The Screening

By Teala373

Chapter 4: Avoidance, Lunch, then Dinner

As the truck pulled into the parking space, Pam blinked, and looked around confused.

"I can't believe we're here again," she mumbled dejectedly.

Roy looked at her with concern. "Are you okay? You've been out of it all weekend."

"And you've just been out," Pam bit back as she exited the truck.

Roy jogged around to the other side and gently took her arm. "Hey, hey! What's the matter?"

Pam looked up at him and found herself able to meet his eye confidently. "Why don't you ever want to spend time with me?"

Roy closed his eyes for a moment as he exhaled loudly through his nose. "Do you really want to start this now?"

Pam wretched her arm free and stomped off, ignoring Roy calling after her.

Pam spent the next two days avoiding Jim, who seemed to also be avoiding her. She stopped trying to talk to Roy, even when he skipped his bowling night to take her out to a nice restaurant for dinner.

She was tired and frustrated. She was restless and agitated. She was so many things, but she didn't know what to do.

'I can't just start over. I can't just leave everything behind,' she thought to herself as she packed her lunch for the following day. Suddenly, and idea hit her. Without bothering to tell Roy, who was engrossed in a basketball game on TV, she grabbed her purse and jumped in her car. She returned moments later with a few bags from the grocery store. She sat down in front of the computer, which had come with a free web cam. Pam had never used it, but now, she had a good reason to.

"Hey, Jim!" Pam called out as Jim walked in the door.

"Hey, Beesley," Jim called back, confused by her overly chipper attitude.

Settling into his desk, Jim sighed and wrestled with his daily dilemma of whether or not to tell Pam about the DVD the film crew had sent him.

Over the course of the morning, Jim caught a few stares from Pam. Each time he looked up, she smiled at him and giggled a little to herself before turning back to her work.

'I can't believe I ever tried to get her out of my system,' he thought to himself before turning back to his sales report.

It was several minutes later, at exactly 11:45, when his computer alerted him to a new e-mail. Toggling over to his inbox, Jim smiled, seeing that it was from Pam. He opened it and was greeted with an invitation.

"pbeesley1 has sent you video mail. Press play to view your message."

Looking up, Jim saw that Pam wasn't at her desk. He was surprised that she had slipped past him so easily. Shrugging, he pulled out his headphones and plugged them into his computer before pressing play.

Pam appeared on the screen, sitting in what looked like a little a small alcove in a kitchen. "Hi Jim," she smiled, "right now, I should be in the break room. Pause this video, then turn and make sure I am there."

Swiveling in his chair, Jim turned and saw Pam standing in the break room, happily munching away on a familiar looking sandwich. She waved at him before going to take a seat at one of the back tables.

"Oh this should be good," he muttered to himself as he resumed the video.

"As you could see," the Pam in the video continued, "I am eating your lunch."

Jim's eyes widened. He thought that sandwich had looked familiar.

"So, what are you going to eat?" the video continued, "I guess you'll just have to eat MY lunch. Let's see what I'm packing," and with that, the Pam in the video began holding up items before placing them in a large lunch bag.

"This is a mini ham and cheese sandwich, because that is what you always eat. It's only a mini sandwich, because I suspect you don't actually enjoy these as much as you claim to. Here is a container of mixed berries yogurt, because you made a point of telling the film crew that you knew it was my favorite..."

Jim paused the video and stared at the screen. He knew what Pam was talking about, but he didn't remember seeing that clip anywhere in the screening they had in the office.

'Why do I have a bad feeling she received her own DVD copy?' Jim asked himself before resuming the video.

"This is a bag of jellybeans because you always take a jellybean when you come over to my desk. Oh, here we go, this a container of homemade macaroni and cheese and salsa that you will have to heat up. Remember when Dwight told that story about his ex-girlfriend putting salsa in her mac and cheese? Well, I forgot to tell you that I came across it as a real recipe in a magazine. It actually tastes really good. I promise. And this is a Pez dispenser because you said that you liked that episode of Seinfeld with the Pez dispenser... oh! Here is candy necklace... just like the one Angela wore from her 'friend'... and this is a chocolate J.J. mini pie, like the ones you said you used to buy at the corner store all the time when you were little, and a can of Jolt, your college drink of choice! I can't believe I even found that! And I got you French onion Sun Chips because you always buy those for me when you lose a bet... and some carrot sticks because you said you tried to eat a lot of carrots at once to see if it really would turn your skin orange... and last but not least... I got you a piece of New York style cheesecake with white chocolate, just the way you like it!" the Pam in the video smiled warmly into the camera, "it's not a teapot with a yearbook picture and other memorable treasures, but I thought you still might like it anyway. Come have lunch with me!"

The video message ended, leaving Jim to stare at his computer screen. He was afraid to hope that this meant something. He was afraid to dream that this was more than a friendly gesture.

He continued to stare at the screen until Dwight leaned into his view and cleared his throat loudly.

"Did you get the video with the monkey?"

Jim looked up at Dwight and smiled. "No Dwight. I got something much better."

Springing up from his seat, he all but sprinted into the break room to join a giggling Pam.

It was best lunch Jim could ever remember. He and Pam were back to their usual selves, talking and laughing about everything and nothing... except the topic of the wedding.

He kept praising Pam for her efforts, telling her how wonderful and perfect her lunch was. Pam would beam back at him and tell him he deserved it. Jim felt as though the world outside of the break room didn't exist. Other people came in, but he barely noticed. No one tried to sit with them, or say anything more complicated that "hi". Everything was perfect.

But, when Pam began cleaning up, and making the motions for heading back to work, Jim began to fall back to reality. They were just friends. She was still getting married.

"So, any more progress on your vacation plans?" Pam asked, jarring him from his thoughts. "Did you pick a hotel, or activities, yet?"

Jim shook his head. "Nope. I... uh... still have time, I guess."

"You're probably going to want to stay in the New South Wales area, so you can, you know, be close to Sydney."

"Well, uh..." Jim shuffled his feet as they stood near at the counter. He felt very uncomfortable talking about his vacation with Pam.

"Because, I mean, how many times are you going to go to Australia in your life, so you might as well go big, right? You should stay at The Observatory. It's supposed to be the best."

"You seem to know quite a bit about Australia," Jim noted, creasing his bow together slightly.

Pam smiled. "I've been dying to go there, for like, ever."

"Really?"

"Definitely. There's so much to do there. So much. I mean, it would be so great, you know. The opera house, the beaches, the Outback, the coral reefs, the kangaroos... Who wouldn't want to go there?"

Jim didn't say anything, though he was teetering on the brink of asking her to go with him.

"I wish I was going with you."

Swallowing a large lump in his throat, Jim shocked himself when he said, "You should come with me..."

They stared at each other for a very long time. Somewhere in the back of Pam's mind, she wondered if 27 seconds had gone by. Finally she smiled warmly at Jim. "I wish it were that simple."

She then walked out of the break room, leaving Jim to stare after her.

"What do you want from me, Beesley?" Jim muttered to himself before he sat back down at the table to collect his thoughts.

"Oh, uh, hey," Pam began nervously as she came to stand near Jim's desk at the end of the day. Jim was confused as this was a very different Pam from the confident, fun Pam he had encountered in the break room earlier.

"What's up?" he tried to be casual, but his voice wavered slightly.

"I, um, I have something for you, but, uh, I left it at home. Can I... can I bring it over later tonight?"

Jim blinked once, but couldn't quite form words in his throat.

"I mean, if you're busy," Pam began babbling, "I can just, you know, drop it off quick, but if... if you're not... I could bring dinner from that really good Chinese place up on North..."

Jim blinked again. "Sounds great. You sure that you know... can. I know you have a lot of... wedding plans... and stuff..."

Pam inhaled sharply. "Well, Roy's going out with the guys tonight and I figured I needed a break from everything, too. And, like, we don't... I mean, we haven't really hung out much outside of work, and I'm always telling everyone how close we are, but then I don't even see you outside of here, so, you know, I thought it would be nice, and, like, lunch today made me realize how much I've missed us... you know..."

Jim smiled. "Yeah... I know... What were you thinking? Six? Seven?"

Pam exhaled. "Is six-thirty okay?"

"Perfect. Promise me one thing, thought."

"What?" Pam suddenly stiffened in anticipation of his question.

Jim smirked. "Promise you'll breathe in between thoughts and lay off the run-on sentences."

Immediately relaxing, Pam shot him a sarcastic look. "I'll see what I can do." She spun around, flipping her hair over her shoulder haughtily, making Jim laugh as she walked away.