Paper Thin (Jim Halpert/The Office Fanfiction)

Chapter Eighteen

"Nice tux Dwight" says Pam when Dwight walks in Thursday morning wearing a full tuxedo.

"Thank you, my grandfather was buried in it. Family heirloom," he says with a creepy smile, ignoring the stares from Jim and I.

Tonight is casino night and I'm pretty excited. I have the perfect dress and I can't wait to see Jim looking all dapper.

"Ready to lose all your money tonight, O'Neal?" Jim asks nonchalantly as he writes some sales reports.

"You're the one that's gonna be losing, Halpert. I'm a roulette master," I say.

"You can't be a roulette master. It's a game of luck, not skill," says Dwight dramatically.

"I've always been able to win at roulette," says Jim, staring at Dwight.

"Oh yeah, how? Mind control?" Dwight asks, scoffing. Jim gives him a serious look. Dwight's face falls. Oh no, here we go.

"Ever since I was a little kid, I've been able to move things with my mind," says Jim.

"Oh yeah? Move that paper clip then," says Dwight, gesturing to metal paper clip on my desk. I reach to my computer and stealthily remove one of my decorative magnets. Jim strains his face and touches his fingers to his temples. Dwight stares at the paperclip. I move the magnet underneath my desk, causing the paperclip to twitch. I move the magnet even further and it knocks the paperclip off of my desk and onto the floor.

"Oh dear God," whispers Dwight. I give Jim a wink and he blushes to himself.

Michael suddenly emerges from his office. "Oh God. Oh God. Oh God," he says under his breath.

I sigh and turn to him. "What is it, Michael?"

"I um...I kind of accidentally have two dates for Casino Night," he says, shrugging.

"What? Who?" asks Dwight.

"Well, my realtor...and...Jan," he says. We all groan in protest. Everyone knows that there is nothing going on between him and Jan.

"Listen, I do not need this right now. We have a very important client coming tonight, and everything has to go well. He's bigger than any of our other clients and we have to impress him!" says Michael. "Dwight, you will be in charge of making sure that Jan doesn't see Carol and Carol doesn't see Jan. Jim, I want you to be my backup when talking to this client, understood?"

They both nod. Why Michael would invite a new potential client to a casino charity for the Boy Scouts of America is beyond me.

"Oh, and listen everyone, tonight will be a closed bar," he says nonchalantly. This gets many protests from the employees of the office. "Nope, nope! I am under too much stress. I need to lie down, actually. Pam! Get my blanket!" Pam sighs and gets a blanket and pillow from under her desk. Michael proceeds to take a nap in his office for entire hour while the rest of us try to get some work done.

At lunch, I sit with Pam in the break room. We are the only people in there, so I take the opportunity to tell her all about the new house. I mentioned it to her briefly a few days ago, but Kevin came in to get a soda before we could finish talking. She's so excited for us that she looks like she's about to burst.

The rest of the day is spent getting ready for casino night. Since it starts right after work, we all brought our clothes to change into. As 5 o'clock rolls around, I go into the restroom with Kelly and Pam to get ready. Kelly is surprisingly helpful. She helps me curl my hair in loose waves down my back.

"Come on, Rachel. Take the glasses off. You can't see your makeup!" she begs me.

"Okay fine. But if I stumble around blind all night, I'm blaming you," I say laughing. Pam steps out of the stalls wearing a beautiful iridescent purple blue dress.