As Pam pulled into the parking lot in her new car Tuesday morning, she decides that she is going to start the day with some mayhem. In light of this decision, she parks her car in the space where Dwight’s Trans-Am is usually parked and makes her way up to the office to start the coffee maker and make a cup of tea for herself. She greeted Angela as she saw her enter the office from her desk.

Angela responded with a curt, “Good morning,” and a hurtful comment on how she was glad that Pam was no longer living in sin. The rest of the office staff were their usual indifferent selves. Jim and Dwight entered the office together, which caused Pam to raise her eyebrows and Jim shot her a smirk. Pam could only hope that her plan had worked. She was rewarded with hearing Dwight saying he would get to the bottom of some issue as he and Jim parted ways at the coat racks.

“So there was a strange vehicle parked in Dwight’s parking space this morning,” Jim explained, stopping to lean against her desk on his way past, “He immediately suggested that I had paid someone to steal his space to slight him in some way.”

“I know,” Pam said, brining her hand up to hide the huge smile spreading across her face, “Who do you think parked there,” she asked, stifling a giggle and ducking her head down below the counter to conceal it.

“Oh Beesly,” Jim said, leaning in and lowering his voice so as not to draw Dwight’s attention, “You are so evil. So that’s your new car? I thought the outline looked familiar.”

Pam had controlled her breathing enough to answer with, “Yes,” and went back to trying to stifle giggles, curling into herself with her shoulders shaking.

Jim was about to comment on how giggly Pam was this morning when the phone rang and she help up a finger so as to say ‘wait a minute’, and she answered the phone with a laugh still in her voice.

“Dunder Mifflin, this is Pam,” she said as she fought down her giggles and straightened her face, only to break out in a huge smile at whoever was on the other end, “Morning Dad!”

Jim loved how she looked when she was excited, the slight flush of her cheeks from laughing and the sparkle in her eye that it seemed talking to her dad elicited made him feel special, because he had caused that look before, when they played pranks or enjoyed banter together.

“That’s great dad, thank you so much for calling to let me know,” she said with an even bigger smile, if that was possible.

“Thanks, love you too, bye,” She hung up.

Jim looked at Pam expectantly, as a fax started to come through.

“So, what’s got you in such a great mood this morning,” Jim asked, dying to know what had put that smile on her face.

Pam beckoned him around her desk and pulled out the fax that had just come through, “Look,” she said, shoving the paper towards him.

At first Jim couldn’t make heads or tails of what he was looking at, but one thing stood out, the heading ‘Rental Agreement’, and below that an address and the terms.

“That’s great Pam,” he exclaimed, “You found an apartment really fast, I’m so happy for you.”

“Look closer Jim,” She said, guiding his gaze to the address with a finger, “Not an apartment, a house…”

“That address is…” Jim trailed off, looking to Pam’s face, seeing a nervous smile there.

“We’ll practically be neighbours,” Pam supplied for him, “I just need to convince Michael to let me take a half day and my parents will come down to help me move.”

Pam was nervous how Jim would react to her moving so close, for some reason to her it just felt a little weird to be living so close, but, Pam rationalised, it’s not like they were living together. The look of admiration, joy, and something that she couldn’t quite place quelled these fears and made Pam’s heart beat faster.

“That’s awesome Beesly,” Jim said earnestly, “I am so proud of you,” he finished with a dazzling smile that did all sorts of funny things to Pam’s insides.

Jim was not expecting what happened next. Pam practically barrelled into him with her tiny frame and hugged him, before placing a peck from her warm lips on his cheek and literally skipping out the office door to ‘go tell Roy’.

Jim’s head was still spinning by the time she returned, looking less giddy but still glowing, and vaguely remembered asking if she wanted help moving furniture, and her saying something along the lines of ‘my dad won’t ask but he’d appreciate the help’.

The rest of the day passed as a blur to Jim, Pam disappeared sometime after lunch so he could only assume that she convinced Michael to let her go, as Ryan was sitting at reception when Jim awoke from his haze standing in front of the coat rack and glancing up at the clock to see it was five o’clock. Jim decided he would drive home, change, and walk over to her new place to help move things.

Pam was having a bit of a panic attack. She had just kissed Jim in front of the entire office. Whoa, ok, she reeled herself in, she kissed him on the cheek, that was a super friendly kind of kiss. Except that she’d just been so giddy and caught up in the emotional roller coaster that was her life right now that she wasn’t entirely sure if she bought what she was trying to sell herself. At the same time, people pecked other people on the cheek all the time, right? It was just a sign of endearment and affection. Except, Pam’s subconscious argued, this had felt a lot more like just flat out attraction, but Pam wasn’t ready to be facing those feelings especially since she’d already texted Roy to meet her to talk outside the warehouse. She really needed to reel in her emotions lest she give Roy the wrong idea, or the right one, oh boy she was such a mess.

Pam managed to calm herself, taking deep breaths, and waited for Roy to pop out of the warehouse to tell him the good news. She heard the door open and turned towards it, stopping mid-pace.

“Hey, I have something I wanted to tell you,” Pam said, while at the same time Roy spoke over her.

“Hey, I’ve been doing some thinking,” Roy said speaking over Pam.

“Uh, you first,” Pam deferred with a small smile.

“Well, uh, I what I wanted to say is that,” Roy paused, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly, “I’ve been doing some thinking and I realised that we can’t just go back to being engaged, but I was thinking we could still be boyfriend-girlfr-”

“What, Roy no,” Pam said, trying to cut him off

“What do you mean, no, Pammy those were the best years of our relationship, if we can just go back to that…”

“Roy, please no, don’t do this,” Pam pleaded with him to drop it, “I can’t go back to that.”

“Why not Pammy? Come on, I’ll try this time-”

“Stop,” Pam interrupted him, “I came down here to let you know that I’ve found a place and I’m moving out today, so you can come back to the apartment after work today.”

“Oh,” Roy said dejectedly, and Pam felt a little bad for him, but at the same time she marveled about how clueless he was in their relationship.

And not to forget ‘I’ll try this time’, that was a real fire starter, but Pam pushed it down, knowing that hurting him got her nothing in the long run.

“Roy, I’m done- We’re done, ok?” Pam said softly, hoping Roy would take the hint and drop this once and for all.

“Ok,” He said defeatedly, as he then turned and trudged back into the warehouse.

It was around five thirty when Jim walked up to the Beesly’s sitting on the tailgate of a pickup truck, with Pam’s mom Helene on the left, and Pam sandwiched between her parents with a load of furniture behind them.

“Hey strangers,” Jim called out as he walked up and they finally seemed to notice him, too absorbed with their conversation and the food in their laps he surmised.

“Hey Jim,” Pam greeted him with a tired looking smile, “We saved all the heavy stuff for you,” she said, waving her hand behind her at the items in the truck bed.

Helene insisted that Jim have some of their food before they started working so he found himself sitting on the curb with a paper plate and some assorted Chinese takeout. After he finished eating Will gave him a hearty slap on the back and they got to work.