That Friday, Tate called up from security at 10:00 with the weather bulletin. Storm moving in quickly. Snow and wind, blizzard conditions. The city was declaring a snow day, and had recommended that all non-essential personnel make their way home while the roads were still clear.
Jim thought his job the very definition of non-essential, and began closing his spreadsheets.
Michael, on the other hand, considered Dunder Mifflin a veritable lifeline between clients and their every paper need. He insisted that two people stay to answer phones for as long as possible.
Jim frowned. And risk my neck driv—
“I’ll stay,” offered Pam.
Jim stopped closing programs. He looked at her. Her eyes were lowered, but then she peeked up and quirked an eyebrow at him.
He waited for what he hoped was a decent beat.
“Um, I’ll stick around. Handle orders…and stuff.”
Is she smiling?
By 10:15, they were the only two people in the business park.
x x x x x
“You sure you don’t wanna get home while it’s safe? I can cover.” What am I doing?
She smiled. “I’ll take my chances.” A year ago, it wouldn’t have been an issue. Roy would have insisted she come home with him. That was a year ago.
“Excellent.” He drummed his fingers on the counter. “So…?”
“Sudoku Simul-Challenge?”
Jim grinned. “Loser has to answer the phone with a French accent ‘til lunch.”
“You’re on.”
x x x x x
“Doondair Meefleen, zees eez Pam. Wahn momaynt, pleeeez. Ah’ll transfair yew tew Jeem.”
He could get used to this.
x x x x x
By lunchtime, snow was falling thickly.
Jim turned to her. “What do you think?”
“I say we stick it out.”
“Good. Because I have an idea for Dwight’s desk, but I need your keen eye for color.”
She raised her eyebrows, intrigued.
x x x x x
At 4:45, they finally stepped back to appraise their work.
“Wow. I’m almost sad we wasted this on Dwight.”
The entire surface of Dwight’s desk was covered in round, colored stickers. They formed an impressionistic mural of The Powerpuff Girls.
“Yeah. I’m pretty sure Blossom could kick his ass.”
They laughed, then looked at each other and laughed harder. Around 3:00 they’d decided they didn’t look enough like the serious artists they were, and had “spattered” themselves with stickers. Jim reached up and pulled a small, blue circle from Pam’s earlobe. His fingers were warm, and Pam involuntarily tilted her head toward them.
Did she just do that? “Well, we can probably call it a day.” He carried the sticker boxes back to the supply shelves.
“Mm, I guess so.” She touched her earlobe lightly as she walked back toward reception.
She was gathering her things when Jim called to her.
“Uh, Pam? You might want to see this.”
“What?”
He was standing in Michael’s dark office, looking out the window when she found him. He waved her over. She stepped up under his arm, and wasn’t sure what she was looking for until she turned toward the end of the parking lot.
“Oh, crap.”
The city’s snowplows had thrown a huge berm of snow across the only exit. Their cars were indistinct white mounds.
“There must be two feet of snow on the ground.”
“And it’s still coming down.”
He was right. It was blowing past the window furiously. The sun had set.
Pam looked up at him and grinned.
“So, do you have plans tonight?”
He raised his eyebrows.
“Because I’m thinking…slumber party!”
“Here?”
“Sure! Why not? We have a kitchen, and a TV, and hours and hours of Dundies videos…”
But he was already on board. In her enthusiasm, she’d grabbed his forearm.
“Well…okay, but on one condition.”
“What?”
He grinned. “We have to have a pillow fight in our nighties.”
“Deal!” She winked and gave his arm a squeeze. “Let’s see what’s for dinner.”
And she headed toward the kitchen while Jim tried (not very hard) to stop thinking about Pam in a nightie.
x x x x x
She was poking through the freezer when he came back from the break room, his arms full of instant food. He dumped it onto the table. “What’s that?”
She was feeling a neatly-wrapped paper bundle labeled Property of Dwight K. Schrute.
“I think it might be…a squirrel.”
“Eee.”
“Yeah,” she said, tossing it back into the freezer and closing the door quickly, lest it escape.
“Well, fear not the frozen squirrel. I bring you a feast. You like sodium, right?”
“My favorite nutrient.”
“Well, that’s good,” he said, holding up each item for her, “because tonight we’ll be dining on ramen noodles and microwave pizza pockets. Actually I was able to get an orange and some yogurt, too, so: fruit salad.”
She seemed impressed.
Their elbows bumped as she prepared the ramen and he heated the pizza pockets. Neither moved away, though. Jim caught her watching his hands as he peeled the orange. She smiled sheepishly; he nudged her and laughed softly.
He could get used to this.
x x x x x
They sat with their backs against the couch, their legs stretched out on the floor.
Her hands were on her stomach. “That was so…unhealthy.”
“What?! That was the perfect balance of the noodle group and the pepperoni group.”
She giggled. “I guess we did have fruit and dairy.”
“Well, one of us did.”
“What are you implying?”
“I’m just saying – you don’t share very well. Didn’t you go to kindergarten?”
She poked him in the shoulder. “I’ll have you know I was a kindergarten superstar. My cubby was neat, I colored inside the lines, and I always raised my hand.” She looked over to find him smiling at her. “What?”
“Nothing. I can picture it, that’s all.”
“How ‘bout you? Were you a model five-year-old?”
“Oooh.” He shook his head, and chuckled. “I think I coasted through on my charm. No points for neatness. I did learn to share, though.”
She smacked his leg with the back of her hand. They sat for a moment, nursing very similar thoughts, before Pam turned to him with a gleam in her eye.
“Let’s decorate.”
Confusion. “What?” Visions of moving desks, rearranging inspirational posters.
“For Christmas. I know where everything’s stored. C’mon! It’ll be fun.”
She was right. They found an internet radio station streaming holiday music, and set about putting up lights and tinsel. When they ran out of supplies, they looked up an origami website, and made dozens of small stars, trees, and wreaths to hang from the ceiling. When an old Christmas standard came on, Jim sang along. He looked up to find Pam gazing at him with – what? He barely dared hope, so he just kept singing. He threw in a few cheesy winks just to hear her laugh.
After placing a few extra green ornaments around Angela’s desk, they turned off the fluorescents, and stood back to take in the effect.
“Too bad we work during the day. The lights look nicer at night.”
He nodded, then glanced out the conference room window.
“I think the snow’s let up a bit.”
Pam looked outside for a long moment, then up at Jim. He chuckled.
“You wanna go out there, don’t you?”
She nodded, grinning, and might have started bouncing a little on her toes.
He nodded back. “Let’s do it.”
x x x x x
They had to push together on the door to the roof, then scoop snow out of the way to squeeze out. Soon, though, they stood in the middle of a soft, white world. Big, dry flakes sifted down lazily, sparkling when the street lights hit them. The trees that had been bare this morning were coated and glittering. It was very quiet.
“Wow,” he whispered. His breath slowly drifted away.
Pam leaned down, looking at something. “Huh. What’s this?”
He put a hand on her back and bent down beside her. “Where?”
To which he got a face full of snow.
“Oh, Beesly. You’re gonna to pay for that.”
When he shook the snow from his eyes, she was grinning at him. “Oh yeah?”
He lunged for her coat. She shrieked and ran. Well, she didn’t run exactly. She hadn’t considered how hard it would be to escape in snow above her knees. So she leapt from foot to foot, as far forward each time as she could. She couldn’t stop laughing.
He was going to catch her. His legs were longer, and she was clearing a perfect path for him. So he gave her a head start, laughing at her ungainly progress across the roof. When she’d gotten about twenty feet away, he went after her.
She heard him coming up behind her, and tried to weave, but only succeeded in letting him close the distance. She began throwing snow backward at him, but the extra effort was making her breathless, so she leapt again…
…and got tackled. He grabbed her around the waist and spun her on the way down, so that she landed on top of him. They ended up plowing head-first into the snow.
His arms were still around her waist. She lifted her head, laughing, and started clearing the snow that covered his face. She accidentally bumped his nose and he grunted and squeezed her. After that, she brushed more gently until he was clear.
When he opened his eyes, she was smiling down at him.
“Hi,” she giggled.
“Hey.”
“Sorry about your nose.” She touched it gingerly with warm fingers. “Does it hurt?”
His eyes were locked on hers. He nodded.
She lowered her head until she was just a few inches away.
“Yeah?”
Another nod.
“Does this help?”
She kissed the bridge of his nose.
He held his breath.
“How ‘bout this?”
She kissed the tip.
He watched her lips whisper.
“Maybe this.”
Her lips were warm on his, her eyelashes wet on his cheek. He closed his eyes and felt her hands on his shoulders. When her tongue ran along his lower lip, he remembered to inhale again.
She tasted of oranges and snow, and suddenly he couldn’t get enough of her.
His hands came up into her hair, as he kissed…licked…bit her lips, her nose, her ears. Her mouth was hot on his neck, her fingers in his hair. His name drifted past his ear in a sigh. He stopped to catch his breath.
She raised her head. Smiled.
“Better?”
He growled. She giggled and gave him another peck on the nose.
“Let’s go warm up a bit. Your teeth are chattering.”
Right. Because of the cold.
x x x x x
She made them hot tea, then he set her to dragging every cushion she could find into the empty conference room.
“Where are you going?”
“Dessert.”
“Oh.” Surprised. Pleased.
When he returned, she had pulled up the blinds and sat watching the snow fall. He joined her on the cushions.
She was suddenly alert. “Mmm! What's that?”
“Dessert.”
“But what—?”
“Shh.”
He presented a plate of apple slices, then uncovered a bowl of warm chocolate. He dipped a slice into the chocolate and placed it between her lips.
She closed her eyes and moaned. “Oh my god, what is that?”
“Good?”
“Mmm-hmm.”
“I don’t think I should give away my recipe.”
She opened her eyes again. “No?”
He pursed his lips and shook his head.
She looked at him, then grinned and dipped her finger in the chocolate. She rubbed it on his chin, then leaned close and kissed it off.
He had to clear his throat. “It’s…an old family secret.”
She put a dab below his ear. The feeling of her tongue there made him dizzy.
He swallowed hard. “It’s very complicated.”
She held his eyes as she dabbed chocolate at the base of her own throat.
“I-microwaved-two-Milky-Way-bars.”
Her soft laughter vibrated against his lips as he licked her clean. “That’s what I thought.”
The chocolate was soon gone. The apples lay forgotten.
x x x x x
As he held himself over her, he could see the tiny colored lights reflected in her eyes. And something else, too. He recognized it just before she whispered to him.
I love you, Jim.
He closed his eyes and smiled. Kissed her cheek, and breathed into her ear, Pam.
As he began to move, she gasped.
He moved slowly at first, wanted to feel every inch of her. When he met soft, inner resistance, he moved slowly backward. At the last possible moment, he moved forward again. She arched her back and sighed. Slowly, slowly, he measured his strokes by the hot puffs of her breath on his face. Gasp…sigh. Gasp…sigh.
When the sighs became moans, and her nails were in his back, and her hips came up to him, he met her pace. Now he felt as though they were tumbling down, down, faster and faster, toward something unseen but so sweet he didn’t dare question the danger. Their breaths were ragged, and their names hung in the air, fogging the windows. When she began crying out, he let himself go with her, over the cliff, into nothing and everything.
x x x x x
He tried to memorize how she looked as she slept.
The curve of her neck.
The shape of her mouth.
The feel of her fingers against his chest.
x x x x x
When he opened his eyes, she was propped on her elbow, her curls lit by the sun. She was watching him and smiling.
“Hey, you.”
He smiled back.
He could get used to this.
Author's Chapter Notes:
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.
nomadshan is the author of 44 other stories.
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