Sometimes he would yell at her, when he had too much to drink. It seemed that that happened more and more often lately. He would tell her that she didn't deserve him and that she should feel lucky that he was stooping down to her level. He would yell that after nine years of being with just him, she didn't have the guts to be alone.
Her art was something he laughed at. He would see her drawings and snatch them from her. He'd toss them in the trash, a reminisce of his football days. His "days of glory", he'd slur when he was a nicer drunk.
One day after a particularly wonderful day at the office when she and Jim had played a really good prank on Dwight involving jumbo paper clips, a glue gun, and his memo pad, she thought she had the guts. That she was finally ready to leave.
Pam left work early, knowing that Roy was going to Poor Richard's with Kenny after work, and that he wouldn't be in the mood to 'talk' later. She was better off just getting away, going to her mom's house...or Jim's. He was her confidant, but she wouldn't dare tell him this. That was something else Roy couldn't stand. He barely let her have that one friend, the one person who kept her from blowing her brains out from just living life. Jim cared about Pam, maybe too much, and she...well, she didn't know how she felt about him. But Roy couldn't take Jim away from her. She just couldn't let him do that.
That night, as Pam was hurriedly stuffing as many of her belongings into her raggedy brown suitcase as was humanely possible, she heard the front door click as Roy fumbled to stick the key in the lock. He must have come back early. She couldn't let him see her packing, or else who knew what he would do.
Pam pulled as many clothes as she could out of her suitcase and threw them back into the drawers. Then she hastily slid the suitcase underneath her bed and pasted on a plastic smile, pretending to be happy that her fiance was coming home, pretending that they loved each other, pretending that she didn't really want the guy who was sitting in a home miles away, probably watching Seinfeld and having a grape soda while she allowed a few tears to fall down her face.