AN EXTREMELY LOUD PUMPING SOUND FILLS THE OFFICE. At first, I really don't pay it any mind because it's not my business. But when it goes on for fifteen more minutes, I need to know what it is. I bend and swivel my neck trying to mark the direction in which the sound is coming from. I finally turn my head to the right, slightly shocked at the sight I'm met with. The first women that came in this morning, Hannah, is pumping breast milk into a baby bottle. And apparently I'm not the only person to notice it. Hannah locks eyes with someone by Pam's desk. Her lips turn down, into a scowl.

"Take a picture. It'll last longer." I raise my eyebrows, dying to know who she's yelling at. When a voice surfaces, my eyes roll in annoyance.

"I'm sorry, It's just... It's a little distracting." My gaze turns to Creed, who is now far from his desk and looking at Hannah.

"Ditto that, my brother." My nose scrunches up in disgust. I turn to the crew to catch Neil's eyes. I fake throw up, making sure to sell it with putting my hand by my mouth and fanning it down. Neil laughs quietly, bringing up his free hand to drag it slowly across his neck. I giggle at his antics, especially when he sticks his tongue out and rolls his eyes back into his head. Definitely insinuating that he has just died. I spin back towards my desk, catching Angela's eyes on the way. Her forever narrowed eyes are even smaller than usual, making me slightly cower into my seat.

    Personally, I think that everyone from Stanford is going to get really tired of Micheal's antics really quickly. I like working here. Sometimes it makes me want to curl up in a ball and disappear, but it pays better than my other two jobs. And who knows? After today they might let me go because Jim's back. I really hope that's not the case, but know I have to be prepared for anything. A few more moments of depressing thoughts occur, until Hannah comes stomping over with Micheal (and a very interested Kevin in tow). Hannah stops and points at Creed's monitor.

    "Look what's on his computer!" The women in pink seethes. Micheal furrows his eyebrows, making the wrinkles in his forehead more prominent.

"What is that, a squid's eye or...?" Confusion clear in Micheal's tone. Hannah seems to have a permanent scowl on her face.

"It's my left breast." Immediately I start choking on nothing. Second-hand embarrassment, bitch-slapping me across the face. Micheal's mouth was slightly a gape, stuttering out a question.

"How d-did you—" Creed interrupts, looking up at Micheal from his desk.

"Right place at the right time." My nose involuntarily scrunches in disgust. "Dude..." I say exasperated.

~~~

The rest of the day did not go smoothly. Karen accidentally told Phyllis that her perfume smelt like a funeral parlor. Hence, Phyllis telling Karen off. Hannah sprayed her phone with disinfectant over, seventy-three times. Each time being louder than the other. Stanley slurping his jello. I've gotten use to it. And finally, Creed. His laugh was loud, like, could-hear-it-in-every-part-of-the-office loud. I have no idea what transpired on that phone call to get him to laugh like that, nor do I want to.

Our differences against each other stuck out like sore thumbs. I thought everyone that came in was nice, it's just Micheal brings out a different side in all of us. We got called into another conference meeting. This time, I made sure to bring a pen and paper for me and Pam to doodle. Pam is one of the most gifted artists I've ever seen. I could only pray to get better than quick sketches. Pam is our very own Picasso.

"I know what a lot of you must be thinking." Micheal begins. "'Wow, what a day. It feels more like a night at a party than a day at work.'" I take a deep breath. For all the times I don't say something, my breathing habits do.

"Well, in my opinion, business should feel like a night out," Micheal then bent down to pick up a small radio. "a night... at..." He then put on a purple coat and pressed play on the radio. "the Roxbury." No sound came out of the radio.

"Okay, there's supposed to be music." Dwight leaned forward, trying to help put on the music. Micheal swatted his hands away and yelled at him to stop. I just stopped drawing a peach tree when Andy started singing. I really wanted to die in that moment, but hanging myself with my cardigan would be premature.

    Micheal got really into it, singing along with him. I slid the paper over to Pam, the pen along with it. I watched her reaction to see what she thought of my tree. Pam's eyes widened and a grin grew on her face. She turned to look at me and whispered,

"This is really good, Evie!" I felt like a seven-year-old getting a gold star in class. I shrugged my shoulders and smiled back at her. My attention was snatched away from Pam, to Andy and Micheal both slamming into a Stanford guy. I felt bad for not knowing his name, he looks like a pretty sweet guy. And in that moment: he looked like he wanted the floor to swallow him.

"Oh, my nose is so itchy!" I really don't think Micheal could get any louder. "Why is my nose so itchy?!" I flattened my lips into a hard line and looked into the camera.

"Uh, probably because of all the nose candy." Andy jokes, Micheal thinks that's the greatest joke in the entire world and starts laughing like it is. Which it's not but, it's Micheal.

"I told you these guys have a sense of humor." Micheal chortles. Dwight chimes in, dying to get the attention off of Andy.

"Very funny, Micheal! Really funny, Micheal!" Starting to clap.

***

"I feel bad for these people." I state fidgeting with my cold hands. "Can you imagine: your branch closing, thinking you're gonna lose your job, not losing your job, moving to a new branch, and then finally getting stuck with Micheal?"  I listed the things off with my fingers, then I put up a sixth finger. "Waging a war against a fire breathing dragon to get away from Micheal."

***

"Why are the new people on the table?" Micheal let the question hang in the air, waiting for someone to answer the question. "To show them that we are not above them." My lips pull down slightly, 'that doesn't make sense.' I thought to myself. From on top of the table, Karen sat with her arms and legs crossed.

"Shouldn't we be equals?" She asked with a turn of her head.

"Not today. No." Micheal, choosing to defend his idea. Micheal then spun on his heel, to point at the guy from Stanford that they were chest bumping earlier. "Tony, please join your cohorts." 'That's his name.' I made a quick mental note. "On the table, if you would." Tony looked really uncomfortable, my heart went out to him.

"Uh, this is difficult for me." He said walking up closer to Micheal.

"Hey, I understand. We're all friends." Micheal comforted him. Sometimes, I wonder how he got his job.

"No, I mean, I can't physically. I can't get on the table." Tony explained further. Micheal's eyes widened and he looked behind him quickly.

"Oh, well... just use the momentum of your lower half to hoist yourself up. Okay?" I covered my cheeks with my hands, leaning against the wall between Pam and Jim.

"Sweet Jesus..." I muttered. I saw a smirk appear on Pam's face, and Jim looked up to me with a amused smile on his face. I smiled back at him. 'I think me and Jim Halpert are going to be great friends.' Tony walked over to the table, pulling one leg up on the edge of it. 

"You know what? I will help!" Micheal exclaims. Tony immediately goes back to his standing position, asking Micheal to stop.

"Don't be shy. Dwight, let's do this." Dwight shoots up at Micheals command, assuming position at Tony's right side. There's a lot of yelling after Dwight counts down from three. The only thing I really hear is Tony yelling.

"Put me down now! Put me down right now!" Dwight and Micheal put him down, holding up their hands.

"I'm sorry." Tony apologizes. Micheal goes to cut him off but Tony's not having it. "It's just not going to work for me. I have to go." I think every person in the room knew what Tony was saying, except for Micheal.

"I don't understand." Further proving my point.

"I was on the fence about this, and it's just not a good fit." Tony admits.

"Well, we'll squeeze you in." Micheal says dumbly.

"I can't work here. I have to quit." The man emphasizes. Our boss just kinda stands there with a blank expression across his face. He then looks to Dwight, a bitter chuckle leaving his lips.

"You can't quit on the first day." Micheal looks super perplexed. "That's... heresy, my friend. Okay, let's talk about this. What happened? I mean, what—" Micheal then stopped for a moment. "Was it Toby? Did he say something?" I rolled my eyes at his stupid one-sided feud with the man.

"No, Toby was helpful. He was very kind." Tony spoke in a gentle voice. "It's just your management style." Pop off king.

"My management style? So... Didn't you think Lazy Scranton was funny?" Micheal asks completely missing the point.

"No. Was it suppose to be funny?" Tony asks. I can't tell if he was being sincere or not, but it sure as hell sounded like he was being sincere.

"Okay, well... Don't bother quitting because you're fired." Micheal tells him, obviously very hurt over the fact that he didn't think he was funny.

"Excuse me?" Tony asks visibility confused like the rest of us.

"You are fired! I'm sorry, but we don't have quitters on this team." I look down to Pam with my signature, wtf-look. Pam simply shrugs her shoulders and turns back to the scene at hand. "Just clean out your desk!" Micheal yells.

"There's nothing in my desk except coupons." Tony practically whispers.

"Don't try to apologize to me, man. It's too late. Just get out." Micheal looks down to the carpet with his hands in his pockets.

"Take your bad vibes with you." During this entire thing my feet begin to hurt because of my heels. So I slid down the wall to the floor. I tucked my legs against my chest while Micheal and Dwight have a very loud conversation about whose higher in power. Andy v.s. Dwight.

    I tune back into the conversation when Hannah gets off the table.

"Tony was right. This environment is dysfunctional." I'm not going to disagree with her, but I've grown to like this place a lot and her discarding it like that doesn't sit right. Angela stares her down as she leaves.

"Well, maybe that's because some people treat it like their own private Hooters strip club." My mouth drops open in shock. Stone cold, that woman is. Stone cold.

"Whoa, Angela. Hold on." I really thought Micheal was going to reprimand for a moment. God, it's like I haven't been working here for three months. "Hooters is a restaurant with over four-hundred locations world-wide." With that useless tid-bit of information I roll my eyes and try and get up from the floor. With the heels I have on and my skirt, it's better if I just wait until every leaves the conference room.

    "Back to work. We don't have to get along. We just have to work together." Stanley utters.

"No, we do have to get along." Micheal means well. He does truly, but his personality is very off putting most of the times.

Pam gets up from her chair, as does Jim. The receptionist looks down at me and chuckles. I stick out my bottom lip and fake pout.

"I'm stuck, P." I state with a sulky voice. That earns a small huff of laughter from Jim, who is holding his hand out for me to take. I look from his hand to his eyes, his green eyes holding nothing but warmth. A nervous smile graces my face as I take his hand. He hoists me up in two seconds. Once I'm on my feet he lets go.

"Thank you." I say quietly. Jim looks at Pam for a second before shaking his head,

"It's no problem, I didn't want you to be stuck in here alone with a manic Micheal." Me and Pam laugh at the joke quietly, following the rest of our co-works out of the room. When Pam laughs Jim's eyes light up. He looks at her like she's the only person in the room. His eyes say a million things while his lips say none of it. I smile at them with all the adoration in my heart.

~~~

I didn't bother going back to my desk. Instead I helped Pam sort files at her desk. Pam gave me the most important job in the entire world. Putting sticky notes on top of documents to color coat them. Micheal burst through the door with fake concern on his face.

"Hey! Hey, everybody! Something happened!" Micheal has successfully earned everyone's attention. "Those guys from Vance Refrigeration, they let the air out of our tires." My eyes immediately widened. My car is the definition of shit. I have no idea what shape my axle is in to be taking all that weight.

    "What?" Dwight exclaims.

"Yeah! They punked us! They punked us good. Come on." Then he was out the door. The rest of us followed slowly behind him. Karen and Jim pass in front of Pam desk, not sparing her a look. I could tell Pam was getting a little broken up about this whole situation. I followed behind her, looping my arm with hers. Pam's face held a mixture of hurt and gratitude. I beamed at her and dragged her along to the parking lot.

~~~

    "Man they got us so bad. We cannot let 'em get away with this." Micheal was saying something about revenge and stealing refrigerators, but my main concern was my car. It looks rough. It was either a semi-nice apartment that you can make look like a nice apartment, or, a really nice car and no place to live. So the warm bed was a no brainer for me.

    I patted my car with sorrow. "Sorry, old girl." I had no idea how I was going to get home. I mean I could ask the warehouse guys? But I'm too socially awkward. I made my way to Pam. Not paying Micheal's screaming any mind. It was a chilly evening so I wrapped my cardigan closer around my body. I had just gotten next to Pam when I realized she was staring at something. I furrowed my brows and saw what she did. Karen was rubbing Jim's back. But in no way was this a friendly gesture. It was much more affectionate. I squeezed her shoulder lightly, letting her know that I knew. Pam looked at me with a broken expression. My heart ached for her.

    "Hey, the future is never set in stone." I told her, guiding her to the entrance of the building. "Sometimes you just have to wait. Trust me. For him, time is gonna be key." Pam nodded, she looked like she was trying to convince herself that the words I was saying were true. I wished on every star that they would be.

~~~

    Phyllis told everyone that Bob Vance is more than willing to fill everyone's tires back up (excluding Micheal). While everyone was off doing their own thing and Jim was busy talking to Micheal. I thought that this was the perfect moment to get the rest of my stuff from my desk... or is it Jim's desk now? Whatever. Who honestly cares, all I know is that I need my pencil case. I had calmly walked over to Jim's desk and slid open the bottom right draw. I saw my yellow case and smiled, glad that he didn't move it. I checked to make sure everything was there, to busy rifling through my things to notice someone behind me.

    "Don't worry. I didn't steal anything." I jumped at the sound of his voice. I placed my hand over my racing heart.

"Jesus, you scared me." I said breathily. Jim smiled down at me.

    "You know you could have just told me that it was your desk right?" I nodded my head in understanding.

"Yeah, I know. It's just I didn't want to make you even more uncomfortable on your first day back." I spoke softly, playing with the ring that on my finger.

    "Well, thank you for that." He muttered, but he looked like he wanted to say more. I smiled at him, urging him with my eyes. "This uh," Jim said looking down. "This might sound really weird, but does Pam ever talk about me to you? I'm sorry that's a weird question she just seems really close to you and—" I cut him off with a quick,

    "No. She doesn't talk about you." I see the light slightly fade away from his eyes. "I don't think she could ever just talk about you." He understands what I'm saying. Jim's entire expression lights up. Then he tries to tone it down. He simply pats his hands on the desk, turns around, and walks out the door. Saying a quick goodbye over his shoulder. My heart warms at the thought of me pushing this relationship in the right direction. I want them together so freaking bad.

***

    "All and all, I think this day was a major success."