After such a relaxing weekend, Jan arrived at the corporate offices feeling well-rested and free of stress. Strange as it seemed, she was almost looking forward to her day at work. Waking up late and getting to work at eleven in the morning did a lot for her rested feeling, and David Wallace was gone today so she wouldn't get any flak for being late. She knew Wallace was out paying a visit to a few store branches, so she might have a little bit of peace and quiet that morning in her office. Even the H.R. Representative David hated so much was busy handling some problems that had cropped up at another branch – not Scranton, amazingly enough.
Going up the elevator to Dunder Mifflin's corporate offices, Jan smiled as she thought about her visit to Michael last night. He could be insufferable sometimes, but he did seem to hold some kind of strange magnetism over her. She never would have guessed it from his awkward, bumbling behavior most of the time, but he wasn't half bad in bed either. He could even get his legs behind his head. Jan wondered if he did a lot of stretching in his spare time.
As the elevator hummed, Jan reached up and gave an unconscious caress to her earring, one of a pair she had bought from Ann Taylor the other day – the new location that Dwight had told her about, of all people. Her business suit was a new one as well. The elevator door opened, and she almost felt like striding out into the lobby as if she was on a catwalk. She smiled in anticipation of saying hello to her new administrative assistant.
Let's see what you think of this, Hunter!
The lobby receptionist, Grace, nodded to her as she passed through the glass doors into the hallway that led to her office. Reaching her own door, she was about to enter when she noticed Hunter already inside, laying something on her desk.
“Oh, hey Mrs. Levinson,” he said, picking up the paper again.
“Hello Hunter. It's Miss Levinson, actually, and you can call me Jan. What was that?”
“I was going to leave you a note, but since you're here, David Wallace just went out to visit some of the branches.”
“I'm aware.”
“He said he was going to stop by Scranton and see how the merger's been going, but he also said he got a call from an angry client about Michael Scott missing a lunch meeting. He said he'd have a talk with Michael about it and take care of it for you, since he's going over there anyway.”
Jan mulled over Hunter's message, beginning to sense a hole being poked in her good mood.
“Did he say what client, and when Michael was supposed to meet him for lunch?”
“John Schneider. The guy who owns Schneider's groceries. Michael didn't show up at the restaurant where they were going to meet yesterday, and apparently John took offense to it.”
“Alright. Thank you Hunter. By the way, do you like my earrings?”
Hunter nodded briefly as he squeezed by Jan on his way out of her office. Giving him a glance on his way out, Jan remembered him mentioning he was in a band during their interview. She'd have to ask him if they had a CD. Maybe she could even go to a live show sometime.
Jan stared out her window for a moment, lost in thought as she looked over the New York skyline before finally turning around and slumping down in her chair. Michael had been saying something about a client meeting yesterday, but Jan had talked over him, insistent on getting what she wanted. She was being reckless. Too reckless. It was thrilling, but the more she thought about it, the more she began to wonder if she was about to be in trouble.
David, on his way to Scranton... Michael, telling him the real reason he was late to the client meeting...
This could definitely mean trouble.
Jan grabbed the phone on her desk and dialed the Scranton Branch's number wildly. Their receptionist picked up after a couple of rings. “Dunder Mifflin, this is Pam,” she said.
“Hello, Pam – could you transfer me to Michael?”
“Sure.”
Jan waited while Pam transferred the call. It always took a few moments for Pam to transfer her calls to Michael for some reason, but she didn't think much of it. She would have preferred to go to Scranton and talk to Michael in person – trying to hold his attention on the phone was a crap-shoot at best - but there was no time to visit now. The drive would take several hours, and Wallace could already be well on his way there. She just hoped she could do a little damage control over the phone before the CFO arrived and Michael said something that got both of them in trouble.
.....
Sometimes it was nice to have a loyal second-in-command like Dwight hanging around in his office, but it never took long before Michael found his presence annoying.
A colorful Slinky moved back and forth as Michael swatted it from side to side, listening to Dwight jabber about some science fiction show he was watching the other night. Michael wondered why Slinkies only worked on stairways. When he tried to use it on his desk, it only moved once - when he first tipped it - and then just stopped. If he was in charge of slinky making, he wouldn't have made it so limited. He'd invent a slinky that could work on any surface, no matter how flat or horizontal.
"And that was when Helo arrested Robert! I was torn about the whole episode, to be honest – on the one hand, I understood Robert wanting to dispose of the Sagittarions before their virus passed on to others in the ship, but on the other hand, I sympathized with the Sagittarion skepticism towards advanced medicine. As a farmer, I know as well as they did that most afflictions can be cured by simple folk remedies or reliance on willpower to-”
“For God's sake, Dwight!”
Dwight fell silent, shrinking a little under Michael's baleful eye, even though Michael was sitting at his desk and Dwight was standing at his side looking down.
“Look, I just invited you in here because I wanted to-”
Michael's sentence cut off abruptly. Dwight waited for him to continue.
“Yes Michael? You wanted to what?”
“Nothing. It's nothing, just forget about it.”
“Michael,” said Dwight as he leaned closer, “you can tell me anything.”
Michael shrank back a little as Dwight's hot breath moistened his neck. Although his nose wasn't directly in the path of Dwight's mouth, it wrinkled involuntarily as he picked up a whiff of Dwight's morning breath. He had invited Dwight into his office in the hopes that he might ask him about yesterday, which might give Michael an opening to talk about his romp in the sack with Jan at his condo. It wasn't that Michael wanted to brag or anything. He just wanted to let Dwight now how spontaneous and cool he was, and how hot his girlfriend was. Nothing braggy. Unfortunately, this intention had been cut off when Dwight came in babbling about Battlestar Galactica.
But now that Dwight was done babbling, Michael began to wonder if talking to Dwight about Jan was really a good idea after all. Dwight knew about the two of them, but Michael was still hesitant - Jan seemed to want to keep their relationship secret even though Michael got the impression he had been wearing her down on the subject. But maybe she would be mad if he talked about it with Dwight too much. Sometimes he got the feeling she was watching him, even when he was alone in his office...
Michael spasmed in surprise as the phone rang, his hand accidentally knocking the Slinky off his desk. A moment of annoyance was replaced by amusement as Michael watched the Slinky unfurl and cascade to the floor. He pressed the phone's speaker button as he leaned over to retrieve the toy.
“Hello?” he asked, as Dwight leaned close by to listen to the call.
Pam spoke up on the other end. “Michael,” she said, “I've got Jan on the line.”
“Okay, put her through.”
Michael got up from the ground, having retrieved his slinky. “Jan the Man! Er, Jan – Jan the Woman. What's up, lady?”
“It's still me, Michael,” said Pam.
Michael frowned. He really needed to teach her how to transfer people over the phone a little faster. Jan's voice came through after another moment.
“Michael?” she asked.
“Hey Jan.”
“Hello – look, Michael, David Wallace is coming over there and I don't know when he's going to get there, but he got a complaint from John Schneider about how you missed the meeting with him. I don't know how serious it is, but you have to make sure you don't give away anything about our relationship, okay?”
“What do you mean?”
“To David, Michael. You can't tell him what happened. If David knows we were having sex yesterday when you were supposed to be at the meeting, we could be in serious trouble. Do you understand, Michael?”
Michael felt a flash of fear at the news of David's impending arrival. He had been having trouble getting in contact with John Schneider to apologize; the last couple of calls he had made were answered by a woman who told him the grocery store C.E.O. was unavailable. He probably should have called Schneider over the weekend, but who made work calls on the weekend? Michael didn't know if Schneider was just busy or if he was holding some kind of grudge about him missing their lunch meeting. Schneider was an old man, kind of crotchety, and he had always insisted on the personal lunches to renew their contract.
“So you want me to lie to David?”
Jan grunted in exasperation. “I didn't say that. Just don't tell him the truth.”
“Um... 10-4 on that. But what am I supposed to say?”
“Make up an excuse, I don't know. Tell him whatever you need to tell him.”
Michael balked at the proposition. He didn't really want to lie to David Wallace, which seemed to be what Jan was suggesting. He knew Jan was right, however; Michael wanted to be open about their relationship together, but this was probably the worst possible way to make it public.
“Jan,” said Dwight as he leaned closer to the speaker, “are you sure that lying is the best policy?”
The phone fell silent. Several seconds passed.
“Dwight?”
“Yes Jan.”
“How long have you been in there with Michael?”
“About fifteen minutes. Why do you ask?”
A sigh came through the other end before Jan continued.
“Dwight – whatever Michael tells David, you need to back it up. Michael is your boss.”
The logic was hard to argue against, but Dwight felt his head beginning to hurt as he considered Jan's orders. Michael was his boss, yes, but David Wallace was Michael's boss – sort of. Maybe Jan was Michael's boss, and then David Wallace was Jan's boss, making David Wallace Michael's boss boss. And, by extension, Dwight's boss boss boss. Was he supposed to obey his immediate boss, or his boss thrice over? It was a real conundrum.
“Michael,” Jan said sharply, “what are you going to tell David?”
“I don't know. I had diarrhea?”
“You had dia – okay, let's just table that one for now. Why didn't you call Schneider to apologize, anyway?”
“I couldn't get hold of him.”
.A sigh came through the line.
“Wait,” said Jan after a moment of silence, “when you came over to my condo yesterday, I saw someone else in the car – was Jim with you while you were going to the client meeting?”
“Jim and Dwight both went with me. They waited in the car while we made love.”
A loud groan coming from the speaker made Michael wonder if he had something wrong. His mind raced, trying to remember if 'making love' was the politically correct way to put it.
“It's nothing to be ashamed of, Jan,” said Dwight. “Everyone needs a little release sometimes.”
“Shut up Dwight. Look, Michael, just tell David something and make sure that Jim and Dwight are on board, okay? Tell him you were held up at your condo. Just make sure David doesn't find out anything is going on between us.”
“If I told him that, wouldn't I still get in trouble since it was my fault for being late?”
“Um – yes. I guess so.”
Michael rubbed his furrowed brow, feeling himself sinking into an ever deeper hole as he wondered what Jan had gotten him into. What he had gotten himself into. Or maybe, to put the blame where blame was due, what little Michael had gotten him into. Jan was so hard to resist sometimes. As his mind churned frantically, treading mental water in an attempt to find a shore, Dwight left the desk and separated the blinds to look out at the office parking lot. Michael heard the sound of a car pulling into the lot.
“Michael,” said Dwight, “it looks like David Wallace has arrived.”
“Oh, wonderful.”
“He's there?” spoke Jan on the other end.
“Yes Jan,” said Dwight, returning to the phone. “David Wallace is here. I'm sure we'll figure something out, don't you worry.”
Dwight smoothed out his sepia-toned suit in preparation for the meeting with David Wallace as Michael stared at his office door in silence. From the sound of it, Jan had no immediate ideas either.
"By the way, Jan,” said Dwight, “are you feeling any better?”
“What?”
“You were sick on Friday, right? But I guess you felt well enough to engage in intercourse with Michael. Did you do anything else fun? Go out shopping? Ann Taylor, maybe?”
“How did you know I shopped at Ann Taylor on Friday?”
Michael gave him a look that seemed to echo Jan's confusion. Dwight shrugged.
“Just a guess.”
A click came through the speaker as Jan hung up the phone.
.....
Something about the tone of Jan's voice had given Pam the impression that Jan, or Michael, or both of them, were in some kind of trouble. Curiosity getting the better of her, Pam had ignored her work and watched Michael's office to see if he would leap up from his desk and race over to the window in order to put down the blinds. He didn't always do it, but if Pam noticed the blinds going down followed by sounds of frantic movement coming from within the office, it usually meant Michael was in some kind of trouble. She wondered if it had something to do with the client meeting catastrophe last Friday. Jim had been kind enough to tell her most of the story.
The blinds stayed up, but things definitely looked fishy in Michael's room. Pam watched as Michael and Dwight spoke to each other and to the phone in anxious tones, although their conversation was too muted to make out any details. She could hear Jan's voice, muted and washed out, but it did not sound happy. A few of her coworkers looked up from time to time but none of them seemed to have as much interest as she did in what was going on. It was becoming obvious that she wouldn't be able to overhear anything. Pam let out a little yawn and looked at her watch; it was about lunch time. She didn't want to deal with Michael's issues or be called into his office for some kind of embarrassing conversation, so she decided she'd take her lunch break now. She grabbed the bagged lunch beneath her desk and left her receptionist's nook.
“Hey Karen,” she said as she passed through the office.
Karen looked up from her desk, her expression a little confused at first, and gave Pam a brief smile.
“Hey.”
Pam entered the break area at the back of the office. She was surprised to see Jim, sitting alone at a table near the back and eating what looked like his usual ham and cheese sandwich. Creed was also sitting nearby, but she couldn't even begin to take a guess at what he was eating. It was some kind of stew-like substance in a tupperware container, and it smelled. Jim was reading a magazine and hadn't looked up yet; Pam stood still, wondering if it would be weird to sit next to him. She was on the verge of slipping back out of the break room when Jim looked up and gave her a wave.
“Over here, Beesly.”
Pam grinned and made her way to the back, giving Creed a wide berth at his own table before she sat down and began to eat her bagged lunch.
“Karen doesn't mind?”
“Karen?” asked Jim, his lips pursed. “Why would she mind?”
“Well, I don't know, I just thought if she wanted to eat lunch with you...”
Pam trailed off as she arranged her food on the table.
“I think she's busy with something, but don't worry. I'm sure she won't mind the company if she comes in to eat with us.”
Pam felt a brief flash of annoyance towards Karen for making things so confusing sometimes. She knew Karen wasn't really to blame, and they had even come close to being friends for a short time before things had cooled between them for some reason. But Pam couldn't help feeling frustrated sometimes. Before Karen had arrived, there was nothing strange about eating lunch with Jim. After Karen had arrived, she wondered if she was intruding. Karen had looked like she was still busy when Pam passed her a moment ago, but she and Jim did eat lunch together fairly often; more often than Roy ate lunch with her, anyway. Even now that she was trying to make things work with her ex-fiancé again.
“So Jan called for Michael a minute ago,” said Pam as she opened her mixed berry yogurt and took a bite.
“Oh yeah? What do you think that was about?”
“I'm thinking another booty call.”
Jim laughed. Pam had apparently spoken too loudly, as Creed joined in with a louder cackle, which both of them tried to ignore. Sometimes Creed would join in a bout of laughter without knowing what the topic was, though, so it was possible had hadn't overheard Pam at all. The pungent stench of Creed food wafted over to their table, which was less much easy to ignore.
“He could be in trouble,” continued Pam, “because he was acting all strange with Dwight in his office while I was watching them. And they were both talking with Jan. I wonder if he's in bigger trouble than you thought for missing that client meeting last week?”
“Could be. I don't know how Jan can get him in trouble if they were both responsible for him missing it, though.”
Pam had no answer.
She continued eating her yogurt as the two of them sat quietly together. It wasn't much of a lunch, but she didn't have time to grab anything else when she woke up that morning. Maybe she would try to bum Jim's apple off him, since that looked like a big ham and cheese sandwich he was eating anyway. It was unfair that he got so much food! She was about to try out her powers of persuasion when she heard a familiar voice coming from outside the break room. Pam craned her neck to get a look and saw David Wallace walking through the office, saying hello to several people.
“David Wallace is out there,” she said. “That's weird.”
Jim raised an eyebrow but didn't bother trying to get a better look. As Pam listened, she heard what sounded like Karen and David speaking about the merger and how Karen was holding up. Pam couldn't help but smile; if David had come to the Scranton branch to see how people were doing after the merger, Karen was about the only person he could ask, since everyone else from the Stamford branch was gone. Although Andy would be back eventually. Probably depending on whether or not he decided to punch any holes in things with his fist while he was at Anger Management training.
Pam continued listening in on the conversation between Karen and David, which was almost as heard to hear as the one that had gone on earlier in Michael's office. She began to wonder if she was doing a little too much eavesdropping that day, but her curiosity was definitely getting the better of her. It was not long before David's voice disappeared and Karen showed up in the break room. She stopped at the door, giving Pam and Jim a brief wary look before she approached them with her own lunch.
“Looks like everybody's bagging it today,” said Jim as his girlfriend sat down.
“Not me, Halpert,” said Karen.
She held up a TV dinner, which she put in the microwave before sitting back down at the table with Jim and Pam while she waited for it to finish. Pam noticed her grab Jim's apple, which he had not yet started to eat, and take a bite out of it before returning it to her boyfriend. So much for Pam using her powers of persuasion.
“So what's David Wallace here for?” she asked Karen.
“He's checking on a few of the branches and seeing how everyone's doing. And he was asking me a bit about the merger and how I like it here. He just went to talk to Michael, though.”
“You think Michael's in trouble?”
Karen shrugged. “Why do you think he's in trouble?”
“Well, he shacked up with Jan yesterday while Jim and Dwight were waiting, when they were all supposed to be going to that meeting with John Schneider.”
“What?”
“Yeah,” said Pam with a laugh, “Jim's pretty sure that Jan rang him up for a booty call, and Michael made a detour and drove them all to his condo where she was waiting. Jim and Dwight had to stay in the car and wait. Didn't Jim tell you about this?”
Karen gave Jim a glance which made Pam wonder if she was being too talkative. Either way, it was too late now. The cat was out of the bag. She couldn't read Jim's expression, but he seemed very intent on finishing his ham and cheese sandwich while looking as innocent as people.
“No,” said Karen, “Jim didn't tell me that. He said they were late but he didn't say anything about Michael hooking up with Jan. How come I haven't heard about this, Jim?”
“I dunno – it seemed like maybe you'd think it was immature.”
“Michael hooking up with Jan? Of course it's immature. But it's still funny. I mean, I don't know why you let him waste your time like that when you guys needed to meet up with an important client. You should have been more insistent with him.”
“I guess I just went with it at the time. I thought it was funny.”
The three of them fell into an uneasy silence. Pam wondered if Karen was hurt by the fact that Jim hadn't shared any details about yesterday's incident with her. She was surprised that Karen wouldn't know; Jim had gotten back to work fairly late on Friday, but he had still had time to tell Pam about the incident. And she would have thought that Jim and his girlfriend might talk about it after work. Before she could consider it any further, however, she felt herself pushed aside as Creed pulled up a chair and sat between her and Jim.
“Hey guys,” he said, “I finished my soup and I heard you talking about the big man over here. What's up? He didn't kill somebody, did he?”
Jim threw a glance at Karen and Pam in turn, trying not to give Creed too much eye contact.
“Uh, no. Michael you mean? He didn't kill anybody.”
“Cool beans.”
Creed nodded and stared vacantly for a moment before noticing the half-eaten apple laying in front of Jim. He grabbed it and took a bite as Jim watched. After a few awkward minutes, he got up and left the break room; before the door even closed again, however, David Wallace popped his head in.
“Jim,” he said, “can I talk to you in the conference room for a minute?”
“Sure.”
Jim looked at Pam and his girlfriend before getting up from the table. As Jim left, looking a little nervous, Pam gave Karen a shrug in response to her questioning look. Karen seemed to be asking her why David Wallace would need to speak to Jim privately, but Pam had no guesses. Could Jim be in trouble? It seemed unlikely.
Either way, now that Jim was gone, she was a little more worried about the inevitable awkwardness that would come as a result of sitting at a table with only Karen for company. If she got up now, it might seem like she was trying to avoid Jim's girlfriend for some reason. And what reason would she have to avoid her? Pam hated awkward social situations. Maybe she'd get lucky and someone like Toby would come in to eat his lunch with them. She smiled nervously at Karen, who smiled back. The two of them dug themselves in for an uneasy ending to their lunch break.
.....
“Take a seat, Jim.”
On one side of the table in the middle of the conference room, David Wallace sat down, motioning for Jim to take a site on the other side. Jim pulled out his chair and took a seat, wondering why the CFO needed to talk to him alone. Although David hadn't said anything yet, Jim was getting a strong hunch that Michael was in some kind of trouble due to missing the meeting with John Schneider. If David was about to ask Jim for details on why exactly Michael was late, things could get very awkward, very quickly. Jim found himself getting increasingly nervous as he wondered what would happen if he had to spill Michael and Jan's relationship.. Nothing good, that was for sure.
“I'll get right to the point,” said David. “I got a call the other day from John Schneider, the CEO of Schneider's Groceries. He was complaining about Michael failing to show up for the lunch they were supposed to have together. I was talking to Michael about it, and he said you and Dwight both went along with him for the meeting.”
Jim nodded and waited for David to continue.
“I was just talking to Michael in his office, and he told me that you guys were late to the meeting because you pulled a prank on Dwight.”
It took a moment for David's comment to sink in, but once it did, Jim felt his jaw drop open. He probably looked like an idiot, but it happened before he could stop it.
“What?”
“He said that Dwight had the correct time for the meeting written in his daily planner, which you encased in jello and left in his car seat as a joke, and that Dwight ended up remembering the time incorrectly because he couldn't find the planner until he sat on it later after work.”
Jim involuntarily snorted with laughter. It was a ridiculous story, and he hadn't encased any of Dwight's belongings in jello for at least a week or two. You had to leave time in between jello encasings for Dwight to let his guard down again, after all. But David was not smiling. Jim began to realize that the CFO was taking Michael's claim seriously.
“That's not what happened, David. Michael is-”
“I had Dwight join me and Michael in the office to confirm it, and he agreed that was what happened, Jim.”
Jim tried to reply, but found himself temporarily at a loss for words.
“Now, look, Jim – I've gotten some complaints from Dwight about your pranks in the past, and I have to admit they're pretty funny sometimes. I mean, Dwight's kind of a weird guy, I understand that. But sometimes joking around at the office can go a little too far. Schneider was a valued customer, and he told me on the phone he had been thinking about the prospect of switching to a different paper company before this meeting was supposed to happen. He was on the fence, and the fact that you guys didn't show up was what sealed the deal for him. That's a lost customer, Jim.”
“David, I'm telling you, they're both lying.”
Jim was more insistent this time, and for a moment, David looked like he was considering Jim's claim.
“You're accusing both Michael and Dwight of lying about this? Then what actually happened? Why were you guys late?”
Jim opened his mouth to speak, no words came out. He found himself unable to speak. He knew the truth, but his mind raced as he began to wonder what would happen if he told the truth. Accusing Michael and Jan of having a sexual relationship – one that was interfering with their work, no less – was a serious accusation, even if it was true.
Apparently both Michael and Dwight had lied to David about why the three of them were late. The only explanation that Jim could think of was that Michael, and maybe Jan, were trying to cover up the nature of their relationship. Could he really prove anything? And if he could, Jim knew that both Michael and Jan could be in serious trouble.
Jan had treated him decently in the past, and Jim sometimes sympathized with Michael against all odds. He found himself feeling like he had been thrown to the wolves, and yet the thought of what might happen to Jan and Michael's careers if they were discovered made Jim hesitate. He knew it was stupid to think about what would happen to them when his boss had just accused him of something he didn't do, but Jim couldn't help it. He could get them both fired.
“Jim,” said David after it became apparent that Jim had no response ready, “this isn't the end of the world. We've lost customers before, and you're a good salesman. We're happy to have you here at Dunder Mifflin. I know this was just a joke gone wrong, but the pranking has to stop if it leads to things like this. We're facing a lot of competition nowadays, and we need every customer we can get - we can't make silly mistakes like this in the future. Right now I'm just giving you a reprimand, but make sure this kind of thing doesn't happen again, okay?”
Jim nodded faintly. David Wallace sat quietly for another moment, gave an officious nod, and got up from his seat.
“Back to work,” he said. “I have to get back to corporate now.”
David extended a hand, which Jim shook weakly as he felt a hot, stinging blush wash over his cheeks. Conflicting emotions began to run back and forth through his mind as David left the conference room. Jim did not want to leave yet – he sat back down momentarily. He felt angry at Michael and Dwight for lying. Angry at himself for not owning up to the truth, even though he still wasn't sure what would have happened if he did.
They had pinned such a ludicrous accusation on him – it didn't even make sense, as Jim as pretty sure that John Schneider was a client Michael usually liked to handle personally even though he was manager now, so there was no reason why Dwight would have been keeping the time of the meeting in his planner. But it had convinced David that missing the meeting was Jim's fault. It was hard to concentrate on what had just happened.
Beneath the anger, deeper and broader, was humiliation. After that meeting, thought Jim, David must think I'm an idiot.
He knew he had come off like an idiot, sitting and stammering with nothing to say. The rest of his coworkers had probably seen him going into the conference room with David and known something was going down. And now, he had to return to work for another few hours.
Jim gathered the courage to get up and open the door to the conference room. David had already left, and sure enough, almost everyone in the office was watching him while trying to pretend they weren't. Some were staring openly, some were trying to take brief glances from the corners of their eyes before looking back to their computers. Jim caught Pam's eye for a second and saw the concerned crinkle on her forehead as he made his way slowly to his desk and sat down. Karen got up and walked over to his side.
“What happened?” she asked.
“I don't want to talk about it.”
Karen stood for another moment, as if she was considering whether or not she would press Jim on the subject. She made up her mind and returned to her desk instead of asking anything else, glancing up worriedly from time to time.
The eyes around the room gradually returned to their work as Jim sat numbly at his desk. He got the strange sensation that two pairs of eyes, however, were still watching him. He looked up at Michael's office. Sure enough, Michael and Dwight were inside, looking out through the window.
Jim stared back at them until Michael closed the blinds.
