They settled into a banquette and took in the decidedly retro, pseudo-Polynesian decor. Pam took one glance at her menu and immediately raised it in triumph.

"They still have it! See? 'This drink served in a fresh pineapple'. I told you!"

He laughed. "Did I ever say I doubted you? What's in the drink anyway?"

"Who cares! It's got rum and it's in a pineapple. I'm good." She closed her menu.

He raised an eyebrow. "So...are you having any food or just a liquid dinner?"

"Oh yeah!" she grinned, taking up the menu again. "Well, we have to get the pupu platter."

"Of course."

"And fried rice."

"Naturally."

"And I want won-ton soup."

"Anything else?"

"You pick a dish. Anything - I don't care."

"Anything I want? You're not going to give me any input at all?"

"Hey, I found this place didn't I?" She made a grand sweeping gesture of her arm to indicate the faded old mural of a moonlit tropical beach behind them.

"True. It does have ambiance to spare. I mean, when I asked if you were free for dinner I totally had bright orange naugahyde and plastic tiki lights in mind..."

"Jim! Think of it as exotic dining. Use your imagination. Maybe we've flown in a private jet to dinner in a mysterious foreign country!"

"Yeah. So what is this stain on the menu?" he pointed to the laminated page. "Now that's a real mystery."

She went on, completely undeterred by his comment. "Look! They have a huge fish tank over there. Pretend we're dining in a submarine. Or maybe an evil underwater lair at the bottom of a flooded extinct volcano!"

Her enthusiasm was infectious and a total contrast to what he had been dealing with on his most recent dates. Still, he felt obliged to tease her.

"Okay, whoa. 'Evil underwater lair'? First, I think somebody has seen a few too many James Bond movies... "

"Oh, I love James Bond movies!"

"...and second, I think maybe we should cut you off after one drink. Are you sure you didn't have a little something before I picked you up?"

She immediately scooted around the booth and elbowed him in the side. "So sue me! My best friend is back and I'm just a little bit excited. Some might even describe it as giddy!"

He rested his arm around her shoulders and smiled at her. He thought his face might break from all the smiling he was doing tonight. "I know. I don't want to discourage you. In fact, I'm pretty excited myself."

She leaned closer. "Really?"

"Yeah."

He was contemplating kissing her senseless again when the waiter appeared with their drinks. Pam immediately started giggling.

He sighed. "What is it now?"

"What was the name of your drink again?"

"I believe it was a suffering bastard. Why?"

"Oh, so that explains what's on your cup thingy!"

"Pam," he pointed to the ceramic face, "that is an angry tiki god."

"Yeah, well that face reminds me of Dwight that time you put his stapler in Jello."

"Or Andy when we put his cell phone in the ceiling," he added.

"Good times!" Pam raised her pineapple and clinked it with Jim's tiki mug.

"So how's that drink you couldn't wait to have?"

"Awesome!" she proclaimed. "Doesn't even taste like alcohol."

"Which means I'll probably have to carry you out of here." He couldn't help smiling at the though of doing just that.

"I don't know," she mused, "history has shown us that if I'm drunk, you have a really good chance of getting kissed in public..."

He slapped a hand to his forehead. "You're right! Hey, where's the waiter? I'm getting you another one of those right away."

As if on cue, the waiter appeared with their food.

"She'll have another of those when you get a chance," he told the waiter, shooting her an evil grin.

"Jim!" she protested.

"Don't worry - I'm going to help you with it. Rum soaked pineapple sounds pretty appealing, actually."

"It cleanses the palate!" she pronounced.

He smirked, "Yeah, and that's why you're drinking it. Whatever!"

She shrugged and reached to grab a skewer of beef teriyaki from the pupu platter. "Hey! There's a flaming pot thing here!"

He threw back his head and laughed. "What is that?" he gasped.

"You know," she said, clearly exasperated. "The blue flame in the pot you cook your food over." She pushed the rice out of the way so he could see it.

"Oh!"

"I love burning things over fire." She proceeded to blacken the edges of her teriyaki.

"I could tell from your fire-walking experience."

She chuckled. "Yep. I'm a bit of a pyro, I confess. That was really cool though and my feet are almost completely healed!"

He looked at her thoughtfully. "Why did you do it, Pam?"

She took a moment. "I don't know why, exactly. It was just like a bunch of things that had been building came to a head. I mean, I was having a pretty boring day with Michael making me take notes and you were having all this fun with Karen and I felt invisible. I guess I sorta snapped and I just felt like maybe if I could work up the courage to walk over the coals I'd finally have the moxie to get everything off my chest."

"And a very nice chest it is too." He just blurted it out and immediately regretted it as she turned bright red. He worried he'd gone too far too fast.

"Thank you," she said finally and took a big forkful of rice.

"Sorry," he muttered. "Was that crossing the line?"

She sipped her drink and shook her head. "I have to say that it's just a little weird hearing you say stuff like that but considering we were making out on my couch earlier, I wouldn't say you crossed the line."

"Good," he smiled, relieved. "It is our first date after all and I'd hate to screw up my chances for a second."

She regarded him. "I'm pretty sure there's nothing you could do that would make me not want a second date with you."

He felt his stomach drop a little. "Pretty sure?"

"Okay, maybe there are a couple of things."

"Like what? Just so I know." He was curious what she would say.

"Well, you could go to the men's room, forget I was here and leave without me."

"Ouch," he said quietly.

"Yeah," she smiled ruefully, "I'm trying to learn from my mistakes."

"Anything else?"

"You could hold it against me that I kissed somebody else months ago even though it didn't lead to anything and then maybe you and your brother could trash the bar. And then for good measure you could go try to punch the guy I kissed even though he's clearly moved on."

"Pam, I'm so sorry I wasn't there for you during all that."

She shrugged. "Well, I'm sorry he came after you."

"I've been kind of curious as to how that all came out."

"I was trying to be open and honest, you know, turning over a new leaf..."

"Fancy New Beesley," he smiled.

"Yeah. Anyway, I thought if we were going to make a fresh start I needed to be clear with him about everything so I told him we kissed and I had feelings for you."

"So he didn't quite react the way you thought he would."

"You might say that. I'm not naive - I knew he'd be upset. I just never thought he and his brother would destroy public property. I knew in that split second that there would never be anything between us again. And Jim, I'm really sorry about his behavior."

Her hand seemed so small as he took it in his and squeezed reassuringly. "I thought we agreed on amnesty. No more apologies tonight, okay?"

"I know. I just felt like I owed you that."

"Well, thank you. I think if it meant that we could go on a date, or even be friends again, I'd let Roy take another shot at me. Maybe even two!"

"That's so sweet in a slightly disturbing way!" she laughed. "So, speaking of which, do you think Karen would like to take a swing at me?"

He nodded. "Most definitely. I was thinking maybe the two of you could have a cage match and the winner gets me. Or you know what would be better?" he paused. "Mud wrestling!"

"Ooooh!" she cried. "What about Jello wrestling? That seems more appropriate!" She smiled coyly. "And you know I'd totally kick her butt, right?"

"Really! What makes you so sure?"

"Because," she said earnestly, "I can't lose you again and I won't."

"Oh..."

For the first time all night she'd rendered him speechless. She was feeling a little rush of power. She decided she could get used to the feeling.

He was still searching her eyes, raw emotion displayed on his face, when the waiter returned to see if they needed anything else. Pam looked at Jim for a long moment before she asked for the check. She hoped he knew that she just wanted to be somewhere alone with him. She hoped he understood that she didn't think it would be rushing things to go back to her place. Mostly she hoped that he wanted the same things as her.

He absolutely did.