Date: February 04, 2022 12:28 am Title: Coaster
Another first date story? Give it to me. I love it.
Author's Response: So sorry didn't see this sooner, thank you!
1 [Report This]Date: July 28, 2021 04:32 am Title: Errant Pen
Oops, I’m very slow coming to this - but I was so excited when I realised there was a third chapter! This is such a lovely way to wrap things up: starting with them snuggling while Pam does sudoku, and then them taking it slow and not quite being able to believe it all (I love that from Jim), and ending in their first time 😍
I particularly loved this exchange:
‘“A sleepover!? Like Tom Hanks in Big? I get to be on top.” Jim grinned and Pam rolled her eyes below him, before pulling away slightly and looking up to him.
“I’m being serious.”
“Really?” Jim suddenly looked a lot more serious himself.’
So adorable! This was basically just a joy to read.
Author's Response: Thank you! I watched Big again recently and it just popped up (TWSS) as an idea to incorporate it. Really glad you enjoyed it.
Date: July 17, 2021 05:24 am Title: Errant Pen
The naturalness and comfort they settled into seemed so right. happy just to whittle away the morning with a Sudoku and each other but only until desire gets better of them and whittling becomes something else.
But you also nailed the inner worries, the ones about getting everything you want and does that change the way you feeling - rich...something I'd never thought of before until you wrote it in here.
Also Pam's guilt at taking so long to see things....but think you are right in that she needed to have some of the experiences she did and glad your Pam can see that.
the ring- that seemed to answer that for him and us.
you know I'm glad they waited, but not all that long. And lots of fun getting to the part where they stopped. OF course they would be cute about it.
“A sleepover!? Like Tom Hanks in Big? I get to be on top.” Jim grinned and Pam rolled her eyes below him, before pulling away slightly and looking up to him.
“You can be on top if you like. But I don’t have a bunk bed…” she winked. He blushed. Jim and Pam banter in true form.
This was a wonderful first date story and I'm so glad you decided to share it with us. Looking forward to many more stories from you to come.
Author's Response: Thanks Max! I really enjoyed writing it and had a great beta ;)
1 [Report This]Date: July 16, 2021 12:25 pm Title: Errant Pen
Pam saved a sex souvenir! That's hilarious... and also very Jam-my.
I thought you did well with the vibe of the post-The Job summer - their happiness tempered by discombobulation and a sense of missed opportunities, and the subtlety they must have conducted themselves with in the office every day.
I really appreciate the little signs you worked in here that Pam is actually equally as done and ready for their rest of their lives together from the very beginning as Jim is. I feel like they make that very explicit with him in canon and not so much with her, and it's sweet.
Author's Response: I couldn't help myself! I feel like there is a future story there called "Jim and Pam's sex souvenirs" :D I love that you got the nuances that she's "all in", I felt that too and wanted to convey that.
1 [Report This]Date: July 13, 2021 05:52 pm Title: Errant Pen
A little here there and everywhere in the timeline to wrap it up, but not in a way that detracts from the story. Glad you touched on the fact they took the time to unpack all the emotional baggage they'd been carrying around for years. Once they're past that it makes complete sense that their relationship would take off and not look back.
A lot of fun getting glimpses into their at work lives during this summer and their dating lives away from the office. Lots of fun there. Ending it with the beer coaster was a super cute way to bring it all together.
Great job with this one. Looking forward to whatever you have next for us.
Fortes Fortuna Adiuvat
(Fortune Favors the Bold)
Author's Response: Thank you! I like to jump around a little, but I hope the narrative thread remained clear. I still feel they won't jump straight in the sack together, at least not until Karen had left.
1 [Report This]Date: July 11, 2021 03:00 pm Title: Coaster
“Yep. I’ve really missed these… and I feel that now is the time to reaffirm my feelings for…” he paused for a moment and locked eyes with her, “grape soda.”
“Oh. I see.” Her smile took on a slightly mischievous quality. “Good to know."
Grape soda giving me butterflies.
I've read a LOT of first date fics and this one didn't disappoint! I think it was very in character and realistic and lovely. I can't wait to keep reading!
Author's Response: Thanks so much, WW! That was one of my set favourite lines to write. I wanted it to telegraph a lot about where things were going and how Jim was finally unafraid to show Pam his feelings.
Date: July 10, 2021 01:45 pm Title: Beer Bottle
Well seeing things from Jim’s POV was interesting. As usual I have little to no sympathy for Karen. Yes it was wrong for Jim to give her mixed signals, and it was wrong to sleep with her
knowing that he really didn’t want to be with her long term, but Karen knew that Jim had feelings for Pam, and yet she still stayed in a relationship with him. Karen took a risk of getting hurt and that’s what happened. It was good to see that Jim actually defended Pam,especially since he
treated her like trash since he first came back to Scranton. I do want to see JAM move forward in their relationship, but I do think that they should talk out their issues before they get too serious because it will be a dark cloud hanging over them.
I definitely think Jim should apologize to Pam for
his attitude towards her during season 3, because he was a big ass.
Author's Response:
Thanks for this! I am totally with you on the Jim/Karen situation, I do think she was hit sideways by his dumping her the the way he did, but to an extent she knew what she was getting into.
I would like to think that some of what I glossed over in terms of detailed conversation at the restaurant alluded to them starting to make proper peace with each other, but there was definitely more to come from them in terms of reconciling their feelings. And we will explore more of that in the last part, coming very soon ;)
1 [Report This]Date: July 08, 2021 02:41 pm Title: Beer Bottle
I was so excited to see you’d done a follow-up to this! I love Jim’s POV here - the little moments of him thinking exactly the same as Pam (also with the marriage and babies line!), and just his giddiness (him punching is the air is so cute), and the ways he’s noticing and looking at her throughout. It’s adorable. I also really enjoyed the way you fleshed out the scenes with David Wallace and Karen. I always struggled to imagine how the rest of that job interview went, lol, but I thought you got it down very realistically. And the Karen scene was really well done: her anger feels very real, and I really like the acknowledgement that that day did include a pretty nasty break-up for her.
But I think my absolute favourite part was:
He noticed Pam had been fiddling with the same coaster all through dinner.
“Are you going to give that coaster a break?”
“Actually I’m contemplating adding it to my teapot items.”
“Oh.”
“I’m just going to put it away.” Jim felt a small frisson of excitement as he recognised that this evening, this moment, was as important to her as it was to him. That simply blew him away. It had been really difficult for so long, knowing he loved this woman, having to watch her without ever being able to really tell her how he felt, just little scraps that fell into his lap for such a long time. And yet there they now were, on the cusp of something huge, and she was right there with him.
It’s a lovely nod to the coaster from Pam’s chapter, and such a sweet moment for Jim, especially with the throwback to the teapot.
Also: I only just spotted the cover art for this, I love it!
Author's Response:
Ha! The cover art! That was Max's fault, she made me do it, I went for super-cheesy :D
I'm really pleased you found it realistic, I wanted to make it so, sometimes this is at the expense of some humour but I hope I got the balance reasonably well.
1 [Report This]Date: July 08, 2021 11:09 am Title: Beer Bottle
The adventures of Tourist Jim and Evening Jim and Bedtime Jim was a nice touch... does well portraying Jim at kind of a remove from himself, and also it's just amusingly written.
I love the idea of Pam as a siren... captures both the pull she has on him and the idea that her influence at this particular moment is not exactly an unmitigated positive, and that he's aware he may well be abandoning this job and Karen just to crash against the rocks again.
I always appreciate it when folks let Karen be a little self-righteously mean in this break-up scene. This must have been a DEEPLY terrible moment for her, all the more so because of her sense that she should have seen it coming. I think she sounds right here - like there's a lot of things she's had in the back of her mind ready to reel off in this moment.
(Also, this has inspired me to start thinking about a David Wallace POV fic. :D )
His perspective on the date is cute! I love how blown away he is by her, and by the small signs of how important this night is to her, too.
Author's Response:
Thanks Joe - I love that you got this, and you've summed up what I was trying to create perfectly! I felt the metaphor as Pam as Jim's siren was *exactly* because, yes, not an unmitigated positive and she was the unknown. However, his draw to her is irresistible and I wanted to show that we would rather crash and burn against her rocks than take the "safe" route with Karen.
I feel some pathos for Karen, as I think she was led on by Jim and he used her as a mechanism to deny his own feelings. She deserved to have a voice in that moment, even if it wasn't a happy one.
I am so excited that this inspired you to maybe write a David Wallace fic! Looking forward to that.
1 [Report This]Date: July 07, 2021 10:34 am Title: Beer Bottle
I’m not the only one who appreciated how Jim jumped to defend Pam. Say what you want about him since he knew he deserved it but Pam was sacred.
Once again I so enjoyed getting to see the night this time from his POV. His getting to learn more about her (piano) and the things he missed And his realization that he was going to learn so much more. That just makes me happy.
Author's Response: Thanks Max. Jim hid his real feelings for ages and did deserve a hard time for the way her treated Karen. He's also Jim and we do love him (otherwise we wouldn't be on this site ;)) so I didn't want to be too mean to him!
1 [Report This]Date: July 06, 2021 08:39 pm Title: Beer Bottle
Nice to get Jim's POV on everything here. Rewinding to get the scene where he says no to the job and also the break up with Karen are always kind of tough things to write. However you did both justice. I can very easily see Jim standing there letting Karen rip into him, but the second she tries to say anything about Pam, his protective instincts kick in. You got to some key things in all of that. Really there's nothing wrong with Karen other than she's just not Pam. From her perspective Jim breaking up with her like this comes out of the blue and I'm sure hurts. Sadly Karen was unintended damage because Jim and Pam were to scared or prideful to really communicate about their real feelings until now.
Getting back to Scranton and getting back to Pam starts to make things easier. He's back where he belongs and a lot of his thoughts mirror Pam's. The "fifty or sixty years of blissful happiness," line also going through his mind is a great way to show that they're finally on the same page.
The first kisses and making out in the bar was a fun re-visit too from the previous chapter. I'm really looking forward to seeing where we go from here. Great job. Keep it up.
Author's Response:
Thanks Warrior! I wanted to attempt both sides of the situation and think about how both Pam and Jim felt and reacted to their date. I really believe that after everything they'd experienced and their general connection, they would have that mirror response to the day and their date.
I spent a lot of time thinking about Jim and Karen's conversation and how that might realistically look. I felt Karen might have been lulled into a false sense of security that she and Jim were over the Pam "hump" (pardon the allusion) even after the revelations of Beach Day and would rise off into the New York sunset together. Then, exactly as you say, Jim just throws this on her seemingly out of the blue, and I wrote her reaction as a combination of disbelief, resignation and anger all at the same time as her world and her immediate future has just been thrown out of joint.
One more chapter to come to wrap things up.
1 [Report This]Date: July 06, 2021 10:42 am Title: Coaster
This is sooo great! We can never have too many first date fics. I love how you handled this. They pretty much aired everything out in a cute awkward and fluffy way. The flirting, the kissing, the banter, everything was spot on.
I can’t wait to read what happens next
Author's Response: Thank you Merria! I was totally going for slightly awkward, so glad it felt that way!
1 [Report This]Date: July 05, 2021 06:32 am Title: Coaster
So you know how much I love the grape soda and the secret meaning behind it and how his return to it symbolizes his true return and says more to her than even his words could.
All the banter and her inner musings were so in character as was the idea she would both be fidgeting with the coaster and saving it as a memento. Apparently Jim's not the only one to get sentimental over seemingly insignificant items. Another reason they are perfectly matched.
So with you they do not sleep together right away. Jim's not a 2 women in 24 hours type of guy especially when one of them is the love of his life but I enjoyed their getting friendly in the bar, not wanting to end the night right away.
The final banter was just so fun and loved the final line.
I know I've read it before but this time, purely as a reader, I had a great time.
Author's Response: Thanks Max - you have guided me so well with this, really glad it hit the spot for you.
1 [Report This]Date: July 05, 2021 05:52 am Title: Coaster
This was delightful. Loved how you put your own spin on things. Jim walking back up to her desk with the grape soda and his lines there were wonderful. Her nervousness while getting ready and wondering what it all means really seems to fit too. Her kiss on the cheek was a delight as well. Getting things going right as soon as the evening starts.
Good job Jim on letting Pam know right away that he and Karen were done. Get that out of the way right quick.
The flirting and conversation at dinner felt real. There's a ton of emotional baggage they both need to unpack and this feels like a great start down that road. Finally some open and honest conversation between them. The kisses after dinner and at the bar were also a ton of fun to read. A great way to set things up for their relationship going forward.
Smart move to hit the breaks for the time being when they get back to her place. Despite everything they've said and clearly feel for each other, this aspect of their relationship is very new and delicate. Makes sense to protect it a bit in order to make sure it takes firm root.
Excellent job for a first date fic. The more the merrier in my opinion and you did great.
Author's Response: Thanks Warrior! I thought very hard (TWSS) about how far to take them on their first date, but I just couldn't see Pam letting him sleep with her so soon after he was with someone else and I agree that it was too new to rush things. (That said, I absolutely love the fics where they throw caution to the wind *ahem*.)
1 [Report This]Date: July 04, 2021 01:54 pm Title: Coaster
Congrats on going through the rite of passage! Not easy. There's some fun dialogue choices here - the self-aware but very comic banter at the end, I thought, especially sounded like them. Right balance of humor and nervousness and odd comfort between two people who have finally broken through a tough barrier.
Author's Response: Thank you! Glad it passed muster and that I found their voices. More to come. :)
1 [Report This]Date: July 04, 2021 06:24 am Title: Coaster
I can never get enough of Jim and Pam first date stories - and this was so, so great! I loved the framing with the coaster. And I loved all the little callbacks to the grape soda, that moment with Jim watching Pam's hair (and Pam then recognising that look herself, ouch), and the apartment tour chat. The way you've written the two of them is such a good mix of awkwardness and humour and intensity, which feels so exactly how you could see their first date going. I also really enjoyed Pam's giddiness and her new confidence ('Denial was definitely only a river in Africa these days' is an amazing line). And so is: '“And then move on to something more substantial…” like marriage and babies and about fifty or sixty years of blissful happiness together.'
I thought the insight into Jim's thoughts with the medal was perfect: and that it's not just about how much he loves her, but also how proud of her he is after the coal walk. And the ending, with Jim's tiredness and Pam wanting to take it slow so soon after he broke up with Karen (because: yes) is very sweet and realistic.
Also, side note: as a fellow Brit, I'm v impressed with your knowledge of US temperatures. Because I can't work out Fahrenheit for the life of me.
This was brilliant!
Author's Response:
Thank you so much! That "Denial" line is really a very old joke but I do like it. Glad you enjoyed it.
Re: temperatures, I am firstly of an age where I remember the days when we used both C and F on the weather forecast! Example here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8a0e680wJeo - it's like double the number and add 30 (roughly), I just memorised the numbers after years of watching Michael Fish :D (this will mean little to anyone outside of the UK, sorry!) but I also have a whole bunch of my in-laws and colleagues who are based in the US, so used to translating.