Pam was driving, the snow was falling as the winter season was well underway in Scranton, as she drove her mind was numb from just another day at the office doing secretarial work at least Christmas was just around the corner, in fact it will have been 8 years since she started at Dunder Mifflin. She was looking forward to the winter holidays the joy of the season. At least she had Jim Halpert to make the day go by quicker. He was sort of like her ray of sunshine. Her fiancé and high school Roy kept pushing off marriage and seemed distant recently, "It must be running its course" she thought depressed. She was the artsy type and he was more of the jock type. Sometimes opposite don't attract she thought.
As she pulled into the offices of Dunder Mifflin and walked up the flight of stairs and opened the door she was shocked to see Michael in a Santa suit shouting "Merry Christmas, Pamela, it's me Santa Clause, you have been a very good girl this year" Michael exclaimed. Teasing Pam while moving onto the next employee, Pam sighed while shrugging her shoulders and looking at Jim who was smiling, she laughed just to please Michael, lord knows he meant well and usually he cheered her up with his spontaneity but she was just not in the mood today to deal with it. She walked up to Jim.
"Hey Jim, early merry Christmas" she smiled at him happy to have some familiarity and truth be told that she was happier around Jim then with her fiancé Roy. "Do you have any plans for Christmas?"
"Not much just going to visit my parents in Philadelphia and just going do the traditional family bowling exercise" he smiled at her "The exciting life of Jim Halpert, what are you up to?" this caused Pam to giggle
"Well be prepared to be wowed by the life of Pam Beasley/Anderson if I ever get married. Well we are going to Ohio to visit Roy's parents and then back to Scranton to see my parents. Sort of like our road trip/vacation for the year" she shrugged seeming bored with the idea, it is what they have been doing for the past 4 years and she kept trying to get a big reunion of both families, but it seemed that the parents were stubborn. "Roy has been saying that they want us to move to Ohio so were closer, we've been fighting about it recently, anyway let's enjoy the party" she let out a loud expression of excitement trying to get her mind off the troubles she was facing. She grabbed a beer to help her relax
"Wow Pam, The party planning committee really pulled off another success this year, I got my cat a picture with Santa" Angela shoved the picture into Pam's face with the ferocity of a proud cat lady.
"Wow cool she looks so happy" Pam said politely taking another sip of her drink, wondering how her life had become working at a paper company as a secretary in Scranton Pennsylvania. She was already approaching 30 and was disappointed in her life, she took another sip of the beer as Angela scolded her "Beer is bad for you, you obviously don't care about you physical health. Not surprising Roy is not rushing to marry you" she smirked and walked away.
Pam blushed and stormed into the conference room to get away before she boiled over and said something she regretted to Angela, she could be so snobbish. Guess it was the territory of being a cat lady Pam thought.
She looked out for Jim trying to grab his attention, but he was occupied with Dwight and Michael who were playing the annual Santa bingo game. Jim gave her a look and she nodded. He excused himself to go see her.
"Hey, you don't seem to be enjoying yourself tonight, is everything okay? You can talk to me about anything" he said with a tone of worry and it showed on his face. He took the beer away from her.
"I-I just Angela got me thinking, what have I become. I mean Jim look at me I am 30 and my life has gone nowhere since I left high school and my finance has been meaning to marry me for years, YEARS! Heck we won the Dundie for the longest engagement it is so embarrassing!" she felt overwhelmed with emotion but was also blushing as she rarely allowed herself to get this emotional around Jim "I am sorry" she admitted defeated
"Hey, its okay Pam, besides I think you are an amazing person who has accomplished a lot in her life. A lot more then Angela who is the #1 cat lady I know. You are more then just a secretary at Dunder Mifflin. You are an amazing artist and the work that you produce is some of the best I have ever seen. You are awesome at sports, you beat us guys at soccer and badminton. That's with Phyllis on your team too" he giggled trying to cheer Pam up leaning in he gave her a hug rubbing her back to calm her down. He was usually nicer about his co-workers but knew that it was just friendly ribbing. He felt her muscles relax signalling that he had done the job that he set out to do. Just at that moment Roy barged in
"What do you think you're doing Jimmy boy?" he pushed Jim off Pam causing him to defensively back off. "Come on Pam we're leaving we got a big day tomorrow traveling, Jim I don't want to see you around Pam for awhile" he snatched Pam's hand, Pam looked back at Jim apologetically. The next thing Jim saw when he looked out the window was Pam and Roy driving off, the muffler could be heard from the top floor of the office building.
"Its okay Jim, Roy's just overprotective of Pam and is sensitive which means he makes a bigger deal out of everything, I guess those psychology classes paid off in first year university" Oscar laughed slapping Jim's shoulder in camaraderie manner
Jim patted him on the shoulder back but was not focusing too much on the situation, his mind was dull thinking about how each time he got close to Pam he was reminded they were stuck in the "friend zone"
In the background Michael could be heard singing Don't Stop by Fleetwood Mac on the karaoke machine "Don't stop thinking about tomorrow" he sang loudly dancing around with the microphone. Michael always got into the holiday spirt even if it was not a holiday song. That's the one of the things he admired about Michael was his ability to stay positive even if it was in his own unique way
It was just another Christmas at Duder Mifflin Jim thought…
