Monday’s were particularly slow for Pam at work, and so she usually found herself with a lot of free time on her hands. Today was no different, and so Pam with nothing better to do found herself reflecting on the troubles and triumphs of her past few tumultuous weeks. A reminder of one such trouble was sitting across from her, a bruise on her best friend’s face that was received standing up for her. A triumph stared her in the face in the form of the picture of her new house and dog, the happiness that she felt looking at that photo was almost enough to drown out the worry that Roy might do something drastic to Jim – aside from hitting him in the face that is.

According to Jim’s retelling of the encounter at Poor Richards when he stopped by to check on her Saturday afternoon, Roy had been especially upset that Jim was giving her a ride home, which stuck Pam as odd seeing as Roy knew Jim was her best friend. Best friends gave each other rides home from bars all the time; Pam had convinced herself. Pam was still confused as to why her ex-fiancé would deck her best friend for driving her home, but Jim had had nothing more to say on the matter over the weekend, just shrugging it off.

Mind you, Pam thought to herself, Jim had never really like talking about Roy, they just didn’t get along all that well. Roy was the stocky sports guy, and Jim was… the tall, lanky sports guy? They both liked basketball, she reasoned, so they at least had that in common. Pam decided not to waste any more time on trying to figure out why Roy and Jim didn’t seem to like each other and thought instead of what her mom had confronted her with on the night she moved into her house.

Her mother had challenged her to recall the last time she had thought about pursing her art, and Pam wanted to change her answer. Today, she was going to enroll in an art class. She wasn’t really sure what it would be, because she hadn’t looked at what was out there yet, but it had to be cheap and in the evenings, so that probably narrowed it down quite a bit she thought. She started looking on the internet for classes in the Scranton area, but so far, she wasn’t very pleased with what she was seeing as far as prices went. Pam just didn’t have money in the bank to pay the enrollment up front for most of these classes, and the thought of taking out a loan just to pay tuition for one lousy evening art class was disheartening.

Jim glanced up from his monitor to see Pam frowning, staring intensely at something on her computer screen. He thought maybe Michael had emailed her an obscene forward, or another runaway bride joke, so he got up to see if her could cheer her up.

“Hey, why the long face,” He asked as he leaned on her desk and popped a jellybean in his mouth.

“It’s nothing, I just,” She started and then sighed, “I wanted to see if I could enroll in an evening art course, but with the car, house, and Nikita I’ve used up a lot of my cash on hand,” she said, gesturing on her screen to some course prices.

“Well, what about your parents,” Jim offered, “Surely they would support you doing this.”

“It’s not that they wouldn’t,” Pam said, looking embarrassed, “It’s just, I need to be able to do things on my own now, you know? I can’t just go running to Mom and Dad every time I have a problem, they’ve already done so much for me these last few weeks,” she explained, looking downcast.

“I get that,” Jim said, trying to reason with her, “My parents are the same way, they paid for all of my gas when I was in college so that I wouldn’t have an excuse not to come home and visit. Pam, they just want you to be happy, and if this art course is going to make you happy, I bet they’ll be all over it.”

“I know, I know,” She said, “But I can’t ask them for more than they’ve already given me Jim, it’s just that they have been so great with the whole Roy thing, and moving, and coming out to visit, and finding me a house, and a car, I just can’t ask for more Jim, they have done so much already.”

“Ok, I’ll drop it,” Jim said to placate her, seeing that he wasn’t going to get anywhere further with that, “Let’s switch gears; have you thought about asking for a raise?”

“Um, no,” Pam admitted, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth, “I don’t think they would give me one.”

“Oh, come on, you are selling yourself so short here Beesly,” Jim encouraged, “The way that you manage Michael – you are practically the branch manager. Without you herding Michael nothing would get done around here.”

“Thanks Jim, but I just don’t know,” She trailed off.

“How awesome you are,” Jim jumped in, finishing her sentence and earning a small smile from her, “Fine, we’ll put that one under maybe and circle back to it later.”

“Any other ideas,” Pam asked, looking up at him with a raised eyebrow.

Jim hummed as he wracked his brain for anything else.

Jim remembered that Ryan had made an offhand comment at one point that he wished he wasn’t a temporary employee, because then he’d be eligible for some corporate professional development programs. Jim was surprised at himself for remembering that because it had been like the first week the documentary crew had been filming them.

“Actually yes,” he started tentatively, “There might be some money from corporate available, I remember Ryan mentioned it once because he couldn’t apply as a temp, Toby might be able to figure something out,” Jim finished hopefully.

“That sounds like a longshot don’t you think,” Pam said disappointedly.

“You won’t know unless you try Pam, no harm in asking,” Jim tried to bolster her confidence.

“Yeah, only embarrassment and shame asking for handouts,” She said with a chuckle, trying to brush it off.

“You’ve gotta take a chance Pam, you deserve to be happy,” Jim said as his parting shot, before tapping her desk and returning to his to get some work done.

Her conversation with Jim had given Pam a lot to think about. She wasn’t really pleased with the way they had left things, Pam felt Jim’s last barb deep in her churning stomach, not really sure how to deal with it. The words at face value were encouraging, but the tone he had used… made him sound disappointed in her. Jim had always been there to encourage Pam to pursue her art, so it made sense that he was frustrated that she couldn’t go after it she reasoned. Although, Pam had to admit to herself, she could take any of the options he’d laid out for her, it was just that she wouldn’t ask her parents for more money, and she wasn’t assertive enough to ask for a raise.

Ok, screw that, Pam thought to herself, if she was assertive enough to break up with Roy in front of a camera, she could ask Toby to file a request for a raise for her. While she was at it, it wouldn’t hurt to look into corporate professional development money that Jim had mentioned. With her resolve steeled and a fire in her belly, Pam got up from her desk determined to replace the disappointment on Jim’s face with a stupid lopsided grin.

Pam set the phones to voicemail and walked towards the annex with her head down and her arms wrapped around her stomach with her hands tucked into her cardigan sleeves. Ok, so she wasn’t assertive enough to look over at Jim and challenge his gaze, she admitted to herself, but she was still going to talk to Toby.

Jim couldn’t help smirking a little as he saw Pam cross the office towards the annex, looking so small with her arms wrapped around herself but at the same time so determined. There was a confidence in her step that Jim didn’t often see in her. Jim wasn’t sure if she was going to talk to Toby to prove him wrong, or just for herself, but he was immensely proud to see her trying it anyway. She had grown a lot in the past few weeks. From her first outburst breaking up with Roy, to asserting herself and not saying yes to everything people asked of her. He just wished that Pam could see how awesome she was.

Pam entered the annex and seeing Toby at his desk she pulled a spare chair up.

“Hey Toby, do you have a minute,” She asked as she sat down.

“Of course, Pam, what can I do for you,” Toby replied with a small smile as he pushed his chair out a little to face her better.

“I was wondering if there are any professional development programs available from corporate for art,” Pam explained, “I was looking into taking some evening classes and I just don’t have the funds to sign up for anything.”

“Well,” Toby said with a hum, “Nothing for art per se, but… if you can convince corporate it’s graphic design related there are a few grants for that,” he supplied.

“There is also an internship for graphic design offered at the corporate offices,” Toby continued, “but it only runs once a year starting at the end of April, so you’ve missed the deadline for that unfortunately,” he finished sadly.

“How have I never heard of this,” Pam asks, frustrated. That sounded like an amazing opportunity.

“Well it’s not really intended for employees, it’s more for students,” Toby explained as he pulled Pam’s personnel file from a cabinet, “So we don’t advertise it internally. With your two years of schooling though, you might be able to qualify,” he said after looking at the resume that Pam had submitted as part of the hiring process all those years ago.

“Well that’s kind of a bummer,” Pam said, feeling the corners of her mouth dip, “So all I can really do is try to convince corporate somehow that my painting class is a prelude to graphic design?”

“Well when you put it like that,” Toby said with a sad smile and a shrug, “Have you thought about a mixed media class,” he offered.

“My wife took one once and it had all sorts of things like photography, computer design, and some drawing and painting too,” Toby said with a wistful smile.

“No,” Pam said, surprised she hadn’t thought of that, “I hadn’t even considered it, thanks Toby,” Pam said with a wide smile. Mixed media would certainly be easier to sell corporate on, she thought to herself.

“Any time Pam,” Toby said shyly.

“Hey, while I’m here, could I ask you about something else?”

“Sure, go ahead,” Toby nodded.

Pam took a deep breath and prepared herself. She had a few talking points that she had been able to come up with in her head, she just hoped that she didn’t butcher them.

“Would I be able to get a raise,” Pam asked, and met with silence from Toby she continued on, “It’s just that, I’ve been here for a few years and I’ve never asked for one, and cost of living has gone up several times, and I feel I’m an important part of the administrative team in the office, I facilitate all of Michaels meetings and -,” Pam was cut off by Toby.

“Whoa, ok, slow down and take a breath Pam,” he said with a  chuckle and a slight grin, “Yes I can put in a request for a raise for you, I can’t say if you’re going to get it or not though,” he explained to her.

“I just really feel like I deserve a raise,” Pam said with determination, “Michael would hardly get anything done without me here.”

“You are… not wrong,” Toby conceded, “I’ll see if I can sell Jan on the idea, I’ll let you know ok?”

“Great, thanks Toby.”

“Was there anything else I could do for you? I know you and Roy… Just, If you ever want to talk about it… I’ve been there, and I’m a trained counselor,” Toby said as her looked at her with something in his eyes that she couldn’t really discern.

“Thanks again Toby,” Pam said as she got up, purposefully ignoring the last bit as she felt a little awkward and exited the annex to return to her desk.

Jim noticed Pam enter the office again several minutes later and saw that she was taking the long way around which meant she would be stopping by his desk. As she approached Jim noticed she looked decidedly nervous, so he turned towards her in his chair and held up his hand for a high five.

“Proud of you Beesly,” Jim said with a smirk as she high fived him with a grin breaking out on her face. She did a strangely cute thing where she grabbed his hand and squeezed after making contact, before letting go.

Dwight chose this moment to interject, “Pfft, you have nothing to be proud of her for, she can’t even secure a mate.”

Before Jim could say anything, Pam had taken the two steps towards Dwight from where she was standing at the side of Jim’s desk and slapped the smug look right off his face.

“You’re a jerk!” She yelled, her voice wavering, and then stormed away towards the exit of the office.

Jim turned his head back from watching Pam storm out when he heard Dwight make a sound of appreciation at the back of his throat, and saw a stupid look on his face as he ogled Pam’s ass as she stomped out of the office.

“She has fine childbearing hips,” Dwight said dazedly, “You wouldn’t assume that by the way she dresses,” he continued, before suddenly straightening up and looking down at his desk. Jim thought he might have heard a feminine ‘hmph’ from over by accounting but couldn’t be sure.

Jim was disgusted that Dwight would say such a thing, even if he couldn’t help but agree.

“Dwight,” Jim said slowly, “You are an ass.”

Jim got up and left the office to go find Pam.