Thought of this idea two days ago, and for some reason thought it was hilarious and sad at the same time. Who knew? Anyways, I hope you like. It's short, I know.
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, ect are the property of their rightful owners. Which isn't me.
She hadn't always been so safe, so timid. At one point she had wanted to go to art school. But, then again she'd wanted to marry Roy Anderson.
Roy Anderson outweighed art school.
So when he told her she should get the job at Dunder-Mifflin, she obliged. Her dream was definitely not to work so close to her fiancé, but when he has the only car your options are limited.
She organized her desk and met the workers there, helped throw parties and slowly learned more and more about how this place worked. Phyllis gossips. Kevin passes along untrue information. Angela judges. Dwight protects(?). Stanley ignores. Oscar observes. Kelly talks. Creed, well, Creeded. Meredith drank. Michael made insensitive and sexist jokes, and Toby wrote them all down.
Pam Beesly was the one who transferred calls and helped Michael throw funerals for birds. It was all she came to know, after a couple years.
Doodles on napkins, while the automatic voice mail tallied up what she would be doing the next hour. Days worth of solitaire. The same shirts, skirts, comments, hairstyles. She never once uttered the word "perfect" and it wasn't uncommon for it to go weeks before she smiled in the workplace.
And then, it happened.
She didn't fall for him right away. It was such an accident that nobody could blame her.
He came in, that brown bag slung around his tall, thin frame. His hair was messy, but in a good way. A "I just want to run my fingers through it and make it even messier" way.
The smile, oh, God, the smile. It was lopsided and charming. She suddenly felt like maybe this was what the office needed. A smile that wasn't Michael's after a "that's what she said" joke.
"How can I help you?" she'd asked. One funny comment later and it was like they both had reasons to go in to work. Smiles and jokes and her watching him mock Dwight, every day.
Soon, Creed thought they were an item. Oscar noticed the spark. Kevin thought they were banging each other. Stanley never cared, but he listened to Phyllis talk about the "secret office romance" for hours on end. Michael was oblivious, but that's how they wanted it.
Hell, everyone thought they were dating, but Pam was engaged. Engaged to a warehouse worker who would not like to know just how much time she spent laughing with Jim Halpert.
So the covered her feelings with jokes and he pranked Dwight to make her laugh. They carried on the little dance until he said everything. And there it was.
Sure, it took them another year of regretted relationships and tears but it finally happened. They went out to dinner. He bought her ring a week later and it wasn't long before she was holding him in the rain, gasping after an impromptu proposal.
And that is what she has to thank Roy for.
This is what she realizes while laying in bed, making his arm move because she's grazing her fingers along his elbow. The fan hums and she can see the dim outline of a cradle beside their bed.
Because if it hadn't been for Roy telling Pam to get a job at Dunder-Mifflin, she wouldn't have been the receptionist who greeted their newest salesman, Jim Halpert.
If only Roy had let her go to art school instead.
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