shorter chapter this week! i'm guessing most of you know where this is going, now...

title taken from: "Stuck on the puzzle" by Alex Turner

Karen (rather understandably) had a vendetta against people who texted during face-to-face conversations, and so when Jim's phone dinged for the first time, he immediately apologised and moved to fix it to silent. The name on the screen, however, stopped him. Why would Pam be texting him?

If he hadn't felt his girlfriend's eyes boring into him, he would have taken the time to read the text - and the following two that also were delivered during the time he spent staring, fixated, at his phone - but he didn't want to make things more awkward with Karen than they already were, and so he made a show of switching the little button on the side, before shoving the device back into his pocket.

(He made it nearly a whole 15 minutes until the curiosity overtook him, however, and whilst Karen was in the bathroom he quickly pulled out his phone again and scanned the messages as fast as he could. And it was, well. Quite something.)

Karen returned all too soon, and slipped her hand into his as they exited the cafe. Jim's thoughts ran a mile a minute, making it incredibly difficult to focus on anything else - not the benign chatter they made on their journey, not the short walk, not the slight chill in the wind. All he could think about was Pam's texts, and what they possibly could mean.

I wish we could go back to the way things were.

I miss our friendship.

I miss hanging out.

And the most damning of all.

I just needed you to know.

Was she aware that she was parroting his words back to him? Had she thought about that night just as much as he had?

"Hey," Karen said, pulling him out of his reverie. She waited, patiently, until he met her eyes. "Everything okay?"

This clearly wasn't fair on her - surely thinking about another girl this much had to be a form of cheating. "Yeah."

"'You sure? 'Cause you looked gone for a minute there."

"Just. Thinking. Stuff, with classes, you know." He wasn't making much sense.

Either Karen was unaware of that fact, or she was deciding to ignore it. "Okay…" She swung their joined hands, watching them intently for a moment. It was her turn to be deep in thought, now.

Jim was just about to suggest rushing the rest of the way to the Dunder-Mifflin block when she finally spoke up.

"I know this is a big…thing…for us." She began, choosing her words carefully. "And I get that you might need some time to think about it, but… Um." She paused, took a deep breath, and continued. "My parents are dropping by next weekend. I mean, they're heading across-state, but this is on their way, so they thought they'd stop here for a day… And I was wondering if you'd like to come to lunch with us."

Oh. Oh.

"I mean, you don't have to, or anything!" Karen hastily added, having read the expression on Jim's face a little too well. "But… It'd be nice if you could think about it? It's a big step, I know, but they've sorta been bugging me about meeting you, and it'd totally be low-key, like, no expectations. Well, a couple of expectations. But, you know." She trailed off, apparently having realised she was rambling.

"Um… Yeah."

"Just…" She reached out, touching his forearm in what was presumably meant to be a soothing gesture. "Think about it?"

"Yes. Sure. Of course." He was rewarded with a bright smile, and was grateful for the silence that followed for the duration of their walk.