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Author's Chapter Notes:
Starting to move things forward in a more definitive direction now. Hope you folks like where things are headed.

Today was officially the worst day of Pam’s life and it was barely past noon. First her fiancé- ex-fiancé Pam corrects herself mentally – forgets that they are engaged, so Pam breaks up with him and goes to cry about it, only to find out from her best friend that Roy thinks it was all a misunderstanding and thinks that they can just kiss and make up after work. Now she has to get through the rest of the workday, work up the strength to break up with Roy a second time and figure out how to disentangle from a ten-year relationship. Oh yeah, and they live together, so it’s not like going home is going to be a respite either.

The rest of the office seemed to know that something was up. Phyllis kept sneaking looks at her, and Angela’s head was rising from behind the divider to glare at her more frequently. How Kelly hasn’t caught wind and come up to bombard Pam yet she didn’t know, but she wasn’t going to question it.

Pam put her head down on her desk to rest her eyes for a few seconds, as her glasses were giving her a headache. When Pam looked up again, Creed was leaning against her desk and looking down on her.

“Hey sweet cheeks, heard that Jim guy dumped you,” Pam shot a look of bewilderment at Jim, who leaned back to look at her around Creed as he said this, “that’s a real shame, but if you’re looking for a rebound, you can bounce off me anytime,” Creed finished with a creepy wink, and ambled off to his desk.

All Pam could do was shake her head, it should surprise her that Creed at least named someone in the office, but at this point she just didn’t care. Jim shot her a look with raised eyebrows, but before he could come up to her desk to rag on Creed, her phone rang, the caller ID showing Michael’s extension.

“Yes,” Pam asked after she had picked up the receiver.

“Pam, could you come to my office,” Michael asked from the other end, “I have need of your female-ness.”

“Uh, ok, be there in a second,” Pam said and hung up.

On her way over to Michael’s office Pam wandered over to Jim’s desk, and he looked up at her from the spreadsheet that he had been staring at for the last ten minutes with a quirked brow.

“He said he needed my female-ness,” Pam explained with a stage whisper, “should I be worried?”

“Well… he could be asking anything from which wallpaper you like best to the birds and the bees” Jim replied with a grin.

“Wish me luck,” Pam said and took an exaggerated deep break, preparing to enter Michael’s office.

“Luck,” Jim said to her as she pivoted away, “you’ll need it!”

After yelling “Nerd alert” a few times upon seeing Pam’s glasses for the first time, it turned out Michael wanted to know if “Girls her age” were into futons. Pam could only assume that this had to do with him trying to woo Katy and grimaced at the thought, which Michael interpreted to mean that girls her age were in fact not impressed by futons – not an incorrect assumption. Pam asked if that was all and Michael dismissed her.

Pam stopped at Jim’s desk to debrief him on the futon debacle, which turned into them debating Michael’s chances with Katy. Pam and Jim agreed that they were abysmal. After chatting for a bit Pam had to go back to her desk to answer the phone. Having transferred the call, and not feeling like getting up Pam decided to waste the rest of the afternoon split between freecell and apartment listings.

Unfortunately for Pam, freecell was much easier to win than an apartment, and by the end of the workday she really didn’t have any concrete leads. Pam was not looking forward to the ride home. As she was packing up for the day, moving slower than usual she, noticed Jim had stopped to lean at her desk, waiting to walk out with her.

“Almost,” she trailed off, grabbing something that had fallen out of her purse, “done,” she finished, and moved to the coat rack where Jim held hers out to her and shrugged it on.

Pam thanked Jim and they moved towards the elevators, rode them down, and were deposited in the lobby. Pam stopped and turned when she felt Jim touch her elbow.

“Hey, let me know if you need anything, alright,” Jim said looking down at her with concern written all over his face, “or, you know, if you just want to talk, you’ve got my number.”

Pam nodded, tearing up as she began to realize the enormity of what was about to happen – had happened – to her life in the next hours. Through teary eyes Pam saw Jim reach out and felt him wrap her in a hug, and she just hung on for a minute. This was her best friend Jim, her anchor in all of the turmoil ahead, and she loved that about him.

They were interrupted by a honk from the parking lot. Pam knew it was Roy’s truck. Reluctantly, Pam disengaged from Jim’s embrace.

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” Pam said as she sniffled and dried her eyes.

“You can call anytime Pam, I mean it,” he said with a reassuring squeeze to her shoulder.

Pam nodded, steeled herself for what was to come, and headed out the door into the parking lot.

Chapter End Notes:
Thank you to everyone who is reviewing and leaving jellybeans, your feedback means a lot to me as I feel my way around writing this.

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