In a way, Beach day was kind of like the time Michael and Dwight were out signing on Michael's condo, so Jim and Pam got everyone to participate in the "Office Olympics." Everyone was spending company time playing silly games that somehow didn't lead to the downfall of the small paper company in Scranton Pennsylvania. This time, however, Pam Beesly was having a lot less fun. Michael had assigned her to the job of taking notes, when really all she wanted to do was sit on the beach with her best friend and enjoy a paid day off. Of course, Michael asking her to write notes didn't change the fact that her best friend was no longer her best friend, and even worse, the fact that her best friend, who she had called off her wedding because of, was now dating some other girl. Pam couldn't fault him for dating her- she had shot him down. She shouldn't have. And maybe Pam would never get Jim, but the Pam who left Roy was a new Pam: a Pam who tried her hardest to get what she wanted, and right now she wanted to cross the damn coals Michael told her she couldn't, and she wanted her best friend back. Inhaling as if the smoky air would give her courage, she crossed the coals.
"Holy shit, I did it," was her first thought, but as her dazzingly white proud smile subsided to the searing white-hot pain in her feet, the thought immediately after was "Holy shit, my feet hurt."
Shaking her head as if the pain would by some miracle go with it, she marched over to where the rest of coworkers were sitting and started talking before giving herself a chance to stop.
"Hey! I want to say something," Pam began. "I've been trying to be more honest lately and I just need to say a few things. I did the coal walk! Just, I did it! Michael, you couldn't even do that," she said, laughing a little at her own bravery. "Maybe I should be your boss? Wow, I feel really good right now. Why didn't any of you come to my art show? I invited all of you. That really sucked. It's like sometimes some of you act like I don't even exist." She paused, but willed herself to continue.
"Jim, I called off my wedding because of you. And now we're not even friends. And things are just like weird between us, and that sucks. And I miss you. You were my best friend before you went to Stamford, and I really miss you. I shouldn't have been with Roy. And there were a lot of reasons to call off my wedding. But the truth is, I didn't care about any of those reasons until I met you. And now you're with someone else. And that's... fine. It's... whatever." Pam said, knowing that "fine" wasn't really the right word, and tripping up because of it. "That's not what... I'm not... Okay, my feet really hurt. The thing that I'm just trying to say to you, Jim... and to everyone else in this circle I guess, is that I miss having fun with you. Just you, not everyone in the circle. Okay, I am going to go walk in the water now. Yeah." Wishing she had ended on a stronger note, she trotted off to the lake, the cool water relieving her feet. After a moment, she felt a hand tap her shoulder. Turning around, she saw Jim's lanky figure behind hers.
"Hey," she smiled.
"Hey," he smiled back. "That was…really brave of you, Pam. That was amazing. The girl I left in Scranton never would've done that for herself."
"Yeah, well, I don't want to be the girl you left in Scranton anymore," Pam said, knowing full well that her sentence had a double meaning.
"So then who do you want to be?" Jim asked, his voice serious now.
"The girl you came back for."