The phone rang. And rang. And rang.
"Aren't you gonna get that, Big Tuna?" asked Andy.
Jim shook his head.
"Once bitten…" said Karen.
"Or twice, or thrice, or…whatever comes after thrice," said Jim.
"What?" asked Andy.
"Never mind," Jim said.
"I can't stand a ringing phone," Andy said.
"So answer it yourself," said Karen.
"But tell them I went home," said Jim. "It's not my afternoon for phone calls."
"What kind of business do you think we're running here?" said Andy. "Personally, I'm running the kind where you answer the phone before it drives me crazy."
"Listen," said Karen.
The three of them paused, heads tilted attentively.
"No phone," she said.
"Good," said Andy. "But next time, either you answer it or I do."
"You do," said Jim.
"Okay," said Andy. "But if I have to answer your phone, you have to…run all my photocopies and send all my faxes."
"I don't think so," said Jim. "I never asked you to answer my phone. This isn't really a deal we're making, here."
"I could do this all afternoon," said Andy, rocking back and forth in his chair and making it squeak loudly.
"I could sing 'Lovefool,'" said Jim.
"No fair," said Karen. "You know that doesn't bug anybody in the office except for me."
"Squeak your chair all day, I'm not answering my phone," said Jim. "Look, we only have an hour and a half to go."
"And you're thinking your bad phone mojo will be over tomorrow?"
"I certainly hope so."
"Fine," said Andy snippily. "But I'm not gonna be nice to anybody who calls you."
"Even better," said Jim.
--
Jim's phone rang. And rang again. Andy tossed an angry glance over his shoulder, picked up his own phone receiver, and punched a button fiercely. "Jim Halpert's desk," he said.
Jim and Karen both looked up in anticipation.
"No. No, he's not here. Or, or, maybe he is here, but he just doesn't want to talk to you," he said.
Karen snickered.
"Voice mail? Let's see, I think he's been mostly ignoring that along with any other job responsibilities he doesn't feel like dealing with right now. Yeah. Yeah. Well, sure, I'll tell him you called. Maybe. Bye." He hung up.
"Who was that?" asked Jim.
"I'm not your secretary," said Andy. "If you cared, you would have answered your phone."
"I guess you have a point," said Jim. "Thanks for..uh…taking care of that for me, then."
--
Pam hung up the phone and sighed. She opened a window for a new email message.
"Jim," she typed, "I hope you don't think I…"
She pressed the backspace key and held it down, erasing everything but his name. Then she resumed typing.
"Michael thinks you left because of me, and I guess I can see that. I hope I haven't…"
She held down the backspace key again.
"I miss you."
Backspace.
"If it's my fault..."
Backspace.
"You can come back, if you want."
She looked at the phone for a long minute, then back at the screen.
She closed the email window.