Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.   

It was hot.

Dog days of summer kind of hot.

The temperature outside was 97 degrees, and it was only 8:15 in the morning on this August Thursday morning. Pam stepped outside of her apartment after having taken a shower to see what the temperature was like. She was surprised by how strongly the sun stung her arm at this early hour of the morning.

 “Great. If it’s this hot at 8 in the morning, I can imagine what its going to be like later.” She muttered as she walked back in, closing the door behind her.

Rifling through her closet, Pam chose her outfit accordingly. A sleeveless sweater and her usual khaki skirt, however she decided to forgo the tights since she knew Dunder-Mifflin did not have the greatest air conditioning system, it would be more likely much too warm than too cold in there.

As Pam walked into the building, she noted that it must have gotten at least five degrees hotter outside she had gotten into her car at home about twenty minutes ago.

“It’s going to be a scorcher today, huh.” She heard a familiar male voice say from behind her. She smiled slightly as she turned to face him.

“Yeah” She laughed “Let’s hope Michael remembered to wear deodorant. Remember two years ago, that time he decided he had a naturally pleasant body odor and didn’t need to use it. He killed both plants that were in his office.”

Jim laughed along with her as they entered the elevator, “Yeah, how could I forget. Dwight also stopped using deodorant when I convinced him that the government put a tracking device in each tube of it and that by using it, he was giving into a government conspiracy. Biggest backfire ever when I had to smell his stench for two whole days that summer.”

“Why does it feel so warm in here?” Pam asked, as Jim courteously allowed Pam to walk off the elevator first, mumbling “ladies first” as his mother always taught him.

Jim, snapping back to reality after letting his gaze rest too long at the few droplets of sweat that were resting on Pam’s shoulders from the heat, did not realize the heat until Pam had mentioned it. “Huh… oh. Um. Wow. You’re right.” He said as he tossed his bag on his chair. Since Ryan had been moved in the back with Kelly in April, Jim had reclaimed his old seat that he was so fond of. He enjoyed not only its geographic location, but also he had convinced himself that the chair was much more comfortable.

Jim saw Pam walk into Michael’s office, presumably to ask why there was no air conditioning in the office. But Dwight had beaten her to the punch.

“Michael, I have skills. If you would just let me climb through the air vents, I am positive I could find the problem and fix it. Unless of course you intentionally shut off the air conditioner in order to allow us to live as nature intended, dealing with heat and cold based on our natural devices. I always admired the way animals live out their whole lives with on modern human conveniences, such as air conditioner….refrigerators… light sabers… “

“Dwight!” Michael chastised, clearly annoyed. “Of course I didn’t turn off the air conditioner. You think I enjoy melting? Geez.” Michael ran a hand through his hair, before noticing Pam had entered the room. “Pam, hi… wowza! Love the outfit, your arms are so… do you work out?”

Pam wrapped her arms around her, “Michael, I just wanted to know why it was so hot in here. Do you need me to call maintenance?” She kept her arms wrapped around her, despite the heat.

“No, I already called them when I first walked into the office, currently known as a sauna. They told me they’d work on it, but it might not be fixed until later. Apparently the heat causes them to work slower, or some stupid answer. Those guys have no respect for this work environment and the people who work in it. Idiots.”

Walking out of her office and back to her desk, she gave Jim a shrug and a small smile before sitting down to listen to voicemails. This might be a paper-shredding day she thought to herself. She looked over at Jim who was already on the phone with a client. She gazed as his face which already had a few droplets of sweat on his forehead and in the cleft above his chin, below his bottom lip. She had never been so jealous of sweat before in her whole life as she was right now.

She smirked to herself as she glanced at Karen’s desk. Or, the desk formerly known as Karen’s desk. Pam had begun to notice around May that things had gotten frosty between Karen and Jim, but didn’t dare to say anything to either of them about it, despite her gnawing curiosity. She guessed that Jim was the one to break it off with her, judging from the day Jim walked into the office to find a box of his stuff on his desk that Karen must have left. She never came back to the office, but heard from Toby she had quit Dunder-Mifflin altogether to find a job better suitable to her talents, whatever that meant.

Despite the fact that she was blissfully happy at the event, her happiness over Karen and Jim’s break-up was cut short when she saw how broken up Jim was about it. He genuinely looked like somebody had kicked his puppy.

So here they are, three months later on possibly one of the hottest days of the year, with a broken air conditioning system in the office. She and Jim never discussed his break-up, their current feelings, or their single statuses.

In the background, Pam can hear Kelly playing “Heatwave” by Martha and the Vandellas on her computer. Pam liked this song, and mentally applauded Kelly for her good taste in oldies.

 She knew the myth that heat caused things to happen. She had seen the movie “Dog Days” one rainy Saturday night a few months back and knew how August heat could change a person. And somehow, as Pam glances at Jim trying to make a paper fan for himself, feeling the sensation of perspiration tickling her neck, she knew today the heat just might work it’s magic at Dunder-Mifflin.

He had past the point of being able to focus on work, so he tried to distract himself with a game of FreeCell on his computer. He was just about to win his first game when Michael emerged from his office. He moped over to Jim’s desk with a sullen expression plastered on his face.

“Hey Michael… what’s wrong?” He asked, looking at quizzically, but she just shrugged, clearly not knowing the source of Michael’s problem.

“Um, I would really appreciate it if you would come out to lunch with me. Talk about some guy stuff. I’d like your opinion on some things.”

“My opinion?” Jim asked calmly, yet his mind was racing to come up with any and every excuse to get out of going to lunch which would result in him missing lunch with Pam. The very lunch he had been looking forward too for the last two hours, twenty-four minutes, and seventeen seconds.

Michael leaned in “Yeah... me and my lady friend had a fight and I need some guy talk.”

“You mean Jan? And usually, it’s called girl talk because guys don’t really do the whole talk thing when situations go badly.” He prayed Michael would buy that, to his office to ponder why girls could have girl talk, but guys couldn’t have guy talk.

“Michael, I’d be glad to go with you and help you through any feminine problems you may be having.”

“Lower your voice Dwight, geez. You think I want this to be public knowledge? And I don’t have feminine problems… I have problems with the feminine species!”

Jim looked at his boss with a raised eyebrow “Sex?”

“That’s what she said.” Michael laughed.

“No, you said feminine species, I think you meant feminine sex… men and women are the same species... you know what. Nevermind. Michael I would love to help you with your problem but I actually already have lunch plans, so I can’t.”

“Can I go?” Dwight asked.  

Jim looked over at Pam, who was intently watching the conversation between the three men. She hoped that Jim would be able to get out of it. She had plans. Plans that took a lot of courage to put into motion, one could say these plans were years in the making. Yes, she had plans for Jim during lunch, and now Michael was going to ruin it, dashing her preparations and potentially putting her courage on the backburner.

“Jim, this is not a question. I am having a very serious crisis which needs to be resolved ASAP. Your attendance is not up for negotiation… and as my friend I would expect you to be happy to help. I’ve always been available when ever you’ve have some…feminine problems. Plus you can’t tell me you don’t want to get out of this sweatbox for a few hours.” He said, indiscreetly nodding his head in Pam’s direction.

Pam’s eyes locked with Jim’s, they both knew Jim had been defeated and even if he continued to fight Michael against going to lunch with him, they both knew in the end… he’d lose. She gave him a smile that let him know she wasn’t mad. Dissapointed… yes, but not mad.

“Ok great… Jim let’s have an EDT in about twenty minutes!” Michael chirped.

“I think I should come along too… I have a girlfriend and can offer valuable information on the weaker sex.” Dwight interjected.

“Yeah, sure whatever Dwight.” Michael said as he walked back into his office.

Jim faintly heard Dwight’s “yesss!” as he walked over to the reception desk.

“I am so sorry.” Jim said immediately to Pam, before she could say anything. Just looking at her made him even more angry at Michael for ruining his non-date lunch with Pam. She was wearing pink today, he loved the way she looked in pink. Granted, he loved the way she looked in general, but she just seemed to sparkle even more in his eyes when she wore that color.

She looked up at him with a disappointed half smile on her face. “It’s ok, I know how irresistible a lunch date with Michael can be.”

“Believe me… he is not the one who is irresistible.” Jim noticed how his comment made Pam blush and look down at her desk. “What if promise to make it up to you?”

“Make it up to me?” Pam repeated, her interest very piqued.  

“Yes. Can you stay later tonight? Not too much later, just until like 5:30?”

Pam tried to read his thoughts, but had not idea what he was thinking. It didn’t stop her heartbeat from racing. She didn’t know whether it was the heat or the exciting fact that Jim also had plans that made her skin tingle. “Yeah sure. Am I allowed to know what you have in store for 5:30 tonight?”

“Nope, it’s a surprise.” Jim said with a grin. “You’re just going to have to sweat it out.”

“Ha ha.” She mocked, but mentally applauded his talent for pun.

He drummed his fingers on the reception desk one last time before turning around and heading back to his seat. He wasn’t going to let Michael’s feminine problems ruin his plans with Pam.

For Pam, the rest of the day dragged on, especially without Jim in the office. Once she completed her daily dosage of paper work and other objectives, minus the continuous task of answering the phones, she found herself searching for a mindless activity to keep her occupied.

 “Stupid puzzle…” she muttered, X-ing out of the computer page. She had given up on her third straight unsuccessful Sudoku puzzle, clearly she needed something mindless to occupy her work day, at least Jim returned. With that, her mind wandered to Jim. She wondered how he was doing with his woman counseling for Michael. She smiled at the thought of Dwight trying to explain the complexities of the female brain to Michael.

Her mind further wandered to what Jim had planned for 5:30 this evening. Dinner she thought, flowers? Or maybe I’m thinking too romantic. I don’t even know what he’s feeling at this point. Her mind repeatedly replayed the “irresistible” comment that he had made to her earlier. Was he talking about me? She knew Jim had been in love with her over a year ago, but since then Stamford, Karen, and about twelve months of distance had come between those feelings.

“For crying out loud, why is it still so hot in here?” It was to herself, but she said it aloud anyway.

At that moment, Michael walked in, with Dwight in tow “I’m sorry, that happens whenever I enter a room.”

Pam smiled politely at Michael, who was laughing at is own joke. “Where’s Jim?” She asked, noting his absence from Michael’s entourage.

“Oh, he wasn’t feeling so well towards the end of our…um… conference. He asked to take the last two hours off sick so he could go home early and rest up. But don’t worry, I’m sure it’s nothing contagious.” He leaned in closer to Pam “Probably food poisoning, if you ask me.” He whispered, like it was a secret. 

Pam’s heart sank. Clearly, this ‘me and Jim’ thing is not meant to be. She thought to herself. She couldn’t believe that she and Jim now had two thwarted almost-date attempts. “Curses” she muttered under her breath as she roughly grabbed a few jellybeans from the dispenser.

About an hour later, at four-thirty, Michael emerged from his office with an armful of folders and loose pieces of paper.

“Hey Pam, I have a huge favor to ask of you. But I sort of knocked all this off my desk, and I didn’t realize that it needs to be organized for a meeting I have on Monday. You see, I was trying this magic trick I saw the other day, where you quickly pull a sheet off of a table with all the stuff on it and if you do it fast enough, everything stays in place on the table. Well, I wanted to try it but I only have a desk in my office, so I put a sheet on my desk, replaced everything and voila!! … It didn’t work. But anyway, do you mind putting all the paper in the appropriate marked folder? It all should be labeled. I’d really appreciate it!” Michael gave his best effort at puppy-dog eyes to her.

“Sure.” She said to him, once he walked back into his office, presumable to clean up the rest of the mess, she muttered “I hate my life” to herself and began the match game with files and folders.

At five o’clock, she called Jim’s house phone and his cell phone, there was not an answer at either phone. She was still working on putting the appropriate files back into order while all her other co-workers, including Michael walked out of the office to begin their weekend. Michael passed her with a “you’re the best” comment before walking over to the elevator. 

It was just about 5:20 when she finally had all the folders in order, with the corresponding files neatly tucked away within each appropriate folder. “Finally” she sighed. Pam got up and went into Michael’s office, and placed the stack on his desk for Monday’s meeting.

She got her purse out and placed it on her desk before deciding to go to the bathroom quickly before she drove home to her fabulously air conditioned apartment. She was truly amazed that she managed to make it through the day without melting.

And odd feeling came over her as she splashed her face with cold water. She quickly dried her face off, and went back out into the office to find that something was different. More specifically something had been placed on the reception desk: a note with a pink tulip next to it.

Pam looked at her watch and smiled. “Five-thirty… on the dot.”

She picked up the piece of paper and immediately recognized Jim’s chicken scratch handwriting.

She brought the flower up to her nose and took in its intoxicating and sweet scent. Grabbing her purse, she quickly made her way out of the office and to the nearest access point to the roof. She remembered all too well the last time she was up there. She was still engaged to Roy and her and Jim watched Kevin and Dwight set off fireworks while they ate grilled cheese sandwiches.

Making her way up the iron ladder, she took a deep breath before opening the door latch, which was currently the only obstacle her in path to Jim.

What she saw when she opened the door to the roof was something she previously could have only dreamed of. She saw lit candles all around, despite the fact that it wasn’t very dark outside yet. Soft music was playing from somewhere, it took her a few seconds to spot his ipod on a speaker dock on the corner of the rooftop. She saw two chairs, a table, with an elaborate array of food and drink displayed across it. Lastly, she saw Jim. He had changed out of his work clothes and into a plain blue t-shirt and cargo shorts.

For the first time in her life, she was speechless. Nobody had ever done anything like this for her, ever. She didn’t know whether it was the beautiful atmosphere or if it was how great Jim looked in his out of work, more casual clothes. But words would not form in her mouth, her tongue refused to move.

“Hey.” Was all Jim said in that moment.

She stared at him while he looked at her with hope glimmering in his eyes and a shy smile plastered on his face.

“I honestly don’t know what to say Jim, this is all… amazing, wow. You did all this for me?”

He took a step closer to her. “Yeah, I faked an illness in front of Michael and Dwight earlier so I could plan all this. And with a little help from the camera crew and maintenance, I was able to put this together, yeah.”

“Camera crew?” She asked, raising a quizzical brow.

“Somebody had to call me to let me know when you took your usual last trip of the day to the ladies room. Seriously, we’ve worked together for many years and you have a very regulated routine. I’ve picked up on a few things.” They both laughed. Finally she understood how in a very short timeframe he was able to sneak in and out of the office to leave the flower and the note without being seen. 

“Jim –“ Pam started to speak, but was cut off by Jim.

“Wait. If you don’t mind I’d like to start.” Pam nodded, allowing him go first. “I know me and you never got the timing right. First with Roy, then Karen, but it suddenly occurred to me one day that I was making a huge mistake. I was with Karen for all the wrong reasons, and for one particular reason: she wasn’t you. I was so hurt after you rejected me on Casino Night that I never thought I’d recover. I didn’t date Karen because I was in love with her or because I could fall in love with her, I dated her to prove to myself and to the world that I could, that someone wanted me.”

“Jim—“ Pam tried to interject, placing a hand on his shoulder for comfort.

“Please Pam, it’s ok. I mean it was me who was stupid. And I feel bad for unknowingly using Karen like I did. But I love you, I still love you. I don’t know what this hold is you have over me Beesley, but it just won’t go away.” Their eyes met and they shared a smile. “So I was hoping that starting tonight, maybe we could get the timing right this time.”

“You would pick the hottest evening of the entire year to bring me onto the roof and proclaim you’re undying love for me.” She giggled at her attempt at humor in this life-altering moment.

Jim held up his index finger to her “wait!” he proclaimed. He jogged over to his messenger bag to retrieve a portable handheld fan. He handed her the fan stating “When you’re with me Beesley, its nothing but first-class treatment.” They both smiled and laughed at the little plastic fan which was currently providing Pam with minimal relief from the hot, muggy air.

“I’ve been waiting for you, you know. You opened my eyes to my horrible engagement with Roy and I know I should have contacted you in Stamford after I called it off, but fear kept me back. And ever since then, I mean, there isn’t anyone for me but you. Karen seemed to make you happy, and I didn’t want to be that girl who broke up a happy relationship, so I kept my distance. But soon it became clear that I love you too. You’re my best friend, you know me… down to my bathroom habits for crying out loud, so yeah, I think that we can get the timing right this time.”

“I’m so glad to hear.” Jim stated, “Because I don’t know if I can go another day without doing this.” Without hesitation, he cupped Pam’s face in his large hands and crushed his lips against hers. He barely noticed that she had dropped the fan and her hands were soon in his hair and she didn’t notice that his left thumb began idly caressing her cheek, all they knew was that despite the heat, they managed to create some sparks of their own by the sensation of the kiss.

When they broke apart for some air, Pam interlocked her fingers with Jim’s and said “So what did you cook me?” Motioning to the table of food. “I hope grilled cheese is one of the options… you know there’s just something about grilled cheese and rooftops that makes me happy.”

Jim brought her hand up to his lips and kissed the back of it. “Well I am happy not to disappoint you. Besides, it is my specialty. I call it, Grilled Cheese ala Halpert.”

“You are such a dork. But I love it.” Pam smiled at him as he pulled out the lawn chair for her to sit on. This day would not only go down in the record books as being one of the hottest summer nights since 1962, but also the night that Jim and Pam finally got it right.