cash. Sound good?"

"Yeah!" Dwight exclaimed.

Michael yanked dollar bills out his pocket and started counting. "70, 80, 1, 2, 3. $83. Still a lot of money."

He walked over to the wall to put up the money but caught sight of Darryl coming out the office and instead took it back to his desk. "And I'm going to...I'm going to leave it right over here."

Pam looked at the camera. Oh such a prick.

"Where everybody can see it. I will be taking Jim's clients today, because he is not here. And out of sight, out of the contest. Let's see who winds up with the cash, shall we?" Michael challenged.

Phyllis raised an eyebrow and Stanley just snorted. This would be good. Michael couldn't even tie his own show without Dwight cheering him on, Ryan directing and Pam having to end up doing it for him.

But whatever.

Roy came over and smiled at her. "Taking a break. Wanna eat lunch?"

Pam glanced over to Jim's empty desk, but it was so quick, she hoped Roy didn't notice. "Sure."

So she sat there munching on her lettuce and listening to Darryl and Roy talk about sports, she realized she hadn't seen Jim all morning. She interjected laughs whenever Roy joked or replied in the simplest answers when they did indulge her in their conversation but her mind kept drifting back to what Jim could be doing for lunch.

Back at her desk, she swore she stepped on a pebble in her shoe and laughed. She remembered when Jim had a stone in his shoe and kept whining like a baby in the parking lot and they had made up some word to describe it. It's called...it was...damn. What was that word? She picked up the receiver again and dialed Jim's extension. Today was a long day.

Michael was back at his desk and apparently he made a sale because he jumped up screaming. "Yes!! Ho ho ho ho. Yeah. Read it and weep. Ugh!"

He ran around and taped a post it to Phyllis's head. "Ooh, look at that. Look at me Phyllis. Oh, what is that? That's my sale."

He started dancing and walked over by Pam and she just watched his stupidity unfold.  

"Mm mm mm mm mm. Mm. Aha aha aha mm mm mm." Michael sung while dancing.

"What- what's that? What you doing?" Darryl asked, as he and Roy lifted the soiled carpet out of the office.

"Nothing." Michael muttered and immediately stopped dancing.

"I think he's dancing." Roy joked.

"No, just- " Michael began to get flustered and Pam didn't like Roy and Darryl picking on him. Sure they picked on him all the time here, but they had earned that right. Michael tortured them everyday.

"That was definitely not dancing." Darryl quipped.

"You know what, guys? It's none of your concern. It was official business. So just-" Michael stuttered out, embarrassed.

Darryl eyed him.  "Paper business?"

"Yeah, paper business. Is this done?" Michael asked pointing to the carpet.

Roy shook his head. "Nope."

"Extreme Home Makeover puts together a house in an hour. If you were on that crew, you'd be fired like that."

As Pam was watching the scene, the AD came over and asked her to do a talking head about the carpet situation. Pam walked into the conference room and shut the door.

"Somebody did something bad to Michael's carpet... Maybe that's all we need to know."

Michael's mood suddenly changed and he started glaring at everyone in the office. It made Pam feel a bit uneasy when his dark stare settled on her.

Then Michael said loudly and morosely. "You know what? Today is not a good day for a sales contest. We're-we're-we're not doing this today."

"That doesn't seem fair." Pam said out loud, watching everyone else get down.

"You want to talk about fair? Does anyone need to smell my old carpet? You explain to me how that was fair. And I'll explain to you how this is fair. Plus, I just, I think that picking today was sort of taking advantage." Michael spat out and Pam whipped her head away.

"But you're the one who picked today." Dwight said.

Michael closed his eyes. "I am a victim of a hate crime. Stanley knows what I'm talking about."

"That's not what a hate crime is." Stanley stated, his eyes rolling.

"Well, I hated it, a lot, okay? I, you know what? If the guilty person would just come forward and take their punishment, we'd be done."

Pam looked around just like everyone else did. She knew she didn't do it, maybe Creed would have done such a thing, but really no one here would have done it.

Michael furrowed his brow.  "Very well. Then you're all punished."

She sighed heavily. "What's our punishment?"

"You're all on time out. Just sit there quietly."

Whatever, back to FreeCell. Michael had the mood swing range of a child sometimes. She really wished Jim was out here to hear this; he would probably egg on Michael, or use wordless expressions to make Pam laugh.

Phyllis's phone started to ring and Michael shot daggers at her. "Noooo, no. "

Everyone sat in silence as Michael mumbled over at Jim's desk. Roy and Darryl were finishing up the carpet and Pam finished her game of FreeCell. She did see Jim a couple of times in the break room and she wondered why he didn't email her today. Not that she wasn't a hypocrite or anything, because she didn't email him either. Michael walked up to her sulking and asked her to call Ed Truck.

"Why?"

"Because."

"Because...why?" Pam raised an eyebrow.

"Because I've been assaulted!" Michael yelped and Phyllis looked over at him from her desk.

Pam wanted to smack him. "Michael, Ed lives 45 minutes away. I mean-"

"Just-just call him okay. It's urgent. Tell him...tell him it's about his pension."

"Michael-"

"Do it now Pam."

Pam held her tongue and dialed Ed Truck. She then immersed herself back in her FreeCell game. Ed actually only took 25 minutes to get there, she was guessing because she mentioned his pension.

This day was taking forever and Pam was happy when Michael left out. He would be gone for awhile so she might as well leave too. She didn't see Jim, but she wanted to let him know she was leaving so she dialed his extension and left a message. She had left 6 messages so far today. She knew she was fighting a losing battle with her feeling for Jim. Today proved it.

She grabbed her purse and shut down her computer quickly, and before anyone could notice she was out the door and in the warehouse, beckoning for Roy to take her home. Roy said he'd ride with Darryl and gave Pam the keys to the truck and she sped out the parking lot so fast she could have been a race car driver.

On her way home, she thought about the carpet and how disgusting it was someone could do it but how much it said about Michael. But she still didn't know who was capable of such an act. And as she sat in her driveway, she didn't get immediately out of the car. She flipped open her cell phone and dialed his number to leave one last message.

"Calling from my cell phone. I don't know if you guys figured out who did that to Michael's carpet yet, but I have a theory that it involves an interdepartmental conspiracy, everybody in the office. We need to talk."

She flipped the phone down and held it against her warm cheek, realizing that she was falling and she couldn't stop it.