Part 2
Michael is usually the first person to the office in the mornings. Jim realizes this as he is rushing about his room getting dressed. He had pressed the send button last night. He is still pondering it while adjusting his tie in the mirror. So many times he had written her an e-mail and immediately deleted it. Pressing that send button was so hard for him. He has to delete that e-mail before she sees it. They need to talk but this is not the way to do it. He doesn't want to make things tenser than they already are.
He pulls into the parking lot with a sigh of relief as he sees only Michael's Sebring in the lot. He rushes inside and up the stairs. The elevator is just not fast enough.
He breathes a sigh of relief as he enters the office and sees the reception desk empty. It's not too late after all.
Jim navigates to Pam's e-mail client and opens it up. There it is, in a bold font, marked unread and at the top. Subject: "hey". How eloquent he had been last night!
He briefly reads the e-mail again. He had written Pam that he valued their friendship above anything else that was going on in his life. He wrote that he didn't really know how he felt but that the only reason he could even stand to work alongside Michael and Dwight every day was for the few times a day he would see her smile and hear her voice. He had been very careful to not make the e-mail a declaration of love. That would not have been good. He also wrote that he wishes they could spend time together outside of the office, even if it wasn't in a romantic way. He fears that once the wedding takes place that he'll never have a chance to get to know her completely.
Jim takes a deep breath and clicks delete. He has to say these things at some point but not now. It was too soon.
"Hey there, trading places for the day?" Pam walks into the office and catches Jim behind her desk. She is a few minutes early and sporting a brilliant smile that immediately lights up the room. Or at least to Jim's eyes.
"Yea how about it? You can sit next to Dwight all day."
"…and you can interact with Michael all day both in person and on the phone."
"Yeaaaaa…you know what…I think sales is more up my alley." Jim smiles.
Jim walks back to his desk. He wonders when he's going to try and talk to her. He just wants to tell her how important she is to him. If she doesn't infer his feelings from that, then it must be a lost cause.
He hasn't forgotten Dwight. He pulls out two empty plastic jars with strips on the side. Upon closer inspection we see that it is an instant drug-test sample cup usually used by parents to see if their kids are using.
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Jim is in the conference room conversing with the camera.
"Yea, so I bought these drug test cups at the pharmacy…" Jim holds up the sample cups.
"In one of them I put a little bit of codeine I had sitting in my medicine cabinet left over from my knee surgery a few years ago. Just a pinch of a crushed pill."
Jim smiles widely.
"This is going to be good."
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"Are you testing your urine before Michael picks a candidate Dwight?" Jim asks.
"What do you mean?"
"Well even though I don't do drugs, I am definitely going to test my urine and make sure I don't have any false positives."
"Well that's a bit much, isn't it?" Dwight asks.
"Not if you want to advance in this company" Jim says with as serious a face as possible.
"I have an extra test cup if you want it" Jim holds up the empty jar and then places it on Dwight's desk.
"Thank you Jim, I'll be sure to remember this during the next performance reviews."
"Dwight you are not my boss, not my superior and you don't get to review me."
"As assistant regional manager…"
"Assistant to the" Jim replies.
"No, Michael made me assistant regional manager."
"Oh, congratulations. How much was your pay raise?" Jim says with a smug look on his face.
Dwight looks down at the floor. He never got any raise for his promotion.
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Pam is shuffling papers and folders about, trying to look as busy as possible. She had read the e-mail last night from her home computer. At the time she was really confused but now it makes sense to her. Jim is too special to lose, something that is bound to happen eventually once she's hitched. For the first time since she can remember, she has someone in her life that sees her as the intelligent, creative and fun person that she really is. Roy hasn't complimented anything except her body or the occasional and generic "pretty" compliments since they first met.
Pam sits and ponders the e-mail and debates discussing it with Jim. She looks up and there he is, taking a jellybean out of the container.
"I thought you didn't like the yellow ones" Pam says while watching Jim eat his jellybean.
"Well my fingers aren't as small as yours, Beesly. I can't maneuver inside that thing." Jim says with an overly serious face that makes Pam crack a smile.
"Hey, do you want to run out and grab a cup of good coffee with me during lunch?"
She had never before asked him to go out to lunch. He had always wanted to ask her but was always afraid of her making an excuse not to go.
"Yea, definitely", Jim replies. He's a little nervous, unsure of what he should say next.
Breaking the silence is Dwight walking swiftly out of the bathroom, cup of urine in his hand. He passes Ryan on the way to Pam and Jim and Ryan bends his whole body to get as far away from Dwight's urine sample as possible.
"Opiates? I'm testing positive for opiates?" Dwight barks out as he sets the urine sample on the reception desk.
Pam shudders at the sight of the urine on her desk and moves back a few feet, distancing herself from it.
"Get…that…out of here!" Pam says, completely grossed out. Dwight complies and picks it back up. Jim is all smiles.
"I told you Dwight. You can't eat those bagels everyday."
"Now what am I going to do? What if I'm chosen as the random candidate?"
"I thought your new position as assistant manager would make you ineligible to be tested. I mean, Michael's not going to be in the random selection is he?" Jim knows how to push Dwight's buttons.
"You're right Jim, I shouldn't be tested. I don't think Michael will agree though."
"Well if anyone can talk him out of this drug test thing, it's you. I mean you are his number one man right?"
"That's right, I am."
"And you're the only one in this office that is directly below Michael right? I mean, Michael is directly on top of you."
"Yes that's true."
Pam smiles at Jim's suggestive phrases. He could play Dwight like a concert instrument.
To be continued…
