When Jim gets back from his surprisingly not awful sales call with Dwight, he is...impressed by Karen's new look. He is less impressed with her tone when she asks him out for coffee.

He'd known it would eventually get back to her that he used to have a crush on Pam. He had hoped it wouldn't be so soon. Really, he'd hoped it wouldn't be ever.

He downplays it, of course. It was nothing, it's over, she rejected him.

"I'm really glad you're here," he tells Karen. And he is. He'd be right back where he was before he left if it hadn't been for Karen. And he is so much better off with her here. And he means that.

It's weird in the office without Dwight for a few days. He can't believe Andy's annoying levels have gone so far off the charts so quickly, but wow. He tries, he really does, to avoid pranking him with Pam. But everyone else is busy, he swears. And it takes two minutes, and God, is it worth it.

Until Andy punches a hole in the wall.

And then Karen asks him if he still has feelings for Pam. And no, he definitely doesn't. He likes Karen, he's dating Karen. Karen moved here for him. Pam is just a girl from his past, who he confessed his feelings to, who turned him down.

"Yes."

And they talk. They talk for days and he is so tired.

He tells her everything. Because he has to. Because they spend five days talking and at some point it's bound to all come out.

He tells her about the lunch date that wasn't a date, about the time Roy almost punched him, about the kiss a Chili's, and shopping for Kevin, and the card - but he doesn't tell Karen that he still has the card, obviously. He tells her about Casino Night, and the kiss.

He wishes he didn't, but he's glad he did. He's glad it's all out there because now he can move on. He's had some really deep talks with Karen now and he feels closer to her than ever.

Pam tries to talk to him, but it's meaningless and boring and she's rambling. He doesn't let himself wonder why she's so awkward around him. He knows where that train of thought will go and he can't go there, right when he and Karen are finally in a good place.

And then Pam tells Ryan she wants to go on a date with one of his friends and Jim is thrown. He's thrown because he wants to go on a date with Pam more than anything in the entire world but he cannot, will not, go down that road again. She rejected him twice, he reminds himself, and just because she's ready to date doesn't mean that she wants to date him.

Phyllis's wedding is weird.

Pam is awkward and Jim can't figure out why. He tries to talk to her, tries to get some of their old routine going, but then he says she's cute - or her dancing is - and he feels awkward.

"No, it's totally hypothetical," he's telling the crew. Pam would never, will never be interested in him. So, it doesn't matter.

And then he sees Pam looking so damn sad while he's dancing with Karen and his old urges to go to her and comfort her are back and he's still holding Karen but-

He comes back to reality, back to dancing with Karen and not dating Pam. He's happy with Karen and that's all that matters. He can't go comfort Pam because he isn't dating Pam. It's not his job. It never has been and it never will be.

And when Pam leaves with Roy, that seals it. Nothing has changed in the past year. Not a damn thing.

But Karen is singing and being goofy and he really likes her. And the last thing he's thinking about is Pam and Roy.

Seriously, Roy is just hanging around the office again - more than he used to even - and Jim feels like he's going to be sick. Is he in the Twilight Zone?

He is safe with Karen and Pam is safe with Roy and he guesses that's just the way it is.

He wants to go to Pam's art show. More than anything in this entire world, he wants to go and support his best friend in this thing she's doing. He's been supportive of her art dreams for years. But he can't go be around Pam and Roy. He can't do that to himself.

He also figures that other people from the office will go. He knows Pam is well-liked enough, and figures she won't even notice when he doesn't show up. He wants to go so badly, but he doesn't think she'll even notice.

He loves Pam so much, still, all this time later, and he wants to be there for her. He wants to prove that he supports her, still believes in her. That he's so glad she's taking these art classes now. He wants to be better than Roy - Roy, who never appreciated her art, who told her not to take advantage of the Dunder Mifflin art program. But he's not in Roy's position. He is with Karen and Pam is with Roy and that's apparently never going to change.

So he doesn't go to her art show and he hates himself for it. For a long time.

Pam is really hoping that someone will show up at her art show. She is really hoping that anyone will show up at her art show, but she is also hoping that someone will show up.

Pam does a lot for the people at work. She keeps Dwight and Angela's secret, for one. But even just work things. She's always doing favors for everyone, always staying late so other people don't have to. So it really sucks that no one shows up to support her at the one thing she asked them to show up for.

Roy shows up, and she's struck by how awkward it is to be with him. She does love him, in some part of her heart, but it's not a deep, meaningful love. And she still sees Jim's face when she pictures her future. And that's not fair to herself, or to Roy, or to Jim.

She really thinks he'll show up. She really does. After all the times he supported her art, times when he told her how good her drawings her. After the fight about her choices when she decided not to take advantage of the program…

She really thinks he'll show up, but he doesn't. And it might be the first time Jim Halpert has ever really, truly let her down.

She's hurt by what Oscar says. She's much more hurt by what he says than by what Gil says. Screw Gil, she doesn't know him. But Oscar saying honesty and courage aren't her strong points? That is...absurd. She is always honest and...okay maybe not so courageous.

Well, fine. If people want to see a more honest and courageous Pam, then that's what they're damn well going to get.

Jim knows he really likes Karen, because he genuinely feels jealous when she tells him she's dated all these guys at work. He wouldn't feel jealous if he didn't have fairly strong feelings for Karen, right?

He also thinks maybe he doesn't deserve Karen because then he almost gets beat up, right in the middle of the office, over another girl.

Great. This just is never going to end, apparently.

It's a really scary moment for Jim. He's expected this for years, had a close call once. But having it really happen, having tall, overbearing Roy charging at him is honestly the scariest moment of Jim's fairly boring life. And when Dwight of all people saves his life, he spends ages trying to figure out what to do in return.

He tries to talk to Karen, but she just makes him feel so small about it. Yeah, he obviously feels a little guilty for the pranks he's pulled, but Dwight also kind of deserved them. And then he starts to think that maybe Karen is just jealous that the pranks were pulled with Pam or something.

No, he really does feel guilty. But he also doesn't like the way Karen just brushes him off. And tells him to go do some work. She clearly doesn't know how Jim works around here: he doesn't.

Pam tries to apologize for Roy coming in and trying to beat his face in. And she looks so sad and so lonely and Jim wants to hug her but instead he just goes cold. He's done. He's done with Pam, and with Roy, and with their drama and this sad, tragic love affair that never meant anything and never went anywhere. Dammit, Jim is with Karen now and he was never with Pam to begin with and Pam won't change that by swearing she's never going to get back with Roy.

He'll believe it when he sees it.

He does wish he could tell Pam when he sees Dwight and Angela making out: she was right last year! How about that. But he keeps it to himself for a few reasons. One, of course, that this means he and Dwight are even and he can go back to pranking him again. Two, this will be the first thing he avoids telling Pam about. This is a step in the right direction. He can't just go run and tell Pam every time something happens in the office. He can't.

Over the next few weeks, the drama dies down. Roy is gone and the jokes about the whole incident are over.

Kevin makes a comment about all of Jim's time at reception and Jim shakes it off, but he's thinking about his hours spent up here with Pam. He's thinking about the pranks and the jokes and the dumb stories about their weekends. Dammit.

When Michael says "Threat Level Midnight" at a meeting about the watermark issue, Jim is thinking about the past again. About the time when Pam ditched Roy to sit next to him and lead a table read of Michael's horrible, nonsense screenplay, and about the time they actually filmed it.

Jim is screwed, oh God he is so screwed. He likes Karen, and he can't trust these feelings for Pam. He keeps gravitating towards her, even now. Even after all that time, all these years of pining, after the rejection and dating Karen right in front of her. Even after watching her run right back to Roy.

He knows he's going to end up breaking Karen's heart. But still, just like with Katie, he is trying so hard to fall in love with her.

It's just impossible because he's living in the past.

It's been six months now. He's been with Karen for six months and he's happy with her. Karen is safe and supportive and she makes him a better worker, that's for sure.

But Pam pulls a prank on Dwight - such a simple one, but so beautiful, and Jim can't help it. He's right back to his normal antics, he just can't not get involved. He knows he shouldn't. He knows he's with Karen and Karen definitely wouldn't approve of this, but...maybe Karen doesn't understand him that well.

When they hear about this open position at corporate, they immediately call David Wallace. Jim wonders for a moment if it's weird, unprofessional, to call together like that. But Karen insists, so they do. And Jim feels a lot better after talking to him.

Maybe he has a future here after all. New York sounds pretty damn good, actually.

Beach day is full of weirdness, because Michael is weird. Andy disappears and Dwight is...in rare form once he finds out that Michael's job is on the line. And Jim just keeps a straight face through it all because he is interviewing for a corporate job, and soon this stuff will all be beneath him. It won't matter. None of it will.

And then Pam. Wow. In all the years he's known her, Jim has never heard Pam be so confident, or brave, or honest.

"I called off my wedding for you," she's saying. He'd known, somewhere deep inside, that she had. He wouldn't - couldn't - admit it to himself because it was a path he didn't want to go down. He's been with Karen since he stepped food back into the Scranton office, and dwelling on why Pam didn't get married was the last thing he wanted to do.

"The truth is I didn't care about any of those reasons until I met you," and he can't move. He can't breathe. Pam Beesly is standing in front of him, admitting her feelings - taking a chance, just like he did. But bigger. God, all Jim did was tell a girl he loved her. Pam is telling the whole damn office. And Jim isn't going to say anything in front of everyone. In his head, he's got a million scenarios, a million different directions this could go. But in the end, he just sits there.

Pam Beesly broke his damn heart a year ago, and he still hasn't fully recovered. Six months with Karen is nothing compared to the time he's spent loving Pam and he knows it will never be enough.

He knows, but he still doesn't say anything. He feels everyone watching him. He knows he's got to say something, but he's in a very precarious place. He knows he and Karen are going to have another late night of conversation, maybe even two or three late nights. He knows this so he doesn't say his piece in front of her. He can't talk to Pam in front of her - it's not fair to either of them.

But he's with Karen, and not Pam, and so he echoes Pam's words back to her. He tells her she "means a lot to him". He leaves a lot of things unsaid, and she knows it. In the end, they leave the beach with a lot more on their minds.

Karen is understandably uncomfortable. Jim would hate to be in her shoes - has hated being in them, in fact. He knows she has every right to not like Pam.

He just wishes it weren't his fault.

She has a bit of an extra attitude leading up to the interviews. She calls his normal look "homeless", and less than affectionately, at that. He knows she means well, but he really isn't happy with any of it.

When she suggests they leave early and go to New York for an extra night, he jumps at the chance. He needs to get away from Scranton, away from Pam, and really figure out what the hell he's doing. And if he gets this job in New York, then all the better.

They have a really great night in the city. Karen is so fun, she's always ribbing on him and they have a blast together, all the time. But dammit if his head isn't back in Scranton the entire time.

"We have no future in Scranton," she's saying and he knows she's right. He knows he's said the exact same thing - about himself, not himself and Karen. But moving to New York for Karen...that's a lot. They've been together six months. That's still early to be moving states for someone. Although, he supposes, their whole relationship began when she took a job in Pennsylvania at his suggestion.

Shit.

When Karen says not to feel bad for Jan, Jim feels even more uncomfortable. He knows Jan is a nutcase, but he also knows that she doesn't necessarily deserve to be kicked out on her ass like that in front of all of the other employees and interviewees and everyone else. And the fact that Karen just wants to laugh at her kind of rubs him the wrong way.

"Dunder Mifflin, this is Grace," the receptionist is saying and Jim is back in Scranton. He is at his desk - his old desk - and Pam is at reception and things are normal again. She's not with Roy and he's not with Karen and dammit that's what he wants.

But New York would be amazing. A promotion, a raise, an escape. So he heads into the interview with David Wallace with every intention of taking the job if it's offered.

And then he finds the note. And the yogurt lid from Pam's mixed berry yogurt. From the day they held the olympics and Pam motivated Jim to let loose and have some fun instead of only wanting him to work. The day Pam seemed to understand why this weird activity was so strangely important to Jim and she folded up a bunch of doves and flew them behind Michael's head.

"What have you liked most about that place?" Wallace is asking him.

Pam. The receptionist. His best friend in the entire world who he's been neglecting all because he was dating someone he wasn't even in love with. That pretty girl at the desk with the curly hair and that hiccup-y laugh and her impressed face and her beaming smile and-

"Where do you see yourself in ten years?"

And for the first time in a long time, Jim is picturing that future. He's carrying Pam up to bed when she falls asleep on his shoulder on the couch. Jim is cooking the bacon and Pam is making the eggs. He lets her sleep in on Saturdays and serves her breakfast in bed and they buy a house with a huge backyard for their kids and-

He leaves. He calls Karen and meets her and he tells her what she already knows. He's never going to get over Pam. Not in Scranton or Stamford or New York. Pam is his end-all, be-all, and he's never going to want anyone else in this entire world in the way that he wants her. He doesn't say all of that to Karen, but he says enough of it. And then he drives home to Scranton. Alone.

He has three entire hours to think of what to say. He has the card in his glove box - he knows that was dangerous, with how often Karen was in the car, but he likes having it near him. He could give her the card and walk away. But she knows he loves her. She knows he did, anyway. No, he has to take action. Because telling her he loved her did nothing. Kissing her got her to to admit her feelings, at least to herself.

Action it is.

"Are you...free for dinner tonight?"

"Yes." And he can see the tears in her eyes and they are not the bad kind. Jim Halpert has never, in his entire life, been so happy about a decision. He spent years not telling her how he felt, then another year avoiding the fact that he still felt that way.

He loves Pam Beesly and he isn't going to wait to be with her anymore.

"Then...it's a date," and he closes the door and lets her finish her interview with the crew.

Not a bad day.