Chapter 3

Jim's day was going terribly. No, it was worse than terrible. It was so terrible, he thought, that no word could correctly describe how bad he was feeling. Knowing that he had caused Pam to faint, made his heart hurt so bad that he honestly didn't even know if he had a heart anymore. Because really, how could a heart undergo so much pain?

It was now 1:00 pm. He hadn't bothered finishing his lunch. He couldn't eat after what had happened. Pam was the only thing on his mind. Not sales and not even hunger. Every call that came, he ignored. He didn't want to talk to costumers about paper. He just wanted to talk to Pam, and knowing that Pam was with Roy, made him feel worse. He didn't know whether she was okay or not.

He looked up at reception, hoping that each time he did so, she would magically re appear, that he would look up and it would be her whispering his name again at 11:18. But she wasn't there, and it wasn't 11:18. His eyes wandered to the candy dispenser letting himself remember the awful flavors with even worse after tastes. He looked over at Dwight, who was chatting on the phone with a client. A wonderful prank formed in his mind that indeed involved the jelly beans.

Jim thought about playing the prank on Dwight today, thinking it would distract him away from his thoughts, but he decided it would be nice to have Pam help tomorrow. It might even make her day, and that's what he was here for after all; was just to make her laugh and smile because he honestly didn't know if she did at home. Jim still had 5 hours to get through though. What was he supposed to do in that spare time? It was driving him insane to think about Pam and he didn't want to work. Jim reached for his phone and went to notepad. He clicked on the note that had lead to the unpleasant events today, and scrolled down. 38. It wasn't a lot, but Pam had interrupted him while he was writing. He honestly could have written 500. Jim wanted to delete the note. Pam would never get to read it anyways. What was the point in keeping it? He knew all the reasons he loved her. Why couldn't he of just been a normal person and kept them in his head? Despite what Jim was thinking, he kept accumulating more reasons. Jim was just about to type number 39 when his work phone started ringing. He stared at it and wished that it was Pam who was calling him, not some angry salesman.

"Are you going to answer any calls today?" Dwight eyed him.

Jim glared at him as if to say "Just leave me alone."

"Fine, I'll take care of it."

Dwight reached over and answered Jim's phone, and to Jim's surprise, he truthfully didn't care that he would be losing a client to Dwight.

Jim closed out of the note and found Pam's contact. He had to talk to her. He had to see how she was. A text shouldn't be a problem should it?

He typed out his message. It's simple. It's sweet. It's fine if I send this right, or would it make her feel weird since she saw the note? He stopped himself from over thinking it and hit send. Shit. I shouldn't have done that. I'll send another one so it doesn't sound so serious. Jim quickly typed out his idea with the left over jelly beans and pushed send before she had time to respond to the first one. There. Not so bad? Sweet, simple, funny. Not weird?

The next 3 minutes were the slowest 3 minutes of his life, which included Dwight bragging on about him gaining another client, no, stealing his client. It made him want to walk right out of that building and run somewhere that would let him hide away from all reality; maybe somewhere where he could receive a new heart; a new heart with no pain in it. He couldn't even remember what that felt like. His phone buzzed with Pam's name on the front. His breath caught in his throat as he was afraid of what she could have said. He clicked read.

I'm fine. I'm with Roy and I'm happy. I'm done with all these stupid pranks. Just stop talking to me.

Sent at 1:50 pm

Jim no longer cared that he was at work or that Dwight was staring at him. He didn't care about anything anymore, except the woman who obviously didn't care about him. Jim let the tears rapidly fall down onto his shirt. "Just stop talking to me." Jim had thought that watching Pam plan her wedding with Roy was painful. He thought that seeing her beautiful self and not getting to tell her just how beautiful he thought she was, was painful. He thought that seeing the love of his life love someone she didn't deserve was painful. But none of that was as painful as the 5 words that lingered at the end of the text.

Jim gathered his bag, phone, and coat and walked as quickly as he could away from the one place that has brought him more pain than any. And walked to any place that offered a new heart; any place that guaranteed happiness. The only problem was…there was where he found his happiness.

I intended for this chapter to be shorter. It was just to see Jim's POV. The next chapter will be longer. Please review!