Jim swallows, hard. “You’re really gonna marry him?”

Silently, and with shaking hands, Pam slips her engagement ring off of her finger, setting it down gently on Jim’s desk. Lips clenched together, trembling, she stares at him with wide eyes.

“Pam…,” Jim starts, carefully.

“Please don’t take the transfer. Please don’t.,” She pleads.

“I won’t. It wasn’t official yet, I didn’t sign anything.,” Jim reassures. No promotion in the world could get him to leave her now.

“Okay.,” She nods, staring past him.

Jim catches her eyes. “But, Pam. I need to know that you didn’t just take off your engagement ring because I was going to transfer. It…has to be more than that.”

She shakes her head at him as if beating away his words. “I shouldn’t have been with Roy. And there are a lot of reasons to call off my wedding. But the truth is, I didn’t care about any of those reasons until I met you.”

Jim just stares at her blankly, blinking a few times before snapping out of it. “You have no idea how long I’ve wanted to hear you say that.”

Smiling slightly, she asks, “Can you take me home?,” before immediately cringing, looking beyond pained. “I can’t go home. I can’t face him!”

An uncomfortable feeling in the pit of his stomach, Jim comforts her. “Pam, if you need to, you can go home. It’s your home too. You can grab whatever you might need and I’ll come with-“

“No!,” She cuts him off.

“Okay…” He takes a breath. “Well, then just come home with me for tonight. We’ll figure everything out later, together.”

“He’s gonna think something happened to me if I don’t come home.” She's working herself up into a state.

Jim is thinking fast. “Okay, just for tonight, text him that you’re sleeping at Angela’s because you had too much to drink.”

She lets out a little puff of air. “Okay.” She fishes her phone out of her desk and sends the message. He prays Roy has already passed out for the night.

Jim rubs her back soothingly. “Everything is gonna be okay. Let’s go.”

Pam lets Jim begin to usher her out the door, before suddenly sprinting back inside at the last minute. “Oh!” She hastily grabs the ring, holding it tightly in her fist. “I need this to give back to him.” He can tell she doesn’t want to say his name.

Jim nods his head understandingly. Pam remembers to lock the door to the office from the inside, and the two exit Scranton Business Park, finding themselves back in the parking lot, the same place where not a half hour ago, their lives had changed irrevocably.