Jim sat quietly at his desk, pretending to work while stealing glances over in Pam’s direction. Why had she become so angry at him all the sudden? He really screwed up this time. It had been hilarious to watch Michael defeat Dwight in the fight at the local karate venue, but knowing Pam was mad at him for something he barely understood made the situation a lot less amusing to watch.

Why had she freaked out like she did? Was it because others were around? She seemed perfectly okay with it at first, laughing right along with him. But as quickly as he had made the drastic move to lift her up off of the floor, she became incredibly hostile – writhing away from his strong arms, yelling at him to put her down. He complied and she had not spoken to him since.

Jim sighed heavily and rolled his mouse over the “Compose E-mail” button on the Dunder Mifflin e-mail server. He apprehensively typed Pam’s e-mail into the recipient’s address line and then began to type an e-mail that he could only justify as sounding extremely juvenile. When the camera crew focused in on his computer screen and the silly message that he had quickly typed, he deleted it as fast as he had written it and closed the window. No, he would not e-mail her.

Pam sat at her desk for the remainder of the day in a very similar state to the one Jim was in. The cameras were ignoring her for the most part, she was quite thankful of that. She contemplated what she should do. Meredith had clearly seen the two of them, did she know? What was there to know? That her and Jim were good friends? Oh who was she kidding? They were more than good friends – at least she wished they could be. Their most intimate moments seemed to be shared just as someone interrupted, always in the office or during an office event.

And don’t even get me started on Roy, she thought in the middle of her musings. So many chances to be close to Jim had been completely thwarted by that violent fiancé of hers. And the number of times that Roy and the other packers downstairs had accused Jim of being gay or the number of times that Roy had accused Jim of trying to “feel up” Pam. She had lost count by this point.

Pam sat staring at a blank, blue Dunder Mifflin desktop background on her computer. She opened up her e-mail server and started to type an e-mail to Jim to apologize so she could explain the entire thing. She wanted to say how much she had loved the feeling of his strong arms wrapped around her waist and how much she had loved the feeling of her bare skin against the crispness of his clean shirt. And even though Meredith’s stare at the two of them in their stolen moment of carefree intimacy had made her heart race in the worst possible way, the feeling of his hands grazing against her stomach as he lowered to the floor had made her stomach turn in the best possible way.

Before she could put any of this into words in an e-mail, she chickened out, closed the window of the e-mail to Jim and dumped a jar of multi colored paperclips onto the desk in front of her. Sorting out the colors for the fifth time this week would certainly put her mind at ease – at least for a little while.

The end of the day. Jim still had not gathered up enough courage to send Pam an apology e-mail. Pam could not think of an apology e-mail to send to Jim without sounding incredibly cheesy and coming off way too strong.

Jim sighed, 4:55 PM, most people in the office were starting to leave for the day. He wanted to give Pam an apology before he left. He turned off his computer – no further temptation from that piece of technology and walked back into the workroom.

Oh no…he’s leaving! Pam thought to herself when she saw Jim click off the computer and walk back into the workroom. She looked back at her computer and opened up her e-mail program and composed a message to Jim. If he didn’t see it until he returned home, she wouldn’t have to deal with the fallout. Nor would she have to worry about Michael catching a glimpse of the e-mail from over Jim’s shoulder. That would be the worst scenario possible.

Jim walked by Pam’s desk, all of his things in his arms. As he passed by the corner of Pam’s desk he dropped a bag of chips he had fetched from the vending machine onto the counter of her desk. Pam quickly closed the e-mail message she was sending to Jim and slowly took the bag of chips, inspecting it for a note – there was none.

“Jim, wait,” she said as he was walking through the frame of the door.

“What?” Jim asked, turning around, curious if he had heard her right.

“Just…wait,” she replied. “Don’t leave yet.” Jim shrugged and walked back into the office. He crouched over the counter of Pam’s desk.

“What’s the hold-up?” he asked. Pam looked around the office, checking out who was still left.

“Will you just stick around for a little while?” she asked. “I mean, unless you have somewhere that you need to be…”

“No, no,” he replied. “I can stick around.”

Michael walked out of his office, coat in one arm and briefcase in the other.

“I’m leaving the office to you Pam,” he said, he looked over at Jim. “And you too, I guess. Don’t cause any trouble!”

“We won’t,” Pam said, maybe too innocently. Michael left through the door. Once Pam heard the elevator moving through the walls, she knew she could make her move.

Pam grabbed her bag of chips that Jim had bought her as a peace offering and walked back into the workroom. Jim followed, a bit dumbly.

“So Beesly,” he said leaning against the doorframe, “whatever are you going to do with me?” Was it too bold given the events that took place that afternoon? She had asked him to stay behind.

“I’m sorry about this afternoon,” she said as she sat down at the table they often ate lunch at.

“I was going to apologize to you!” Jim said.

“No, it’s really me that should have apologized, I just spazzed, and…yeah,” Pam said. Jim sat down across from where Pam was sitting and smiled.

“Is that what you wanted to tell me?” he asked.

“I guess,” she replied, though inside she was screaming, “No! No! Not at all!”

“Well, I have something I want to tell you,” he said. Pam stiffened, it could be so many things. There were so many things she wanted him to say and so many things she did not want him to say.

“What?” she asked, swallowing the lump in her throat.

“I never finished reading your palm,” he replied, a sly smirk on his face. Pam laughed and held her hand forward, her palm face-up on the table between the two of them. “I’ve been reading up on how to do this all afternoon, you know. I think I could become a professional palm reader now.” Pam laughed again, her hand bounced a bit on the table. “Hey, I need that palm to stay still if this is going to work!”

Jim smiled and moved a seat over so he was next to Pam. He took her hand in his and she blushed inadvertently. He brought her hand close to his face and scrunched up his eyes.

“What do you see, Fortune Teller Halpert?” Pam asked with a slight giggle.

Oh god, did I giggle? Pam thought to herself.

“Well…lots and lots of children. You’re like the old woman that lived in a shoe!” Jim stated, he pulled her hand away from his face and cradled it in his hand, his thumb slowly brushing over each of Pam’s five fingers.

Pam blushed madly, relishing the feeling of Jim’s thumb caressing her palm.

“What else do you see?” Pam asked quietly. Jim looked up at her with a goofy grin that slowly started to dissipate as he saw the seriousness in her face.

“Umm…err…” Jim stammered as he cleared his throat. Pam leaned in closer, hovering over her hand as Jim traced her palm with his forefinger. Small tingles ran up and down her spine as he ran his finger over the lifeline on her palm. Their foreheads nearly touched as Jim ran his finger back and forth across her hand. Pam breathed in sharply, her left foot sought out one of Jim’s feel from underneath the table. The tip of her white tennis shoes ran along the bottom of Jim’s pant cuff and this time he breathed in sharply.

“Do I…” she was very hesitant at this point, “do I marry Roy?” She was afraid of what saying the name would do. She could feel Jim’s hand stiffen underneath her own. He looked up at her, their eyes meeting briefly before Jim looked back down into her hand. This time he ran two fingers across her hand in a slow sweeping motion. Pam fiddled with the hem of her skirt with her free hand and inadvertently ran her foot up past Jim’s ankle.

He looked up at her, his mouth half-open in a bit of surprise, if they had been in a cartoon there would have been question marks in his eyes. His brow was furrowed slightly.

What do you want me to say? Jim thought loudly in his mind.

“What happens next?” Pam asked, biting her bottom lip, her eyes curious.

“I don’t know,” Jim replied, “it doesn’t say the name of the person you will marry.” He pulled his hand out from underneath hers and he broke his gaze with Pam.

Jim pushed his chair away from the table and Pam’s mind started to race.

Is he getting ready to leave? Did that put him off? Oh no…oh no…oh no…It’s now or never Beesly, it’s now or never.

“Meredith saw us,” Pam blurted out.

“What?” Jim asked, surprised by the odd comment.

“Today, at the martial arts academy,” she replied, “when I spazzed out, it was because of Meredith. Not you.” Jim nodded thoughtfully. “I’m sorry, I really am. I didn’t want you to put me down, I really didn’t. I loved the feeling of your arms around me, I loved everything about it. I never laugh like that with…” she was about to say Roy and then realized what she needed to say, “…anyone.”

Jim’s face seemed to soften, Pam could swear that she started to see a smile creep across his face but she couldn’t be sure.

“I thought I had done something to really piss you off,” Jim said quietly.

“No, no you didn’t. Not at all,” Pam said in reply.

“So, you liked it…” Jim said, with hesitation. Pam nodded twice and placed both of her hands in her lap to try and hide her fidgety fingers. She wanted to run those fingers along the side of Jim’s face, she was trying her hardest not to leap out of her seat and into Jim’s arms again.

“Well, we could certainly try to recreate it…let’s see, you had a big shield in your hand and we were facing that way…” Jim said as he pointed to the left. Pam laughed, did it sound too forced?

“I think the moment has passed,” Pam said with a forced smile, though her true disappointment shone through.

The two of them sat in silence for a few moments, the silence of the empty office echoed loudly through their minds. They were completely alone and they both knew it, it was painfully aware. There was no one that was going to interrupt them this time. There was no one that could interrupt. For the first time in a long time, Pam desperately wished that someone, anyone would come into the break room and break the painfully obvious tension between the two of them.

“So…” Jim said as he began to drum his fingers on the top of the table, “what are you planning on doing this weekend?”

Pam shrugged, her mind starting to wander as she looked up and down his torso. She wanted to grab onto that clean button up shirt he was wearing and rip it off of his shoulders. She wanted to fist her hands up in his hair and feel that warm body of his against hers again.

“Pam?” Jim asked, he voice was only an echo in her head.

She wanted to lie in bed next to him like she and Roy did, or at least the way that they used to before Pam became preoccupied with Jim. Now if she was intimate with her fiancé it was because he wanted to and Pam felt that she had no choice but to comply with his wishes.

She wanted romance, she wanted heart-skipping passion, and she wanted to feel alive again. She felt alive when she was with Jim. So although he felt a million miles away from her right now in the midst of their awkward conversation, she knew that as soon as she snapped back to reality, that fluttering feeling that she felt in the pit of her stomach whenever she joked with Jim would quickly return.

It wasn’t enough. It was never enough. She wanted more.

“Pam? Pam,” Jim said, a smile creeping across his face as he realized that she was a million miles away from their conversation. “Pam, Pam, Pam, Pam. Earth to Pam!”

“What?” Pam asked, snapping out of her wandering state of mind.

“What are you planning on doing this weekend?” Jim asked. Pam shrugged again, like she had before. “Yeah, same here…”

A voice inside of Pam’s head started chanting, “Now or never! Now or never!” Pam’s knees started to shake and she did not want to say another word for fear that if she opened her mouth it would result in a small squeak instead of anything coherent.

She leaned forward in her seat slightly, inching towards Jim. He barely noticed.

“I was thinking about going and buying some new shirts or something…” he pondered out loud, “maybe some new socks…”

Pam reached forward and grabbed Jim’s necktie and pulled him forward in a swift motion, her lips found his as if they were magnets drawn to one another. Her heart jumped as their lips met. Jim, on the other hand, completely surprised by Pam’s bold move jumped backward, immediately breaking the kiss between the two of them. Immediately, Pam misinterpreted it and she backed up in her chair and covered her mouth, gasping in sharply.

“Oh god…” Pam said, her mouth covered. Jim stared at her, wondering to himself what he had just done. Pam stood up quickly and started to rush for the door. Jim stood up as quickly as she had and rushed behind her and put his hand on the doorknob before she could reach for it.

“Please,” Jim said hurriedly, “don’t.” His body blocked hers against the door. Pam barely had room to turn around and leaving the room was completely out of the question. Her heart was racing, her head was pounding. She could feel the heat radiating from Jim’s body behind her and she could hear her heart beating in her ears. She could only imagine that her entire body was pulsing in a combination of frenzied panic and unimaginable lust.

“I’m sorry,” Pam said quietly. She turned her head slightly, trying to look Jim in the eyes. As her hair brushed past Jim’s face, the flowery scent of her curly hair assaulted his senses. His heart was pounding, his hand not holding the door closed was shaking at his side.

“Don’t be,” he said in reply quietly. He leaned slightly forward with a lot less force than Pam had exerted and kissed her in the corner of her mouth, just barely missing the full part of her lips. He closed his eyes tightly and moved his lips slightly to find the full of her lips.

Pam gasped sharply and fell back into the door, her knees giving out from underneath her. To keep herself stable she grabbed the middle of his shirt, wrapping her hand around his tie and slipping her fingers in between the buttons of his shirt. She held onto his clothing tightly, she closed her eyes tightly – not that it mattered, even if her eyes had been open she wouldn’t have been able to see anything at this point.

Jim wrapped his arms tightly around Pam and brought her close to his body, practically holding her up in his arms. His two lips caressed her bottom lip, his teeth lightly grazing just below her lip. Pam ran her free hand up his arm, against his neck and found her way into his hair.

“His hair is so soft…” her mind thought, “his lips are so…” and a small, feminine groan escaped from deep in her throat.

Jim started to pull Pam back towards the table that they had been sitting at, kissing her the entire way. His hand traveled underneath her shirt and she breathed in sharply again and leaned up against the table, trying to find support.

Her brain was complete mush at this point, she completely forgot about every bad thing in her life at that moment. As far as she was concerned, the only two people in the world were her and Jim – what a perfect world.

Jim’s hand traveled all over Pam’s body. She was shaking, he could feel her heartbeat in every part of her body that he touched. His hand traveled down her hips, one of his hands planted against her right hip while the other continued downward, then started lifting a corner of Pam’s skirt. She hardly noticed until she felt his hand on her upper thigh.

She slowed their kisses, pulling away every couple seconds, it was not as intense. Her fist grip on his shirt loosened and her hand completely fell away, falling onto his hand on her thigh. Gently, she pushed away his hand and he pulled away.

His eyes were clear, a hint of sadness but otherwise completely content. There were three red marks on his neck where her fingers had roughly scratched him. His lips were swollen and red from her hungry mouth; she could see hints of her saliva still on his upper lip.

“Something wrong?” he asked. Pam smiled.

“No,” she replied, she looked down at her thigh and pulled down her skirt, letting it fall back to her knees, “it’s too soon for that.” Jim smiled and laughed a little.

“Fair enough,” he said. “I do like to give the ladies a little something to look forward to.” He winked as a goofy grin spread across his face. Pam laughed and threw her arms around Jim’s neck, giving herself a chance to feel those arms of his around her body and to feel his body close to hers one more time. As she pulled away, Jim kissed her softly on the forehead – shivers ran through her head and down her neck once more. She smiled, he smiled.

She headed towards the door, Jim following closely behind.

“So what you doing this weekend?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” he replied. “Going shopping I think.”

“Give me a call if you do,” she said, “I could use some more clothes.” Jim nodded.

He walked by his desk, picked up his bag and coat and headed out the door.

“Have a good night, Beesly,” he said with a smile.

“You too, Halpert,” she said in reply. The door closed softly behind him. Pam grabbed her purse and her coat, smiled and took a deep, satisfying breath.