Author's Note: Who would have thought that it's harder to wait a week for a second show than to wait for an entire summer? I hope that a little fluffy writing can help us all stay alive until Thursday...
It had all started because of the jellybeans.
The communal bowl was one of Pam's first ideas as a new receptionist. The days at Dunder-Mifflin were lengthier than any she had ever experienced and she sat alone, separated from the rest of the office by the tall walls around her desk. Foolishly she had thought that maybe Roy would come upstairs to entertain or talk to her. It didn't take long for her to realize that was completely unrealistic. He had a job. She couldn't expect him to hang around upstairs all the time.
The days were long with nothing to do.
She brought in the first bag of original jelly-bellies a few days before Halloween, just a week and a half after her first day. They worked their magic almost immediately: her co-workers were attracted to the sugar like moths to a flame even if they had to brave the perilous journey across Michael's field of vision to get to it. Some people just grabbed a handful and took it back to their seats; others stayed a while to chat or at least exchange pleasantries.
Jim was always one of the ones who stuck around.
Finally her days started to seem shorter. Because with every passing day Jim linger around her desk just a little bit longer. He would always come prepared with some interesting tidbit of information to brighten her day. Soon her days were a patchwork of his laughter and anticipation of his next sugar craving.
Over time their chats over the communal bowl became a friendship.
Pam had no longer felt the need to wait for him to approach her. The edge of his desk was far more comfortable then her chair.
It became a challenge for her to see how many times she could lure him over to her desk every day. For a long time she filled the bowl with some new sweet every week: M&Ms, Skittles, Jr. Mints, chocolate covered espresso beans.
He liked the jelly beans best. For the green ones.
She knew his because he would spend long amounts of time leaning over her desk sorting through the bowl to try and reach any greens left at the very bottom and complaining when they were gone. Pam loved to tease him about his lack of self-control, eating his favorites first, and told him that she really shouldn't allow him to paw through the candy. Not that she really minded watching his long fingers carefully extracting a single candy from the bowl.
If he noticed that she purposely poked the lime ones towards the bottom sometimes he never said anything.
When he was in Scranton she never noticed that the rest of her co-workers had stopped coming to her desk as frequently as they used to. Now that he was gone she noticed it too much. And she was trying not to admit that he was gone because of the jellybeans.
