Friendship

Pam glanced over at Jim for what had to be the thirtieth time since she had come back inside. He sat motionless at his desk, staring intently at his screen, still avoiding her. The few times she thought she had caught him looking at her, he had snapped his head back to his screen. Had she really been throwing herself at him? Was he as disgusted at her as Roy was? The thought that Jim would agree with what Roy said made her sick to her stomach. Roy was always upset at her about something it seemed, but if Jim was, too… she couldn't deal with that. A validation of all Roy's criticisms. It would just be too much.

Another half an hour passed before she felt eyes on her again and raised her eyes to finally meet his. He stared at her now, openly. Sad eyes and a furrowed brow told her that things were not back to normal. They probably wouldn't be for a while. She tried a tentative smile to feel him out, see if she ruined their friendship permanently. Relief flooded into her as he returned a smile that was sweet but more reserved than normal. Jim wasn't mad. Maybe he knew she was in trouble with Roy and blamed himself. He was so selfless like that, but it had been her fault. She was practically sitting in his lap. She'd have to let him know it was all her fault later, that he didn't have to worry. Maybe, she'd head to the kitchen soon for some tea.

Tea in her fancy new teapot always brought a smile to her face, at least since the Christmas Party a few weeks ago. She still had that high school photo of Jim taped up right behind her monitor, with the hot sauce and everything. Roy was so mad when she traded away the I Pod, but she claimed it was because Michael had taken it back. She knew it was wrong to lie, but it just saved them both so much grief. It was a white lie. She got up and went to kitchen, stopping by Jim's desk to see if he wanted anything. As she hoped, he got up to join her.

"That was crazy, earlier." Jim starts out, obviously put out by what happened earlier.

"I'm sorry about that"
"No, no. No need to be…" Jim cut in, looking down at his hands rather than making eye contact.

"It's just Roy, you know. I told him there's no reason to be jealous… I mean, we're just friends."

"Yeah, yeah. Friends. Nothing more than... friends"

"Exactly. And don't worry. I told him it was all me." Pam was so skilled at reassuring people she was fine. Reassuring her family was simple. The only person who didn't always buy it was Jim. His furrowed eyebrows and sad eyes told her it wasn't working. More lies were needed. Lies. But white lies. "He's not mad. Everything's fine. Really."

"Yeah." Jim took a long drink of coffee and looked Pam over carefully, like he was building up to say something. "He just-"

Before the words came, the women's bathroom door opened, interrupting their solitude. Creed, with headphones and a book in hand, confidently marched out, giving Pam and Jim a funny look. As he marched out the door Jim's eyes widened and his eyebrows shot up, but his mouth maintained a straight line, as though his eyes didn't give away his amusement. Pam grinned ear to ear and mouthed 'Oh My God,' unable to hide her joy. As the door to the break room closed they dissolved in to shock and giggles. With that, the events of the day were all but forgotten.

Creed, aside "What was I doing in the women's bathroom? Chill out, man. It's the 90s."

After sharing some laughter over Creed using the women's room, Jim and Pam got back to work, hot drinks in hand. Not even half an hour had passed when Jim started feeling the urge to go hang out at her desk, see what she was up to, just be around her. She had looked so upset when she came back. And she had been gone such a long time. Her eyes were red. He hated that Roy made her cry. But it was her choice. She chose to be with Roy and that was that. As much as he hated it, he'd respect her choice.

For the most part, he tried to stay out of it. It's not his business, he's just a friend. Another half an hour passed and he noticed Pam walk over to accounting, talking to Angela. He couldn't catch much of the conversation and knew that he shouldn't be listening, but he listened anyway.

"Again?" Angela was talking loudly and looked annoyed. More angry really, there's not much middle ground with her. Pam said something to her in a low voice that he can't make out. The words "Roy" and "Sorry" made it through the office cacophony to his ears, but that was about it. Angela was clearly pissed off. "Well I have a life, too, you know." then, after a few more low words from Pam, "I'll consider it."

When Pam made it back to her desk, he hopped up from his seat to do a little digging. "Propositioning Angela again, I see."

"Yeah, turns out she's not into girls." Pam brushed him off and dug around

"I'm sure she'll make an exception for you." he leaned against her desk popping a couple jelly beans in his mouth, giving her his most charming smile. She continued moving around papers for a moment, hiding a smile, before completely giving in to banter.

"Oh, yeah?"

"I know you were so upset not to get the hottest in the office dundee this year, but from what I observed, Angela clearly did not agree with that decision." he took a glance over at Angela, who, luck would have it, was glaring at them over the cubicle wall. "Look, she's pining after you already."

"She did said she'd consider, that's a pretty big deal coming from her. I wonder if she's expecting dinner and a movie first." Pam finally joined in on the joking, her eyes warm again and a smile hidden in the corners of her mouth.

"I'd definitely go with dinner and a movie, but that's just what it takes to get me into bed." Jim winked. He knew he was being a little too flirtatious considering this morning, but he just couldn't help himself.

"I doubt she'd be as easy as you."

"Ouch. Low blow." He placed his hands dramatically over his heart and rocked back on his heels. "So, is that a new pass time of yours? Seducing unsuspecting women?"

"I'm trying it out." Pam's smile was fully back in place. "You think I'll make any progress with Angela?"

"How many times do I have to tell you, Beesly, She's clearly in love with Kevin. Though I think Meredith might give you a go."

Pam snorted in an attempt to not laugh. Making her happy like that was Jim's entire reason to get out of bed. She was just so damn cute when she laughed. Or smiled. Or breathed. "Oh, God, no!" Pam chuckled, "I was just asking for a ride home," She clarified. Jim's frown returned. "It's just that Roy has to work late is all."

"Well, I could give you a ride home?" Jim drummed his fingers on the side of the jellybean dispenser, anxious to hear her answer. To have some alone time, just talking and laughing side by side in his car would be so amazing. Maybe today could lead to something that might lead to them hanging out more outside of the office. It was all wishful hypotheticals, but those little scraps of hope kept him going.

"It's pretty far out of the way." She frowned, looking uncomfortable with the offer, like it was too much or something.

"No, it's fine. You'd do the same for me," he shrugged.

"Thanks, Jim." She said it so sincerely that he thought his heart was going to break.

When the day ended, Jim hung around Pam's desk until she was ready to go, drawing both the usual glares intermixed eye rolls from Angela.

"Thanks, so much Jim."

"It's seriously nothing."

"I just gotta type this up for Michael real quick. Oh my god I didn't tell you. He's having me type up his daily schedules and print them off for him because he doesn't like the way they look in the the new calendar program. I'm using lots of hard to read fonts and horribly bright colors. It's giving me a headache just looking at it."

"That's hilarious."

"Okay, okay, like three more seconds, change this to chiller and… perfect."

Jim looked down at the schedule of neon days and events in a wide array of comically bad fonts and smiled. "I hate to tell you this, but I think Michael might actually love this."

"No. It's way too hard to read."

"He's gonna love it."

"He'll get a headache. It'll make him sick."

"He's going to ask for this everyday now y'know?"

"No, no! That's part of the beauty. He's not going to be able to read it and I'll apologize, get Dwight to show him how to use the calendar software again, and I will have one less thing I have to do everyday. And it's such a stupid task, I can't even get in trouble!" She pulled on her keds as Jim grabbed her coat from the coat rack.

"He's gonna love it."

"Shut up!" She elbowed him lightly as she grabbed her coat and bag and skipped out the door. "You coming?"

They joked around about Michael's questionable taste as they donned their coats and walked out to his car. For a moment Jim almost allowed himself to imagine being like this everyday. Going to work together, heading home together. To the same home. To have dinner and relax and talk and just be together. As he drove her back to her home and life with Roy, he couldn't help but steal glances over at her, her curls looked so soft and red-gold with the sun setting just over her shoulder her. Her smile so sweet and genuine. Jim could do little more than smile and enjoy the moment

Author's Notes: Posting a lot of what I have today, going to try to switch to weekly or semi-weekly postings after I get through editing and posting what I have already written. Thank you for reading.