Pam narrowed her eyes and watched as Katy perched on the edge of Jim’s desk, poking his chest and giggling. Apparently it wasn’t enough that Pam had to spend every day pretending not to have feelings for the guy who was basically her best friend. Now she had to watch his girlfriend practically fondle him while she tried to work.

Yeah, she was in love with her unavailable male friend. When had she become such a fucking cliche?

When Pam started at Dunder Mifflin, Jim had immediately befriended her, and she’d been smitten almost before her first day ended. It felt like the two of them just clicked, and besides that, he was very easy on the eyes. Tall, slim - but she could tell he worked out - with that messy hair that made her imagine what he looked like when he woke up in the morning. When HR had given her the employee manual to review, the first thing she’d done was look up the section about dating coworkers.

By the end of day two, she’d discovered that he had a girlfriend. A long-time girlfriend he lived with who he’d been dating since high school. Not only that, but the girlfriend - Katy - was very cute and very into Jim.

At first Pam tried to shrug it off. After all, it’s not like she had trouble finding guys to hang out with. She’d had a couple of longer relationships but she’d never lived with anyone or got even close to marriage. She liked playing the field, and until she met Jim, it was working for her.

She told herself she should keep her distance from him, but work was so boring, and she couldn’t resist his playfulness. They pulled pranks on Dwight, and ate lunch together, and the more she got to know him, the more she liked him. Soon she found herself thinking about him on the weekends. Sometimes she’d come up with a reason to text him - a movie was on TV that they’d talked about recently, or she’d trash talk him about sports. He always replied as if he was happy to hear from her. But she knew that even as he texted her, Katy was there. Probably lying with her feet in his lap while they watched TV, or stepping out of the shower in a towel and beckoning Jim to join her in the bedroom. Pam couldn’t stand thinking about them together like that, but her mind worked against her, conjuring images of Katy kissing him, touching him, and Jim moaning her name.

So yes, she’d known he was unavailable right from the start. And that was fine, at first. They had their time together at work, and Pam kept herself entertained on the weekends with her friends and whatever man was hanging around just then. She tried to tell herself that she didn’t really want someone like Jim anyway - he was practically married, and probably super-boring most of the time. But then her friend Isabel stopped by the office one day and Pam ended up introducing her to Jim. Pam was grateful that Isabel waited till they were in the car to give her opinion.

“Wow, so that’s the famous Jim? Um, Pam, he’s fucking hot. How do you get any work done? And he’s so funny. Talk about a distraction.”

After that validation from Isabel, Pam gave up trying to pretend that her feelings for Jim weren’t real. She admitted to herself that this was way more than a crush. She lost interest in dating and spent her weekends replaying every interaction she’d had with him that week. She knew it wasn’t healthy, but she couldn’t seem to stop herself. She wore out three vibrators fantasizing about a man she’d probably never even have a chance to kiss.

Every now and then she got a sense of something more from Jim. Most of the time he kept her at arm’s length, and even when he teased her, it was still on the friend level. But sometimes she’d catch him staring at her while she worked at her desk at reception. Or he’d seek out the empty seat next to her when the whole gang went to Poor Richard’s for drinks, and spend the evening whispering in her ear to make her laugh. He hugged her, which was pretty normal for a friend, but sometimes he seemed to hold on a little longer and a little tighter than strictly necessary, and once she could have sworn he was sniffing her hair.

One time she overheard him tell someone that Pam was his best friend in the office. She’d glowed hearing that, even as she told herself it meant nothing.

It was one thing when Katy used to come to the office to pick him up at the end of the day, or even come out for drinks with the group sometimes. But since she started working at the office in customer service a few months ago, Pam had begun to think she might need to get a new job.

The only person more bothered by Katy’s presence than Pam was Kelly. If looks could kill, Katy would be dead and Kelly would be in jail for homicide. Pam didn’t think she’d ever seen Katy talk to Ryan, but just Katy’s daily presence in the annex was enough to put Kelly on high alert.

“If that red-haired bitch so much as looks at my Ryan, I’ll show her a thing or two,” Kelly griped. "Does she even own a top that isn't low-cut?"

Pam stayed quiet, hoping Kelly never found out about her own little dalliance with Ryan during one of the many times when Kelly and Ryan were broken up. It had been a mistake on so many levels, but Pam couldn’t deny it - the guy had some skills.

“Hey Pam, what’s up?” a gruff voice asked, pulling Pam’s gaze away from the happy couple who were now whispering, their heads close together.

“Hey Roy,” Pam said, looking up at the bearded beefy guy in front of her. Roy worked down in the warehouse, and even though he wasn’t really her type, Pam had to admit that he’d caught her eye more than once.

“Have you been working out?” she asked him, letting a flirty tone into her voice.

Roy stood back and grinned, thrusting his chest out proudly. “Yeah, yeah, I started going to the gym with Darryl and some of the guys. Thanks for noticing.”

Just then Pam heard a high-pitched giggle from Katy, and when she gave a side-long glance, she saw Katy run her fingers through Jim’s hair, her cleavage just inches from his face.

Turning back to Roy, Pam pasted on a smile. “So, you wanna get a drink sometime?”

Roy leered at her in a way he seemed to think was sexy, and answered, “Yeah, how about tonight?”

“Sounds good,” said Pam firmly, looking appreciatively at his biceps. “I'll see you at Poor Richards at 5.”