August 2007

“Younger, sleeker, more agile”

The first thing Danny Cordray liked to ask new clients was to list a few adjectives that they wanted their logo to embody, and these were the words the Dunder Mifflin corporate board selected. The logo couldn’t be too much of a departure from the current blocky blue and white logo but it did need to be “younger, sleeker, more agile.”

Just need to treat the logo like it’s going through a mid-life crisis , Pam thought with a chuckle, sketching out block letters with a slant. She was supposed to present some ideas in two days and while she had at least a dozen logos sketched out there was not one she would consider even casually presenting to David Wallace, much less to Jim Halpert.

She set down her pencil and rubbed her brow, Jim Halpert, how on earth in a city of millions did she end up assigned to work with Jim Halpert? It would be one thing if they had run into each other at a coffee shop, if they just chatted for a couple minutes, exchanged numbers and promised to get lunch sometime. But now they were going to be working together for weeks on this project. She couldn't speak for Jim but she could hardly focus in his presence, her mind constantly flashing to memories of eating lunch together in the Scranton High cafeteria, making out in the back of her Camry, “studying” (aka more making out) in his parent’s basement, “watching movies” (aka even more making out) at Scranton Cinemas.

Pam wondered if Danny and Sarah would understand should she askr to be taken off this project, if they would accept “can’t stop thinking about when she and client used to suck face in high school long enough to focus” as a reason. Because it was true, at least until she started thinking about the awkward long-distance calls and lonely car rides from Philadelphia to State College and stupid fights which eventually outnumbered the make-out sessions.

The fact that he at some point in the last nine years had become downright good-looking was also not helping things. Of course she thought he was cute back in high school, but cute in a gawky way, with skinny limbs and jug ears and a mop of hair. Now he was still lean but filled out his work suit far better than his prom tux, his hair actually styled and his nose and ears no longer too large for his face.

His smile was the same, big and honest and when accompanied with those green eyes and that soft chuckle of his just made her feel…

Get a grip, Beesly, she scolded herself, shaking her head. If she had any hope of getting through this project she damn well couldn't be daydreaming about Jim’s smile. Besides, he had a girlfriend, he made that crystal clear. Pam could only imagine some very pretty, professional woman far more together than she was.

“Hey Pam.” She lifted her head to see Alex standing over her. “How’s that logo going?”

“Oh, okay, except,” she picked up her sketchbook and held it upright towards Alex, “do you think any of these logos say ‘younger, sleeker, more agile?” 

Alex chuckled, “Danny's buzzwords?”

Pam rolled her eyes and dropped her sketchbook back on the table. “Hey, um, did you know Jim Halpert works there?” she asked in a low tone.

“The VP of sales?” Alex looked to Pam's widened eyes and then he inhaled sharply, “Oh, is that... your Jim?”

Pam lifted her brows, resisting the temptation to clarify that Jim was not her Jim, at least he hadn’t been her Jim in a very long time.

“I've only spoken to him on the phone, I didn't make the connection.” He looked off to some spot on the floor, “Wow, we really threw you into the deep end on this one.”

Pam shook her head, “It's fine, I mean, you and I work together no problem.”

“But we dated for a couple months in college,” Alex said, his voice calm but his cheeks undeniably pink. Pam felt a little bad, she and Alex had successfully avoided any talk of their brief and Ill-fated relationship since she contacted him about career advice a few months ago. “You and Jim? That's just…”

Pam hummed softly to herself, “Yeah.”

Clearly uncomfortable with the silence, Alex reached over to Pam’s sketchbook again, “Is that an infinity sign?” he said, pointing to a batch of thumbnails.

“Oh yeah, I was thinking the website could be called ‘Dunder Mifflin Infinity’, because it will provide ‘infinite’ choices for their clients. Pretty cheesy huh?”

“It’s a little cheesy but clients love cheesy.” Alex studied her sketches some more, “I think you should render a few vector versions of that and present it.”

“Yeah?” Pam asked.

“Yes, Dunder Mifflin Infinity, DMI, you are definitely on to something.”

“Hey, A-Rod, really to head out in five?” Danny said, poking his head into the office. Alex nodded and Danny pointed to Pam, “How's that logo going, kid?”

Pam smiled as big as she could manage, “It’s going.”

Danny flashed his megawatt smile before leaving the room, and Pam looked up to see Alex sigh and shake his head. “You wanna trade? You can go do this lunch pitch with Danny and I can work on logos,” he said.

“Sorry, that’s all you, A-Rod ,” Pam teased, grinning when Alex rolled his eyes hard. She tilted her head, remembering Alex's surname was Driscoll. “Now why does he call you-“

“I don’t know, he thinks I’m a heavy hitter or something,” Alex said with a shrug. “Anyway, keep working on that, they want something to look at Thursday, right?”

Pam dropped her head back, “Ugh yes, why did you have to remind me, is your offer to trade still on the table? ”

Alex chuckled, “You’re gonna be fine, Pam, confidence goes a long way.”

Pam pouted and wished Alex luck before turning back to her desk. She booted up Illustrator on her computer but decided to take a peek at her email before getting too engrossed in the logo work. There was a new message from David Wallace, asking if Pam was available to come met and present preliminary ideas at 3pm on Thursday. Her eyes lingered on the CC line and the “Jim Halpert” for way too long before she closed the email, deciding she’d see how much she could get done and reply by the end of the day.

* * * * *

After ringing the doorbell of a split-level on Silverspruce Drive, Jim pulled out his BlackBerry and scrolled through his emails. Another thing he was not a fan of in this job: the sheer volume of emails he now got thanks to every other exec CCing him on everything . He skimmed through the first two dozen until one caught his eye, a message from David about meeting to discuss website logos. Just the name “Pam Beesly” in the “to:” line was enough to make him excited and nervous at once.

The door creaked and a man’s face appeared in the narrow opening, looking Jim up and down in his suit. “Oh shit, the feds?” He opened the door wider and raised his hand. “Look, Agent, I’m gonna tell you what I told the cops, I have no idea what happened to The Shins album that James D. Halpert misplaced when he moved out a year ago.”

Jim rolled his eyes hard, “Shut up, Mark.” Mark laughed and Jim stepped inside. “And I still don’t buy that you don’t know what happened to that.”

Mark and Jim had been friends since they were paired up in 7th grade geography (they presented a report on Australia and Oceania which Mark forever recalled as a “huge hit”, whatever that meant for middle school group projects). Even though Mark stayed and attended the University of Scranton while Jim went to Penn State, they managed to remain good friends. They even became roommates when Jim graduated and moved back. Now that Jim’s job entailed visiting Scranton often, he always made sure to text Mark and see if he wanted to grab a beer after. Sometimes they’d meet at a bar but usually Jim would stop by Mark’s house, the same house he used to live in.

“So what was today’s crisis?” Mark said, reaching into the fridge for two beers. He knew Jim's visits to Dunder Mifflin were never routine. 

Jim rubbed his face and groaned before taking the bottle from Mark. “Michael Scott outdid himself yet again. He had a rabies fun-run.”

Mark knitted his brows, “A what now?”

“A 5k fundraiser for rabies research because he hit the supplier relations rep with his car and cracked her pelvis and then it turned out she was exposed to rabies from a bat that got into the office this spring.”

Mark choked on his sip of beer, “Holy shit, there are at least 10 lawsuits in that sentence.”

“Pretty much And guess who gets to smooth all that over,” Jim pointed to himself while taking a big swig. “And because babysitting the Scranton branch isn’t enough work, they put me in charge of developing the website.”

“You in charge of the website?” Jim nodded and Mark chuckled, “How’d that happen?”

Jim shook his head, “Probably because I’m the only VP under 45, I certainly didn’t volunteer.”

“Well it’s not like you have to actually do anything coding wise, just delegating to some tech guys.”

Jim shrugged, “True but it’s going to be a whole rebranding thing and David wants me working closely with the graphic designer.”

“Well graphic designers are usually pretty cool, have you met them yet?”

Jim chewed the inside of his cheek, he had been quiet about this since last week and had to tell someone, “Yeah, last Thursday. And um, you know her, actually.”

Mark lifted his brows, “Oh yeah? Do I get a hint?”

“It's someone I've dated.” That was putting it mildly.

“Purse girl Katy?”

“Nope.”

Mark scrunch up his face as if thinking hard, “Uh, that woman that you banged on that lake cruise.”

Jim quickly shook his head, “That’s not what … no, not Brenda.”

“So, college girlfriend? I can’t even name any of them, you were so torn up over Pam you didn’t go out with anyone long.”

Jim arched his eyebrow and Mark’s jaw dropped.

“Holy shit, Pam?”

“Yup,” Jim said. Mark asked how this happened and Jim shrugged, “She moved to New York a few months back and works for the agency we hired.”

The corner of Mark’s lips curled up, “So, how does she look?” 

Jim knew that would be Mark's first question and refrained from rolling his eyes. “Oh you know, she’s trying out a blue mohawk, tons of facial piercings.”

“Really?”

Jim scoffed, “No.” He thought about how seeing her last week took him instantly back to being 17, “She … she looks the same honestly.”

Mark gave him a skeptical look, “Okay.” He walked past Jim towards the living room, and Jim mindlessly followed him, thinking he just wanted to sit down on the couch. “And who does she work for again?”

“Osprey Marketing,” Jim said without question. He then knitted his brows when saw Mark had grabbed his laptop and was typing something. “Wait what are you doing?”

“Just checking something,” Mark said with a smirk. He clicked a few times and then let out a whistle, “Oh, Jimmy. I think you have a problem.” Jim asked what on earth he was talking about and Mark turned his laptop around. He had pulled up the Osprey website complete with a photo of Pam. She was smiling and radiant in a fitted purple shirt (which was what he was sure Mark was focused on and Jim didn't want to admit was making him think things as well). 

“Yeah, she looks good, like I said,” Jim replied as coolly as possible.

“You said ‘She looks the same’, and I don’t remember Pamela Beesly looking like that.” Mark studied the photo for longer than Jim was comfortable with. “Seriously, was she always hiding that body under those big paint-stained sweatshirts?” 

“Alright,” Jim reached over and closed the laptop, much to Mark’s delight.

Once his giggling subsided, Mark leaned forward and grabbed his beer off the table. “So, what are you gonna tell Karen?”

Jim shook his head, “What am I gonna tell her about what?” Mark lifted his brow and Jim forced a laugh, “About working with Pam? What’s there to tell, it’s a few weeks of meetings and emails.”

Mark scoffed and Jim asked what was funny. “If she was working with the guy she lost her v-card to and didn’t tell you, would you be okay with that?”

Jim shrugged, “It’s in the past, it doesn’t matter.” Mark let out a hoot and Jim couldn’t say he didn’t deserve that reaction.

“Jimmy! Jimothy! Karen’s a cool girl but no woman on the planet is that cool. No man either for that matter, I seem to remember you not loving her little ‘I slept with half the company’ prank on you at that cocktail party.”

“Alright, alright,” Jim said, waving his hand. “You’re not wrong, but what would I even say, how would I even bring it up?:

“I mean, you talk about your day at dinner right? Just tell the truth, you have a work project and the designer just happens to be your high school sweetheart.” Jim grimaced and Mark curled his lip, “Yeah leave out the high school sweetheart part. Also leave out that Pam’s a total fox now.” Jim gave Mark his best ‘not helping’ look and Mark’s expression finally changed to sincere. “Look, it’ll be awkward but best to say something now than risk her finding out from someone else later and dealing with that fallout.”

Jim gave a half smile, “Mark, you can be very insightful on occasion.” Mark lifted his beer and Jim leaned forward to click bottles with him. Just then, his phone dinged in his pocket and when he checked it he sighed heavily at the message he had 10 new emails.

“Loving that BlackBerry?” Mark teased.

“I’d love to chuck it into the Delaware Water Gap,” Jim muttered. He opened his inbox and when he saw the first message was from Pam his breath hitched. He tapped the email and read her completely innocuous reply to David’s meeting suggestion, ‘ Three o’clock on Thursday sounds great, see you then! ’ but a smile must have crept onto his face.

“Got an email from Pam, huh?” Mark smirked. Jim was ready deny it but Mark just chuckled, “I remember that dumb dreamy face. Not that I blame you because…” Mark reached over and opened his laptop and there was Pam’s smiling face again on the screen, “Damn, Pam!” Jim rolled his eyes as Mark spun the laptop around and started to study Pam’s photo again. “Do you know if she’s seeing someone or-”

“I’m actually pretty sure she's single,” Jim said, fidgeting with his phone.

Mark shook his head, “I don’t know Jamie, I still think you might have a problem.”

Jim didn’t want to agree that Mark may be right about that.