She knew something was wrong from the meeting in the morning. The empty seat next to Jim, the seat she might’ve been sitting in a few months ago, remained conspicuously empty as Karen purposefully strode past him and sat at the back of the conference room. Pam watched as Jim’s shoulders slumped a bit as Karen walked past. Then she watched as he collected himself again and made a wry face at the camera, hiding his true feelings. But she had seen it already. She knew all his little quirks.
After the meeting, in the break room, she greeted him, “Hey. You okay?” She walked towards the coffee machine.
“Yeah,” he answered, holding his Styrofoam cup between his hands, looking down.
Pam looked at him, “You sure?” She fidgeted with the coins in her hand, waiting for his reply.
“Yeah. Yes,” Jim brought the cup to his lips again, but didn’t take a sip. “I’m just in this, you know, stupid fight with Karen.”
“Oh,” Pam said. She knew it might have to do with Karen, but she wasn’t sure she could handle it. She pressed forward anyway, “You wanna talk about it?””
“Really?” Jim’s voice betrayed his surprise. But he dutifully launched into a version of the story as she sat down next to him, finishing up with, “So, I dunno, we’ve been dating, what, a month, right? Same street? Might be a little close. Might be a little much.”
“Hmm,” Pam murmured noncommittally, rolling her cup in her hand.
“Hmm what?” Jim looked at her across the table.
“How far away does she live now? Like 10 minutes?”
“Yeah I guess.”
“Honestly, I think you should go easy on her,” Pam took a deep breath, staring at her coffee cup so she wouldn’t have to look him in the eye, afraid of what he might see in her face, then looking quickly at him.
“Hey, thanks a lot,” Jim said after a pause.
“Don’t worry about it. I mean, it’s better than Michael playing a conch shell, which is what I was doing.” Even though she hated that he looked so tired, so glum, she felt a little tingle of happiness that they were talking again. It was annoying that they had not actually talked since he got back from Stamford, limiting themselves to superficial conversations instead. This was the first time that she and Jim had talked, really talked, in weeks, and she didn’t want this moment to end. “Also, Michael went to Jamaica with Jan,” she said, seeking a return to normalcy.
“Yeah, how have we not talked about that yet? What happened there, kidnapping?” Jim said. Pam laughed at his words, glad that they had fallen back into their old habits.
When they were in the warehouse doing inventory, Pam could tell when he handed Karen the rental form, seeing the release of tension in his shoulders when she hugged him. Seeing that, she was happy for him, of course.
Later she would cry by herself—wishing that she could go back to when she was the one who could make him happy so easily—until Dwight came.
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© 2006-2023 More Than That | Skin created by Kali
© 2006-2023 More Than That | Skin created by Kali