AN: Hey guys, I'm going to be honest here, the lack of feedback has been a little discouraging. Anyone still reading out there? Anyway, for those of you who are, thanks for reading, hope you like this one!

The fire had been put out, the commotion died down and within an hour, every thing was back to normal again. There wasn't much left of the fortuneteller machine except for a pile of ashes and the mangled remains of the mannequin inside. Angela was so disgusted with it that she found a tarp and placed it over the junk pile until it could be cleared away. I really should have been the one to help clean up the mess, but with everything else that had happened that day, I figured someone else could worry about it.

Instead, Jim and I walked around the park, hand in hand, chatting and talking about art, life, and anything that came into our heads. After a couple of hours had passed, not only was there a nice crowd back at the festival again but also I felt relaxed and at ease being able to spend alone time with Jim.

Jim didn't ask about my parents after they left, noticing the fact that I didn't want to discuss it. Nothing was going to be able to change the situation so I felt dwelling on the it wouldn't do any good. We also didn't talk about work and I was grateful that in those few hours, nothing bad seemed to happen. In fact, I barely saw my coworkers as we slowly made our way around the park. If there had been an issue, I wasn't aware of it nor did I care. It was nice to see the festival as a regular person instead of one of the employees and for a moment, I remembered why I liked coming to the festival in the first place.

At one point, we saw Karen with her new boyfriend off in the distance. I was amused at the fact that he looked similar to Jim, same tall thin build, same dark hair and dorky grin. But she looked wonderfully happy, so even if she did have a type, I was grateful that she had found someone who made her feel like I did with Jim.

"Want to go say hi?" I asked Jim I said pointing her out.

His face paled. "I don't think that would be a good idea."

I laughed. "I'm not serious. I know how uncomfortable that would be."

"Who's the guy," Jim said looking genuinely interested and surprised to see her with someone.

"Oh, that's her new boyfriend, Dan," I explained. "They met at a bar last night."

"How do you know this?" he asked.

"I'm omniscient," I joked. For a second, he looked as though he believed me. "No, actually Karen was in the bathroom when I ran in there when my parents were here. She told me about her new boyfriend and how amazing it was to find him. She says she's really happy, in a way she didn't know she could be."

Jim was strangely quiet and watched Karen and Dan giggle at each other in the distance. "Huh," he said.

"What?" I asked. "You almost seem disappointed that she still isn't upset."

"Oh, no," Jim replied quickly. "I think I'm relieved."

"So," I said with a playful grin. "Do you want to know what she said about you?"

"No," Jim responded automatically.

"You're not even a little bit curious?"

"Why are you all of sudden sadistic?" he asked. "I'd rather not know how much my ex-girlfriend despises me."

"She doesn't," I said. Jim gave me a disbelieving look. "She'll never admit it to your face, but she still thinks you're a good guy. Just not the right one."

Jim was a little perplexed. "That doesn't sound like Karen. Karen usually sounds like she wants to rip my head off."

I shrugged my shoulders. "It's what she said."

"Come on," Jim said, pulling my hand, leading me away from Karen. "I think we've had enough of old baggage for one day."

Ten or so minutes later, Jim had to use the bathroom, so we made our way back up to the restrooms. As I waited for him, I stood near the doorway, reading some of the flyers that lined the outside wall. There were a dozen for a blood drive that happened two weeks ago mixed in with brightly colored dating service ads. I noticed one of the dating ads at the bottom had a scrawled on it in pen 'For a good time call Lynne' with a phone number added. Near the base of the wall was a mound of dirt and I chuckled to myself, remembering that this was where Michael and I had the bird funeral.

A moment later, Jim came out. I was about to tell him about the dead bird but I noticed he was looking as white as a ghost. "Are you okay?" I asked.

"I, uh," he started, not able to talk. "So, I, uh, was standing at a urinal, minding my own business and I hear this dude grunting from one of the stalls. I'm like, oh, man, that must suck, whatever he ate. But then, I notice there's female grunting as well. So, I looked over and the entire stall was shaking and I could see two pairs of very gross looking bare legs. And I wanted to just get out of there but I couldn't because I was, you know, relieving my- nope, bad choice of words."

"Oh my god," I said, not sure whether to laugh or be horrified. "Some one was doing it in the bathroom."

Jim still looked traumatized. "No," he said shaking his head. "I'm pretty sure they're done now."

"Oh, ew," I said shuddering. "Ew, ew, ew."

"I know!" Jim exclaimed. "Don't they know just how disgusting public restrooms are? Not to mention the poor people that just want to use the bathroom and end up having to endure…that?"

A few seconds later, out of nowhere, Phyllis approached with her boyfriend Bob Vance. They were both looking disheveled and sweaty, though neither seemed to care that the only direction they could have come from was the men's bathroom. Jim and I exchanged awestruck looks.

"Why, hello, Pam, Jim," Phyllis said in her usual normal sweet tone though she was notably out of breath.

"Uh, hey Phyllis," my voice was a little too high.

"You remember my boyfriend, Bob Vance, right?" she asked. I nodded, not sure what to say. She looked up at Bob. "Bob, I know you remember Pam. This is her new boyfriend, Jim. He's a reporter."

"Howdy, Jim," Bob said holding out his hand. Jim shook it and I noticed him grimace through his smile, then wipe his hand on his jeans. Bob looked so giddy that he didn't pick up on anything.

Phyllis's face lit up brighter than it already had been. "Oh, Bobby, I have a great idea, why don't we invite Pam and Jim out for dinner some night?"

"That would be just lovely," Bob replied.

They booth looked at us eagerly. We both gaped, neither of us unable to really say what we were thinking. "Um," I nodded my head trying to come up some way to decline the invitation. "Sure, that would be nice." Jim's eyes grew wide when he heard me say that and he subtly tried to shake his head that he was against the idea.

"What about bowling?" Bob suggested. "Everyone loves bowling, right?"

"Everyone loves bowling," Jim muttered nervously.

"Great," Phyllis beamed. "We'll have to set a date. Oh and Pam, I'm glad I ran into you. I just saw David Wallace and he'd like to have another staff meeting at three, so we probably should head over there."

"Yeah, sure," I said, grateful that Jim and I had a reason depart this awkward conversation.

Bob and Phyllis took off first, Jim and I remained a few feet behind. Not two minutes later, we both saw Bob reach down and grab Phyllis's butt. "Oh, Bob," she cried.

I shuddered. "Oh, I didn't want to see that."

"Well, be happy you didn't have to witness the whole show," Jim came back.

"It's not like you saw anything."

"Oh, but I heard it," Jim said shaking his head. "And that will forever be in my nightmares."

"So, are you sure that this okay?" Jim asked as we approached the tent. "No one's going to ask why I'm there?"

"It'll be fine," I assured him. I wasn't entirely sure why he was feeling reluctant about it. "It's just a staff meeting, it's not like it's a top secret government project we're discussing. It will probably be boring and only last five minutes."

"Okay," Jim said with a half smile. "I just don't want to intrude or anything."

"Believe me," I said. "No one will notice you're there. I doubt anyone will notice I'm there."

Jim looked more at ease when we entered the tent.

Michael was waiting just inside the tent, a giddy grin on his face. "Pam, Pam, guess what?" he asked, incredibly excited.

His anxiousness put me on guard. "What Michael?" I asked.

"I have got a brilliant idea," he giggled. "You may even say that it is a golden ticket idea."

I looked up at Jim; this was going to be interesting. Michael danced around impatiently waiting for me to ask him what his grand idea was. "Okay, Michael, what is your idea?"

"So, you know how I love Holly and I think that she is the woman of my dreams?" he asked.

I nodded. "Yes."

"Well, I found the perfect way to ask her out," Michael said.

"I thought you already tried that," I said carefully.

"No, no, no," Michael said. "This is a more perfecter way, where she has to ask me out."

"Alright, what's your idea?"

"So, you know the movie Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, right?" he asked.

"Yes."

"Well, I do what they did in that movie."

"You're going to give her a tour of a candy factory?" Jim asked.

Michael scrunched his nose at Jim. "No, no one asked you. Okay, I give her a box of chocolates. When she opens the chocolates, she finds a golden ticket. On the ticket are instructions to redeem it at a nice restaurant. So, she goes to the restaurant to redeem her prize and the prize is me sitting there ready to go on a date with her."

Jim and I both looked at him stunned. "I don't know Michael."

"Um, what's the situation?" Jim asked me.

"Michael likes Holly but she needs space because she just broke up with her boyfriend," I explained.

"Ah," Jim said. "Yeah, Michael, I'm not sure bribing her is the best way to get a date."

"Bribing her?" Michael said perplexed. "No, Jim, there will be no exchange of money. I don't understand why you aren't more on board with this? Did I tell you not to ask out Pam when you first met her even though it was obvious that she wasn't into you?"

"Michael, what are you talking about?" I asked.

Michael ignored me. "No, I said go for it. So, all I'm saying is that I would like the same support that I gave you. And you just watched, the golden ticket idea will work."

"Okay, first of all, Pam was interested," Jim explained. "Or else we wouldn't be dating right now."

"Well, that's questionable…" Michael mumbled.

I shook my head to let Jim know that it'd be impossible to try to argue the point.

Jim continued. "And secondly, if Holly said she needed her space, I think you need to respect that. Maybe you should work on your friendship first, really get to know her. Then, sometime down the road, maybe after a few months or so, you can ask her out, when you know she's really interested."

"Well, I'm not sure if you need to wait months," I cut in. Jim gave me a funny look but I waved him off. "But you do need to give her time, especially if this was a big relationship she was coming from. She's going to need time to get over it and I don't think pushing yourself on her is the best way to get her to go out with you."

"Besides," Jim added. "There's nothing wrong with wanting to be friends first."

"I don't want to be friends first," Michael whined. "I want to be lovers first, and then we can be friends."

"I kind of think the idea is sweet," Phyllis, who had been standing only a foot away the whole time, chimed in. "Maybe you should do what Bob did and buy her some nice jewelry, a fancy necklace or earrings." Phyllis played with the gaudy diamond necklace around her neck.

"Or a ring," Michael exclaimed getting excited. "I could put it in a Cracker Jacks box-"

"No," I quickly interrupted. "Michael, do not buy her a ring."

"You're just jealous, Pam," Michael scoffed.

"No," I said shaking my head. "Not jealous. Just looking out for your best interests."

"Well, you should know that my best interests are asking Holly out," Michael came back with.

I let out a sigh. Oscar walked up to our little group. "What's going on?" he asked. I quickly filled him in on Michael wanting to ask out Holly. "Michael, are you sure you want to take another gamble like that?"

Michael looked at Oscar strangely. "It's never a gamble when it comes to one's heart."

Oscar shook his head. "No, I mean," he lowered his voice a little. "Holly's a board member. You were already involved with Jan, the director of the museum. If you keep this up, people are going to start thinking that the only reason that you're around is that you're involved with your superiors. If I were you, I'd be more concerned with job security. You really should be thinking about job security anyway now that Jan is gone."

"No, stop it," Michael snapped. "I'm not worried about my job. And what do you know? I've never seen you with any girl."

Oscar looked at me nervously, so I changed the subject. "What I think Oscar is getting at is that you should probably be more concerned with your career than your love life at this point," I explained to him.

Before Michael could respond, Kelly and Ryan walked up. "What's going on?" Kelly asked. Michael rehashed his golden ticket idea.

"Oh, Michael that is so romantic," Kelly cooed. "You should totally do it, she'll love it. She'll fall in love with you, like, right away. It totally reminds me of this one movie I saw where-"

"Romance is overrated, man," Ryan said, stepping over Kelly's words. "Just kidnap her."

"What?" I gave Ryan an astounded look. "Ryan, that's insane."

"How?" Ryan challenged. "He'll get to be with her all the time, eventually the Stockholm syndrome will kick in, and he'll be all set." We all stared at him blankly, each of us with shocked looks on our faces. "What?"

We then all began to talk at once, each of us shouting our own opinion over the other until Michael put his fingers in his ears and began to state, very loudly, that he didn't want to listen to any of us and insisted that his golden ticket idea was a sure thing.

"What is going on here?" Angela's voice piped up. I didn't know how long she had been standing there.

"We're discussing Michael's love life," Kelly told her.

Angela gave a disgusted look. "I do not understand why you all are obsessed with each other's love lives. I like to keep my affairs private."

"Angela, two men were going to have a public duel over you," I reminded her.

Angela held her nose in the air. "I do not wish to talk about that, it's private."

Thankfully, we didn't have to continue the ridiculous discussion because David Wallace entered the tent. Alex was right behind him and when he saw me, he gave me a frown.

"That the assistant?" Jim asked, whispering into my ear. I nodded. "Alright then, good to know," he said slipping his arm around my shoulders.

I gave him a smirk. "Someone's acting a little possessive."

"Does that bother you?"

"Nope," I gave simply. I wasn't sure if I should admit it to him or not but I found it a little hot.

It began to rain again. There was a soft patter on the tent and I couldn't help but hope that it would soon pass so the rest of the evening's festivities could continue as planned. The end of the week's events always had more people in attendance then the rest of the festival combined and we couldn't afford to lose that.

I'll admit my mind wandered to various things as David Wallace stood at the front giving his speech. He was stalling and I wasn't sure why he would call a meeting if he was going to talk about nothing for ten minutes. That wasn't usually his style. While David was droning on about some personal incident, a very large, professional and somewhat intimidating man entered the tent. He didn't look at any of us, instead made his way up to David's side. David stopped talking to greet him.

"Everyone," David started. The purpose of this meeting was beginning to click. "This is Charles Minor. He is our new temporary replacement for Jan." I believe David expected everyone to clap but we all sat there in shock that he had found someone so quickly. "I'll let Charles introduce himself," David said, switching places with the other man.

"Hello, employees of SIA," Charles started, his voice loud and authoritative. "I am Charles and I will be your new director. My last post was director of Scranton's Natural Science museum in which I helped them raise over a million dollars for their dinosaur exhibit. The position may only be temporary but I hope that I can impress all of you enough to keep me on board long term. Thank you David."

David smiled. "Alright everyone, I'm going to let you get acquainted with Charles. I actually have an appointment I have to be at so unfortunately I can't stay. Have a great night." David waved to us before heading out.

"Our new boss is so hot," I heard Kelly whisper. She was sitting across from where Jim and I were standing in the back of the tent.

I expected Angela, who was sitting next to her, to scoff at the comment but instead Angela looked just as taken as Kelly did. "Yes," Angela agreed. "He is quite nice to look at."

"First of all," Charles started. "I'd like to say that I am buying dinner for everyone tonight." There was general approval around the room. "Because I feel that tonight we should start putting together our goals for the future of the museum. And it may be a long evening."

"What about the disco party?" Michael asked.

"Oh," Charles said with a shrug. "How many of you are really needed to watch that? I'm sure park security can cover it. I need you all here. Besides, if it's raining, the festival will be shut down anyway. No need to worry."

Michael, however, pouted at the news.

"As I was saying," Charles continued. "I believe that drastic measures will have to be made to turn this museum around. I am aware of how it was run in the past, inefficiently."

"Do you have any specific plans?" Oscar asked.

"I do," Charles said. "We need to cut spending across the board. Tighten up our budget. Reach out to people in a more efficient way, find out what they would like to see improved in our museum and use that as a goal. But mostly, we're going to get rid of waste. No more frivolous spending on things that we don't need, such as staff parties, which, when I looked at the books, took up a lot of unnecessary time and money."

"You can take those away," Michael called out, rather angrily.

Charles looked at him annoyed. "What's your name?"

"Michael," he called out. "My name is Michael and you can't take our fun away."

"Well, Michael," Charles continued. "I assure you I'm not trying to take your fun away."

"What about the museum's fifteen anniversary bash?" he asked. "Are you going to take that away too?"

Charles didn't look like he knew what Michael was talking about. "Fifteen? I thought the museum had been around longer then that."

It had but fifteen years ago, we moved into our new building, which was what Michael was referring to. I wasn't aware that the museum was even going to do something special for fifteen years at the new building but Michael sometimes knew more of what Jan had been planning.

"It was going to be huge," Michael went on, ignoring Charles's statement. "The best party this town has ever seen."

"Well, maybe we can get a special exhibit up instead," Charles suggested. "Or maybe a nice banquet. I don't think fifteen years constitutes for an all out party."

"This is horrible," Michael complained loudly for Charles to hear.

"Another thing I would like to address is professionalism in the work place," Charles said doing his best to ignore Michael. "I am aware that Ms. Levinson was a little bit looser about certain things but we are a professional organization, we need to act like one. You, sir," he pointed directly to Jim, who looked horrified at being singled out. "What's your name?"

"Uh, Jim," Jim responded.

"Jim, do you realize that you are incredibly underdressed for this meeting?"

Jim looked at me for an answer but I wasn't sure what to say. "Oh, I, uh, I don't work here," Jim stuttered.

Charles looked at him oddly. "You don't work for the museum? Are you part of the park staff?"

Jim shook his head. "N-no, I'm from the Scranton Times."

Charles's eyebrows rose. "A reporter?"

"He's with me," I jumped in. "Pam Beesly, public relations.

"And is it always custom for you to invite the press to closed meetings, Ms. Beesly?" Charles asked.

"No," I titled my head unsure of what to say. "I just let Jim come with me because we're- we're together and I didn't think this would take that long."

"So, you think that people with personal relationships with you should have certain entitlements?" he asked.

I shook my head. "No, it's not like that."

Charles ignored me. "Jim, I'm sorry, but I think I have to ask you to leave."

Jim opened his mouth to protest but then thought better of it. He gave me an I-told-you-so look. "I'll see you later, I guess," he muttered to me as he left.

"I'm sorry," I called after him, feeling incredibly guilty.

"Alright then," Charles said. "Anyone else here that shouldn't be?" No on answered. "Okay, moving on. I will require everyone to look their best at any museum function or meeting. Also-"

"Why don't you just change everything," Michael shouted.

Charles looked at him stunned. "I don't mean to change everything Michael, but these new rules will help the museum function better."

"Better?" Michael said. "I don't think you're going to make it better, you're making it worse, much worse. The museum ran just fine without you here."

There was an awkward pause as we all shifted nervously around. Charles finally spoke. "You know what, Michael? I am getting tired of your outbursts. I think you need to rein it in a little."

"Well, I'm tired of you," Michael shouted.

"You know what, Michael," Charles said still rather calm. "Maybe it's time we let you go."

"You can't do that," Michael said standing up. "Because I quit!"

Everyone watched Michael leave but I doubt any of us were really surprised by his actions. There had been a lot of talk over the years that Jan would finally kick Michael out and I often wondered if the presence of a new director would do the job for her. The only thing we were really taken aback by was Michael quitting. He left, clumsily and nosily, as we all waited patiently to go on. As soon as he was gone, Charles Minor continued with his plans.

Not even five minutes later, Michael was back, crawling on the ground so that Charles couldn't see him, drenched due to the rain outside. He came beside me and curled up by my feet. "What are you doing?" I hissed at him.

"It's cold and wet out there," Michael whimpered. "And I don't have any where else to go."

"Well, I'm sorry Michael," I said. "You can't stay here."

"Yeah, I can," Michael said. "At least until it stops raining."

"Is Jim out there?" I asked, wanting to know where he decided to go after he left.

"I didn't see him," Michael said. "You don't know need to worry about Jim, you need to worry about me."

"Michael, go," I said, having half a mind to kick him.

"Come with me," he begged.

"No," I replied."

"Please."

"Michael!"

Michael still whimpered but I decided to ignore him because Charles had started talking about the festival and I wanted to hear what he was saying.

"…so it may be in best interests for the museum as a whole," Charles was saying. "If we not only put plans of the new wing on hold but also not have a festival next year."

There was immediate murmuring around the room. "That's crazy," I said loud enough for Charles to hear.

"You have an issue with that plan?" Charles asked me.

"Well, yeah," I said. "The festival has been a staple of Scranton longer than I've been around. It would be a disservice to the community if we took it away."

"I realize the implications of that," Charles said. "But I really think we should look at this next fiscal year as a rebuilding year."

"Yeah, but there's no reason we can't still host the festival," I argued. "Maybe we could tie in a theme of rebuilding into the festival next year and generate plenty of interest-"

"I think this is something we can discuss in depth later," Charles cut me off. "Now, what ideas did we have for fundraising?"

Phyllis spoke up. "Well, earlier we were talking about an auction, getting local galleries to donate art to auction off. We could always auction off other things as well, get involvement with other businesses."

"Great," Charles said. "That may work. Who usually puts this stuff together?"

I rose my hand. "That is what my job is," I said.

"I thought you were public relations?" Charles asked confused. "The museum doesn't have it's own events coordinator?"

"I usually do both," I explained. It never occurred to me that the position was actually two. "I've always done the duties of public relations and of the events coordinator. Does there really need to be another person involved? Especially if the museum does need to cut back on things, wouldn't hiring someone new be wasteful?"

Charles shook his head. "In this case, I'd like to bring in someone I know I can count on."

"You don't think you can count on me?" I asked feeling hurt. He didn't know me, how could he even think that?

"I haven't had a chance to work with you yet," Charles corrected. "I would just like to get someone in that I already know. Besides, Ms. Beesly, you are a pretty girl and I think you should stick to what you do best, talking with the press, though, preferably not press you are involved with."

I felt incredibly insulted. "I can do more than just talk to the press," I argued.

Michael got to his knees. "See, he doesn't respect you, he doesn't respect any of us." I wasn't sure why, but Michael was beginning to make more sense.

"I'm sure you can," Charles said though he looked annoyed over the whole thing. "But for now, I'd like to play it safe."

"Maybe you should trust that your employees know what they're doing," I argued still feeling the sting of being called just a pretty face. "I have more to offer then you think."

"Well, maybe over time you'll prove that," Charles said.

"I don't need to prove anything," I shot back. "I don't need-" I stopped mid-sentence. A strange sensation flowed through me, one of empowerment. I didn't need to be treated like this, none of us did. We deserved respect. Charles stared at me, waiting for me to complete my thought. "No, I don't need this," I finally said. "You know what, if this is how we're going to be treated then-" I felt a rush of nerves as everyone stared at me. "Then, I quit too!"

Michael stood up excitedly. "So screw all of you," he added.

"Come on, Michael, let's go," I said. Michael and I left the tent. I held my head high but chose not to look anyone in the eye fearing my resolve might break. I let out a breath of relief once Michael and I were outside but then the reality of what I had just done set in. The rain pattered down on my head, making me shiver. I stared at Michael blankly.

Now what?