The room bathed in nothing but a side lamp, the gentle light cast long dim shadows across Pam’s living room.  She sat on her sofa, gazing at the dog-eared coaster resting in her palms. She stroked the rounded edges with her index fingers and found herself smiling broadly. It had been quite a night.

***

A few hours earlier…

The first that Pam knew of the imminent seismic changes to her life was the moment that Jim barrelled through the door of the conference room to ask her out for dinner. Whatever she’d managed to bury down deep inside, that simple question:

 “Are you free for dinner tonight?”

…was enough to bring those tamped-down feelings exploding straight back up to the surface, sending her equilibrium totally off-balance. As soon as his question registered beyond the disbelief of seeing him, all she could do was respond instinctively:

 “Yes!”

The immediate blush that came to her cheeks, the moistness that she suddenly felt in her eyes, the the involuntary radiance that materialised as a smile on her face, however strong she now felt in herself, every other thought just fizzled away after the single action of the man she’d had such intense feelings for, for so long, asking her on what sounded like… a date? That’s even what he’d called it.

A date. 

In the meantime, she had so many questions, and to that end, serious doubts.  What was Jim doing back in Scranton so early? Where was Karen? Did one of them get the job? Why did he call it a date? Was he going to tell her he was moving to New York, and this was some sort of consolation dinner? OK, you’re jumping way ahead of yourself, Beesly. No doubt she’d find out about all that later, but for now she was simply stunned.

The camera crew took in Jim’s room invasion and her subsequent reaction with glee. They had all the footage they needed and decided to let Pam go there and then - this was going to be absolute dynamite when it came to air. From their perspective, they could not have scripted a better segment. The production team’s only regret was that they were about to hit an eight-week filming hiatus, so they would just have to wait until after the break to see how everything panned out.

Before she left the room, a happily shell-shocked Pam took a moment to compose herself, taking a few deep breaths and schooling her features to something less stupefied. She took herself back to her reception desk where she sat for a moment, still processing what had just happened. It wasn’t long before Jim reappeared from the direction of the break room with a couple of cans of grape soda and an almighty grin on his face. He leant over the desk slightly in a way he hadn’t really done in a year, giving her one of the sodas he did, his hand lingering for just a moment as he handed it to her. He spoke clearly, but quietly and discreetly, for her ears only.

“So Beesly, is six-thirty OK to pick you up? Text me your address.”

“Sure.” She noted the cans, including the one being passed to her and her eyes flicked up to his, smiling gently at him. “Thank you. You back on the grape soda now?”

“Yep. I’ve really missed these… and I feel that now is the time to reaffirm my feelings for…” he paused for a moment and locked eyes with her, “grape soda.”

“Oh. I see.” Her smile took on a slightly mischievous quality. “Good to know."

***

Pam bounced on her heels in front of the bedroom mirror, fussing over invisible threads that were clearly not actually hanging down from any real seams. She was about to go out on a date, as a bona-fide single woman, with a man who’d been the focus of her dreams for years (no point in kidding herself anymore, she’d been fighting those feelings for Jim long before she’d left Roy) and there was nothing wrong with appreciating that fact. Denial was definitely only a river in Africa these days, she reminded herself dryly.

As her alarm clock flicked over to 6.19pm, Pam was putting the finishing touches to some light make-up and clothes she’d weighed up as between ‘casual’ and ‘dressed to get Jim’s attention’, even though she wasn’t entirely sure exactly what was going on between them. Clearly, there was something going on between them now. There was no way he’d have called it a date otherwise, nor made what was clearly a loaded comment as he’d handed her one of those sodas. She expected that something fundamental had shifted, he’d indicated as such, but until it was clear, there was no way she was going to be the ‘other woman’; although to be fair, that had never been Jim’s style before. It couldn’t hurt to make a bit of an effort either way though, just in case, to let him know what he was missing.

She’d taken out her barrette and combed her fingers through her curls, letting her hair cascade down her shoulders. She was going to brush and blow-dry out her hair some more before clipping it back in, but then vaguely recalled letting her hair down once in the office to show Kelly how she was thinking of styling it for her wedding. Before Michael had commented in typically creepy fashion, out of the corner of her eye, as she’d tried precisely not to make eye contact with Jim, her eyes had flicked to him for a brief moment out of habit and he’d definitely noticed. He’d looked haunted; she’d later recognised it in herself in the past few months whilst he’d been dating Karen – that look was burned in her brain.

With that look on her mind, her barrette was put in the drawer for the night, and she put the diffuser onto her hair dryer to move her look from just 'messy' to tousled ‘Meg Ryan circa 1989’. In the end she’d gone with slim-fit jeans and a V-neck t-shirt that just dipped enough to suggest a little cleavage without being what she would have considered slutty on a first date, even though it was Jim. Pam had a moment where her inner self-judgemental Angela glimpsed out, but shoved her back into the nearest available crevice immediately.  She expected that he may not even think of this as their first date, she remembered; thinking back to a flirtatious lunch at Cugino’s, a drunken kiss at Chilli’s, a night on a rooftop with grilled cheese sandwiches that had been far more romantic than it should have been, but for her, this was absolutely their first date. No fiancés. No girlfriends. No barriers.

She carried a fairly heavyweight cardigan as the temperature would likely drop to the high forties, as it often still did on a Pennsylvanian May night. This was all paired with some black kitten heels to give herself an extra inch of height but not feel like she was tottering about. She was not a high-heels person.

Pam stared at her reflection critically; but struggled to find anything wrong. Hair, clothes, makeup - all were pretty damn near perfect. She had to admit to herself: she looked great. She realised that she felt confident... and she didn’t have a clue what to expect from the evening. Keep an open mind, Beesly, she told herself out loud. She wandered into her living room, sat on the sofa, picked up an art book from her coffee table and started to leaf through it, trying to ignore the nervous tension coursing through her body.

***

Pam didn’t have to wait more than a few moments before the doorbell rang and as she opened the door right on six-thirty, she found a far more nervous-looking Jim than three hours earlier, holding a pretty bunch of mixed tulips. His eyes lit up at seeing her. He looked extremely cute with his hair cut all tidy and an expectant look on his face. He’d changed into a more casual shirt and had his sleeves rolled back up in that way that had always driven her crazy. God, she'd missed that. She tried not to look too dazzled at the handsomely pleasing view.

There was a moment where they just gazed at one another, each taking in what was in front of them.

“Oh,” Jim held out the flowers, seemly remembering why he was there. “These are for you. You look great, by the way”, he added earnestly.

“Thank you.” Whilst what she really wanted to do was pull him in through the front door and kiss him senseless, it was way too early to make the assumption that this was an option, but Pam figured it wouldn’t hurt to be a little forward, especially seeing as they’d hugged a few days before at the beach and re-established something approaching a semblance of their friendship again. The way he’d looked at her upon his arrival added another piece to this confusing jigsaw. She decided to take the chance, reached up to pop a gentle kiss on his cheek, and she noticed that he blushed a little in response.

“You wanna come in for a sec while I put these in a vase?”

“Sure, thanks.” Jim followed her through the door and she heard him shut it carefully behind him. She walked into her kitchen, opening a cupboard and taking out a vase that she filled with water and carefully popped the flowers in, absent-mindedly arranging them about a little before putting the whole ensemble on her dining table, where they sat, looking suitably cheery as she admired them with a warm feeling.

“These are lovely, thank you Jim.”

“I saw them and just thought that, as an artist, you’d like the colours”, he said, sincerity in his tone. She smiled at him again, though there was a slightly awkward silence and nervous smiles whilst they both waited for the other to say something next. Jim broke first. “Um…so you ready to go?”

“Sure. Let me just grab my purse?”

“OK.” He looked around the room. “You have a nice place, just the one kitchen, but it’ll do!” he called after her, hearing her laugh. Jim glanced down the hall towards her bedroom.  “No guided tour tonight though?” He sounded hopeful.

“Well, you’ve seen most of it. It’s a one-bedroom apartment,” she chuckled. “You can see the rest another time…” Pam called back up the hall to him. She knew she had been guilty of playing flirtatious games with Jim in the past, but freed herself from blame by putting it down to their status as 'best friends' and the ‘harmless banter' that came along with that. In retrospect, she realized that that had been the very defence mechanism she had employed to avoid dealing with her ever growing feelings for him.

*** 

Soon after leaving Roy, her parents promising her that they’d help her find her own apartment, Pam had sat, a little tearfully, in her childhood bedroom, where she would stay for a couple of weeks whilst she got herself organised.  She’d reflected that for far too long she’d used Jim as a more-than-willing surrogate for all the parts of the relationship that Roy had failed at.  In truth, within a few months of their first meeting, he’d become her crutch for just about the entire relationship - minus the sex, not that Roy was particularly good at that either, but that was a line she would never cross. By the time she’d made that startling realisation, Jim was long gone, and Pam could not summon the courage to reach out and tell him any of these revelations.

She’d been right that night at the beach. She shouldn’t have been with Roy for the longest time, and she’d taken way too long to admit that to herself.  Jim professing his love for her at the Casino night had only exposed her own very screwed-up feelings in a sudden and dramatic way that she was just not ready to confront then and there. He was asking her to do something that she just wasn’t ready for.  It had been way too raw to deal with all at once, so she did what she did best back then - avoided dealing with something substantive in her old cowardly way, and the last year had been littered with the painful scars of that great decision. Now she really wanted to find out where she stood before he broke her heart again, or worse still, she broke his. They’d been too good at doing that to each other.

Something had clearly happened today in New York, but she didn’t want to misinterpret anything. She checked her purse and made sure the Shrute Buck she’d saved was in there, as she’d grabbed one on her way out of the office that afternoon specifically to show him.  As he walked her to his car, he suddenly stopped dead in his tracks and gently took her arm, turning her toward him. He gazed at her intently in a way that she hadn’t seen for a long time, since the night at the makeshift Casino. Like back then, it was directed at her. He took a deep breath. She sensed something seismic was coming. She wasn’t wrong.

“So you should know, I’m not with Karen anymore. I just thought I should clear that up that before we go out tonight.”  The words seemed to burst out of him, like their discharge into the air was the cleanser that removed a toxin that had been stuck inside him. He seemed to relax a little after he’d said it, like a pressure valve had been released.

“OK.” Pam couldn’t suppress a relieved grin, which Jim returned. That broke the ice and answered at least one of her many questions.

***

After they’d got into his car and he started the ignition, they’d stuck to small talk, really to ease themselves both back further into their friendship. They quickly fell into step again, sharing observations and jokes, it felt very natural and once again Pam remembered how much she’d missed their conversations.

“So where are we going?” She asked, gazing out of the window as the streets passed by them.

“Sibio’s in Dunmore.”

“That’s a nice place!” she exclaimed, “Great desserts. That’s always been a Birthdays, Graduations or ‘I passed my Piano exam’ kinda place. Are we celebrating something?” He reached across the console and let his fingers brush over hers for a moment before retracting his hand.

“Yeah. I think we are.” This time, she noticed as Jim smiled to himself, and then glanced across at her in surprise as he took in her previous sentence more thoughtfully. “Wait a second. You played piano…?”

***

“Segnore, Segnora; just a few minutes for your table, please take a seat at the bar. You can take your drinks over with you” the maitre’d advised them as he showed them to a couple of bar stools.

Be careful, Beesly, you have a bad track record on bar stools, or rather falling off them…” Jim sniggered and prodded her gently in the arm. Pam mock glared at him. She had a flash of a moment a long time ago when she’d brazenly kissed him, completely unaware of the impact or significance of doing so. She found herself wanting to repeat that again in the very near future and blushed accordingly, noting Jim’s broad smile as she did. The fact he noticed her blushing was not lost on her.

They ordered drinks and were given menus to peruse. Pam put her drink down on a brightly-coloured, square-shaped coaster with comfortingly rounded corners.

“Oh My God, Jim – they have beets on the menu!” Pam exclaimed as she looked at the gallery of pictures on the back page inside the padded folder.

“That is hilarious! We should ask Dwight if he supplies this restaurant. There must be a prank in there somewhere. We should think of something.” They exchanged a contented look of shared knowledge before they both glanced back at the menu.

“So, anything you fancy?”

“Not the beets”, Jim said flatly. She laughed at him and went back to the menu.

“There are a lot of nice things here”, Pam commented absent-mindedly after another few moments of reading the options, then looked back up to find Jim gazing at her.

“Yes, there are. Some really nice things.” He put his hand over hers like he’d done in the car, but this time kept his hand there. She didn’t pull away and was compelled to lock her eyes back to his. “A lot of things I’d like to try…”

“Really?”

“Yeah.” Jim’s tone had drifted an octave lower, his hand now caressing her the soft skin on her palm, his eyes never leaving hers.

“What were you thinking of first?” she asked expectantly.

“Well, I thought maybe we could start with something light…” she looked at him intently as he spoke, glancing up and down between his eyes and his mouth.

“And then?”

“And then move on to something more substantial…” like marriage and babies and about fifty or sixty years of blissful happiness together. She finished that sentence in her head, wondering if he was thinking the same. The way he started to lean in closer and his eyes briefly flicked down to her lips too, she decided it was definitely a possibility and she found herself leaning in toward him, too.

There was a polite cough from behind them.

“Your table is ready.” Jim and Pam pulled apart like guilty teenagers and smiled sheepishly at each other. Pam picked up her drink and for no particular reason other than she’d grown attached to it, her coaster as well.  They followed the Maitre’d to the table. Jim’s free hand didn’t leave the small of Pam’s back the entire time. 

***

“I didn’t tell you, for a short time today I was Secret Assistant to the Regional Manager! Dwight was hilarious today. I missed you actually, you’d have loved it. He made these.”

“You missed me, huh?” Jim smirked.

“Yeah, I did.” She responded plainly, before breaking into a small smile herself. Pam reached down for her purse and pulled out the Shrute Buck she’d saved from earlier.

“Really? Congratulations!” Pam handed Jim the Shrute buck, which he examined carefully. “Holy crap, he put way too much thought into this”, Jim pondered, seemingly quite impressed with what he was seeing.

“Yeah. It was awesome.” Pam proceeded to tell Jim about her day, Dwight’s “History of Paper” lecture that had been surprisingly informative, her pact with what turned out to be the temporary manager; and Andy and Dwight painting Michael’s office black, all in great and animated detail. She suddenly stopped when she realised he was gazing at her with rapt attention.

“What is it? Do I have something on my face?” He shook his head and smiled at her adoringly. Time seemingly stopped. She thought her heart had done the same, the way he was looking at her.

“I absolutely wanna hear about the rest of this, I mean, this is amazing…  probably enough material for several dinners in fact… but I should probably tell you about what happened in New York today.”

“Uh, OK.” She tried to sound nonchalant and failed miserably. “So, how was the interview?” She started to fiddle with the coaster again, just within reach on the table. In the “old” days, when she was engaged to Roy, Pam would often fidget with her engagement ring. That had happened a lot around Jim, she later realised, because she never felt truly comfortable wearing it in front of him. Another sign that those pesky feelings had been hidden in plain sight for a lot longer that she’d admitted. After the ring had gone, it had been replaced by various other objects that would come into her possession. Office supplies had been a favourite to be folded, unfolded and deconstructed, conveniently on tap for eight hours a day, every Monday to Friday. Tonight’s coaster was just another surrogate.

“That went well, actually. Wallace is actually a great guy, terrible taste in sports teams though” Jim chuckled. “It was going great… was a very easy conversation, then he asked to see my sales figures. When I opened my folder, I found this…” and out of his back pocket, he pulled out a familiar looking note and gazed at it, then back at her, the amused smirk she had formed dropping away as she realised just how much love was in his eyes. His voice dropped deeper. “When I saw it, I had a moment of clarity – actually, it was more total distraction to the point where I actually lost my entire train of thought.” He chuckled. “David asked me what I’d miss about Scranton. I told him it was the friendships. Then he asked me about what I wanted in ten years’ time.” Jim’s eyes started to glaze over, just a little.  “All I could think about was our talk at the beach the other day and how proud I was of you for that fire walk, then a million things about you that I love went through my head all at once, and what I’d miss if I left again. Nothing else mattered anymore. I knew I had to come home, so I asked him to remove me from consideration then and there. That’s what you do to me, Beesly.” He gave her the warmest smile and his cheeks reddened, not for the first time that evening.

Pam’s jaw dropped to the floor. What she’d intended with that note was a genuine sign of friendship and affection, she hadn’t expected this. The irony of Karen making her produce all those copies of their documents in the first place fleetingly crossed her mind, Karma coming back to bite Karen on the butt; but even if she’d have wanted to, her mouth was still too fixed open in surprise to change her expression.

Ultimately though, all she was really able to focus on were the words “a million things I love about you”. Beesly, he didn’t say he actually loved you yet.

“I left the office, met up with Karen - because I promised her I would… and broke up with her then and there.”  

Pam stared at him, trying to take it all in a huge amount of potentially life-changing information. She knew he’d told her that he’d split with Karen before they’d even gotten in the car tonight, but the reality of what he was telling her as to how and where it happened was giving her a lot more insight.  If he actually was saying what she thought he was saying, then her world was about to flip on its head. She couldn’t quite believe it. She couldn’t have scripted it any better. She didn’t dare dream.

“Oh.” Was all she could utter.

“She was pretty pissed off.  I offered her a lift back, but she’s decided to stay with her friends, I don’t know when she’s coming back. I’m kind of relieved if I’m honest as that drive would have been awkward.” He pulled a typical Jim smile and a shrug. “Not to mention the fact she called me several choice names that were probably what I deserved. I don’t think there’s any coming back from that.”

“I can imagine.” Pam managed to mumble. Her expression was caught somewhere between shocked and elated. She really couldn’t hide her feelings terribly well anymore when it came to him.

“Yep. We went out last night in the city and I’ll admit, we had a lot of fun, but in that moment, when I stared at my medal, I knew that I didn’t love her, I didn’t want that life.  What she wanted for me, for her – I’m not a big city guy. When I left Scranton… well, you know what I told you at the beach. When I came back… I tried so hard to move on, Pam, I really did. I admit, Karen was always a pleasant distraction, she was very interested, and I was really hurt. She’s not a bad person.”

She finally broke eye contact with him and looked down at the coaster she was still fidgeting in her hand. Pam felt a little guilty on one level. Jim was right, Karen really wasn’t a bad person. She’d just got caught in the crossfire of an extremely poorly timed, but monumentally huge love story.

“Hey.” He put his finger under her chin and gingerly lifted it back up so her eyes could meet his again and continued. “I lied to myself over and over that I didn’t care anymore, that I’d moved on. I did everything I could to avoid us having anything like we’d had before, because it was easier to pretend you meant nothing to me anymore. Then I saw you at Phyllis’s wedding and you looked so pretty…”

Pam nodded. She remembered that night far too well. It had been a nadir in their relationship, the moment when she thought she’d really lost him forever. She didn’t know that he’d had his heart broken again as he watched her leave.

“But then it all seemed to go to crap again, and you left with Roy. So I pushed myself further into the relationship with Karen to keep myself as far away from you as possible. And yes, I was a total jerk about you and Roy, because I was hurting that I’d painted myself into a corner.”  

He sighed and chuckled humourlessly, shaking his head.  “The fact is, that I could never truly move on whilst we were both in Scranton.” He took the coaster out of her hand and put it on the table, and took her hand in his instead, gently rubbing the point where her thumb and index finger met.

“I thought that the New York job might have been that final chance, once and for all. Even Karen said it last night – that there were one too many people in Scranton.”

She felt her heart starting to race at his words and the way he was touching her.

“The thing is though, Pam… I mean,” Jim’s eyes flicked down at her lips for a moment and back up again. “How can you have a successful relationship with somebody… when you’re still in love with someone else?” Pam nodded sagely at him as once again, they started to pull together like opposing poles.

Just then, of course, the food arrived, another moment was lost. However, now gazes were shared, hands were held between courses. It was Pam’s turn to talk, and Jim seemed to be happy to listen. She earnestly spoke of the relief that he was back; yes, it had been a horrible year; and yes, her feelings for him were for way more than friendship.

They shared some basic hopes for the coming weeks and established that this wasn’t going to be the only night they did this. Aside from the handholding and a lot of long, lingering looks, it was all very chaste, but the point was that they were talking like they hadn’t done in a year… and talking about a future together.

With her hands resting in Jim’s for much of dinner after his confession of love, the coaster had been given some respite from Pam’s restless fingers. The corners now frayed, and the image partially peeled away, she found herself picking it up and putting it in her purse. For some reason she sensed it could be a cherished souvenir of their first date that many years later, she would one day show their children with a dreamy sense of fondness when she looked back.

She knew there would be a lot of talking over the coming days and weeks (maybe even months, as they navigated this new beginning) but she wanted to enjoy the night for what it was, too. So, after dinner was over they agreed to head over to a nearby bar, a few minutes’ walk away, and left Jim’s car in the parking lot.

They’d made it about halfway there when Pam stopped dead in the street.  They’d held hands from the moment they’d left the restaurant, but after their confessions, she felt compelled to move things on a little.

“Jim.”

“Pam?” Jim was definitely confused.

“I wanted to thank you for dinner.” And with no further ceremony, she reached up and kissed him firmly and precisely on the lips for several seconds. She pulled back enough to give him the appropriate eye contact. With a glint in her eye, she addressed him.

“I never said this properly tonight, but I want you to know that I’m really glad we’re doing this.”

"Fancy New Beesly, huh?” Jim chuckled, amused at her boldness, but also delighted.

“Yep.”

“Not holding back?”

“Nope. I speak as I find, Halpert.”

“OK.”

“OK.”

***

Matching grins on their faces, they finally made it to the bar, where they found a booth in a fairly dark corner and they were able to sit right up against each other, watching the world go by.  Jim’s arm went round her shoulder immediately and she snuggled into him, resting her hand on his knee. It was a surreal feeling being like this with him having waited so long. They whispered to each other, giggling and flirting, by now the awkwardness long gone. Then, finally, a moment when they caught each other’s eyes, no-one to interrupt them, all bets were off and they finally, properly, kissed.

Pam’s mind pretty much exploded. He was even better than she could remember. Her heart was somewhere in her stomach, which in turn was turning somersaults.

“Wow” was all she could manage, fairly breathlessly, when nitrogen and oxygen intake began to be a problem and they had to reluctantly break apart, their foreheads left gently pressed together.

“Yeah” was all Jim could manage back. Apparently, he’d had a similar reaction.  A moment passed – Pam really wasn’t sure how long, before she found herself participating in another heated kiss that seemed to go on even longer than the first. One kiss turned into two, into three, into four.

This repeated, kisses becoming longer and more passionate each time, hands starting to roam more freely, before Jim finally failed to stifle a yawn.

“Am I boring you?” Asked Pam rather mischievously. She knew he was tired.

“Sorry.” Jim smiled back apologetically. “It’s just been a long day.” 

Pam didn’t want the night to end. However, she also knew Jim had had a long drive back and with everything that had taken place, it had been emotionally exhausting for both of them.

“Probably time to go home.” She responded reassuringly, giving him a gentle peck on his lips. He nodded in agreement.

“Thanks.”

***

The ride back to her apartment was fairly quiet, but Pam noted how Jim’s hand was mainly situated on her knee the entire journey (thank goodness he was driving an automatic) and in turn she kept her hand on his. As they got out of the car, he walked around to her door and pulled her, willingly, out of the car, walking her to her doorstep with their hands clasped, where he set her a step up in front of him. He leaned in to kiss her, wrapping his arms around her, which she facilitated without hesitation. After a few moments of a passionate embrace, she pulled back, looked deep into his eyes and stroked his temple with one hand whilst the other remained around the back of his neck. Jim still had his arms wrapped around her slim waist.

“You know I really want to ask you in.”

“Yeah.” He gazed at her dreamily.

“And you know I can’t… yet. It’s just… ” she thought hard to try to find the best way to say the words without offending him, but the facts were right in front of them. “…You were still with Karen twelve hours ago, Jim.”

“I know.” He looked at her regretfully, but with complete understanding.

“So you know where I’m going with this.” Jim nodded as Pam continued. “We’ve waited this long… another little while won’t hurt. I really want to date you, Jim. Like… seriously date you. Like filling in corporate forms level dating.”

He couldn’t help but pull her in just enough to kiss her on the nose at that statement and she grinned at him, still stroking his face. “I want it all with you. I just think we need a little time before we take things further. I really want this, but I want it without any more complications. It doesn’t have to be super-slow, but not a few hours after you were waking up with someone else.”

“Me too.” They shared a very intense gaze, still wrapped together. “I get it. I want to get this right. I mean, this is it for me.” Pam’s heart leapt yet again.  And you know, this is going to be EPIC, Beesly.” He grinned at her.

“I know. A love story for our times.”

“Romeo and Juliet have nothing on us.”

“Anthony and Cleopatra.”

“Bonnie and Clyde.”

“Hitler and Eva Braun.”

“Oh My God, Beesly! So I’ll see you tomorrow. Maybe we can do this again?”

“I’ll see you tomorrow, Halpert. Yeah, another date.” She grinned at him as he leaned in and pecked her on the lips again. With that, Jim, his own grin still splitting his face, finally walked back to his car.  

***

Pam played with the coaster still in her hand and considered its place in her universe. Tonight had felt like the end of a long journey, but she was grateful at the thought that another was just beginning.