July 27, 2006

She didn’t want to leave work, not today. It was unbearably hot outside. How could it get this hot anyway? She didn’t want to go home. She lived on the third floor, she was barely able to catch a breeze through her windows, she didn’t have air conditioning and the only relief that she had to look forward to was the small fan located at the foot of her bed that would be her only cooling-off that night.

“You could spend the night at my apartment, it’s air conditioned,” Dwight said as she grabbed a couple of plates from the shelf between the kitchen and dining room.

“No thank you, Dwight,” she said as she swore she heard a sigh of relief from Angela who was standing right behind her.

“It’s cool,” he said.

“No thank you, Dwight,” she repeated. “I think I’d rather sweat in my own bed.”

“Air conditioning,” he said in a sing-song voice.

“Dwight, you’re really creepy sometimes,” she said as she turned around and went to give some patrons their food.

“I don’t understand why you do these things,” Angela hissed at him as soon as Pam was out of earshot.

“What things?”

“Inviting other female employees to your apartment,” she said quietly. “I thought that we were…”

“We are,” he said in a soothingly cool voice. “Pam could have slept on the couch.” Angela huffed loudly and turned around with two salads in her hands.

“If I had air conditioning, Dwight, I would be sleeping at my apartment tonight,” she said quietly. “Unfortunately, I do not and I will be over at ten this evening,” she said as she briskly walked away.

He entered at nine o’clock; they would be closed within the hour if they were lucky.

“Jim’s here,” Angela said as she walked past Pam, polishing crystal glasses behind the bar.

“What?” Pam asked as she looked up towards the door. “Oh. Seat him in my section.”

“We’ve closed your section,” Angela replied with an eye roll.

“Seat him in my section,” Pam said firmly.

“It’s not a good idea to date patrons,” Angela said quietly.

“We’re not dating,” Pam said in a hushed voice, “and it’s also not a good idea to date your co-workers.” Angela’s eyes widened, but instead of arguing any further, she quickly walked to Jim standing in the door and led him over to an empty section of the restaurant.

Pam quickly finished polishing a crystal glass and hurried over to where Jim was sitting alone, looking over the dinner menu.

“What can I get for you?” she asked, appearing at his side.

“I didn’t realize that you had a different menu for dinner,” he replied quietly.

“Yeah, Dwight likes to mix things up throughout the day,” she said and she swore that she let a wink slip across her face.

“Too bad, I have to try something new,” he said with a sigh.

“New things are good sometimes,” she said earnestly. “Should I give you a few minutes?”

“No, I know what I want,” he said with a smile.

“Go ahead.”

“I want you to come home with me tonight,” he said quickly. She dropped her pen on the floor and her mouth dropped open in shock.

“What?” she gasped.

“That probably sounded a lot raunchier than I intended it,” he said with an impish smile. “It’s just, I know that you don’t have air conditioning, and it’s like, 100 some degrees outside right now…”

“I think I’ll be okay,” she said with a weak smile, although she really wanted him to beg.

“No, please,” he said touching her hand slightly. “I just want to do something nice for my friend.”

“I don’t know…” though she knew exactly what she wanted.

“I have a spare bedroom,” he said with a hopeful smile. “It’s a cool 70 degrees in there right now. You can’t turn down something that great.” She laughed and dipped her head down slightly.

“You’re the last person I have to serve tonight,” she said with a smile. “When you’re finished eating, we can go.”

“Okay then,” he said, “can I tell you a secret?”

“Anything.”

“I’m not actually hungry, I ate about an hour ago.”

“So what are you doing here?” she asked.

“Asking you to come home with me to my chilly abode,” he replied.

“I’ll get you a cup of coffee,” she said as she turned and made her way back towards the kitchen.

Jim didn’t order anything to eat – much to Dwight’s chagrin – and he and Pam left the restaurant shortly after 9:30 that evening. They took a poorly air conditioned cab back to Pam’s place so she could pick up a change of clothes and her toothbrush, then hopped into another poorly air conditioned cab and made it back across the city to Jim’s perfectly air conditioned townhouse.

“So…” she said as she stood awkwardly in the doorway.

“Did I ever give you the full tour of my place?” he asked with a wry smile.

“I don’t think that you did, no,” she replied.

“Well then, we have an agenda,” he said. He looked around the space they were standing in. “Well, there’s not a whole lot to explain here.”

“I have seen this part,” she said with a smile.

“Of course, here we have the kitchen,” he pointed to his left where his state of the art kitchen was, “and that leads into the dining room, which we are currently standing in.”

“Oooh,” Pam said a little too sarcastically.

“And if you look over to your right,” he said as he pointed to his right. “You will see the magnificent living room.”

“Very, very nice,” she said with a nod.

“Thank you, I decorated it all myself,” he said.

“Really? You decorated it all yourself?” she asked and he nodded. “I actually am kind of impressed.”

“Oh please,” he said. “You were impressed anyway.”

“True, I can’t lie,” she said.

“Now, if you will follow me, I will take you up the stairs,” he said as he started to walk towards the living room. “Oh, there’s also a nice little bathroom tucked in there.” He pointed towards a little niche in the wall just beyond the staircase.

“Very nice,” she said as she started to follow him up the carpeted steps to the second floor. “I can’t believe that you have a two story townhouse.”

“Why?”

“It’s just so…domestic,” she replied, not really certain if that was the word she was looking for.

“Well, I do love baking cookies on the weekend,” he said as he reached the top step.

“I’m sure.”

“So here, Miss Beesly, we have the second floor,” his arms spread wide and he turned a little. “As you can see, right in front of me is the second floor bathroom, and right next to said bathroom, is a rather handsome linen closet.”

“I’m seething with jealousy,” she said with a grin.

“On your left is the master bedroom, also known as the chamber of love…” Pam giggled loudly. “And to your right is where you will be spending this evening, the guest room.”

“How many people do you have that sleep in the guest room?” she asked.

“Not many,” he replied. “I don’t get many overnight guests.”

“What a shame.”

“Well, I usually don’t offer many incentives.”

“Incentives?”

“Yeah, you know, breakfast in bed, clean sheets…”

“I hope there are clean sheets on that bed,” Pam said as she crossed her arms. “And you know, I was expecting some breakfast in bed.”

“Oh, excuse me,” he said with a laugh, “I’ll try and make sure to get up extra early to make you pancakes.”

“Will you make me pancakes?” she asked hopefully.

“Really?”

“Uh huh,” she said with an eager nod.

“Well, I can’t say no to an eager face like that,” he said as he ran his finger quickly along the bottom of her chin. “Come on, let’s go back downstairs. There’s really not that much to see after all.” She nodded and happily skipped down the stairs and quickly went into his living room and sat down on the couch.

“Do you want anything to eat?” he asked as he walked towards the kitchen. “Have you eaten dinner yet?”

“I had a few little bites to eat the restaurant,” she said with a smile.

“Oh no, Pam, do not tell me that you are one of those waitresses that enjoys picking food off of the customer’s plates after they leave,” Jim said as he opened up the door of his refrigerator.

“No, not at all,” she said with a small chuckle, “but Dwight does it all the time.”

“Are you kidding?” he asked as he pulled a hunk of cheese from a shelf of the fridge.

“Not at all,” she replied. “I think it’s kind of gross, but he’ll go for the tasty leftovers all the time.”

“Oh disgusting,” he said as he pulled a cutting board away from the wall.

“What are you making?” she asked, noticing the cheese in his hand and saw that he was getting a knife from the butcher’s block on his counter.

“Jim Halpert’s famous grilled cheese,” he said proudly.

“Ooh, do you want to make one for me?” she asked as she cocked her head to the side and rested her chin on the back of his sofa.

“I thought you weren’t hungry,” he said.

“I never said I wasn’t hungry,” she said. “I just said that I had had a couple little bites here and there. I don’t think that I can refuse Jim Halpert’s famous grilled cheese.”

“You’re right, you can’t,” he said as he sliced away at the block of cheese. “Do you want something to drink?”

“What do you have?”

“Coke, some juice, water, coffee, tea, wine, hard liquor,” he replied.

“I’ll just have a glass of ice water,” she said.

“Do you want to watch television?” he asked as he pulled a couple slices of bread from a bread box.

“I guess that would be okay,” she replied with a shrug.

“The remote’s up on the cabinet below the television there,” he said with a nod.

“Plasma screen TV?” she asked as she looked up at the wall.

“Of course,” he replied as he started to butter the slices of bread.

“Swanky.”

She didn’t turn on the television, she couldn’t quite figure out how to get the cable to work. It was okay; she wanted to just sit quietly with Jim anyway. He made two grilled cheese sandwiches and brought them to where Pam was sitting on his sofa.

“Which one do you want? Blue plate or pink plate?”

“Why do you have pink plates?”

“No reason, they’re pretty,” he said with a shrug.

“I’ll take the pink one,” she said as she took the plate into her lap and made some room for Jim at the other end of the sofa.

“You know, I normally don’t let my guests eat in the living room,” he said with a wink, “especially on the sofa.”

“Oh, we can go sit at the table,” she said as she quickly set her uneaten sandwich half back on the plate.

“No no, it’s fine,” he said with a smile, “I trust you not to get butter grease on the leather though.”

“I’ll try to be clean,” she said as she picked the sandwich back up and took a bite.

“So?”

“It’s good,” she said as she happily munched away.

“Just good?” he asked as he took a bite of his own.

“Oh, wait, no, sorry,” she took another bite. “Oh my god, Jim! This is the most amazing thing I have ever eaten! It’s like…” she quickly scanned her mind, “sex!” He had to cover his mouth as he laughed and tried not to choke on the grilled cheese in his mouth.

“Best response to date, I think,” he said as his laughter started to subside. Pam could feel her face burning red from the comment she had made, and she quickly turned her face downward and took a couple more small bites. He noticed her sudden recoil and smiled.

“I’m glad that you like it,” he said quietly as he glanced out the window to the summer night.

They sat in an awkward silence for a few moments, neither of them entirely acknowledging the other. Just sitting, eating their grilled cheese sandwiches in the pleasant glow of Jim’s living room.

“Roy never made me dinner…or anything,” Pam said quietly, sadly.

“I had an ulterior motive for you to come over tonight,” Jim said quickly changing the subject.

“What?”

“It wasn’t just to get you out of that hot apartment of yours,” he said quietly.

“What? Are you going to kiss me or something?” she asked with a small smile, but her smile immediately disappeared when she saw the seriousness of his face. “I…I was kidding…” she kind of trailed off, “…mostly.” She shrugged and looked away.

“No…” they sat through another awkward silence and Jim sighed loudly.

“What’s the matter?” Pam asked, her eyebrow furrowed. She set her empty pink plate on Jim’s coffee table and inched a little closer to him.

“I’ve kind of skirted around this, and I’ve had a while to tell you…”

“Tell me what?” she asked, she had worry written all over her face. She leaned a little closer as he finished off the last bits of his own sandwich and he set his blue plate on the coffee table as well.

“I’m…” he scanned her face. He wanted to push her back into the leather cushions on his couch and kiss her and lay there with her. He had a look on his face that was completely unreadable to Pam – she had never seen this side of him before.

“Do you want to kiss me?” she asked quizzically. It had been so long since a man had made a move on her that she started to try and think what it had been like and if Jim’s behavior was normal. He shook his head slowly, almost thoughtfully and started to roll the hem of his shirt around in his fingers.

“Jim…” she insisted. “What’s wrong?”

“I’m leaving,” he said quietly.

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“I’m leaving, in two days,” he replied quietly. “I’m going to China for a month.”

“China?” she asked. He nodded. “You’re kidding.”

“No,” he replied as he shook his head.

“Well that’s…” she thought of all the words she could use to end that sentence: awful, cruel, why didn’t you tell me this sooner? “That’s cool.” Not exactly the words she had been expecting to say. He nodded and moved just a little closer to her, his thigh was touching her knee and it seemed painfully evident that they were that close together with no one else around them.

“I don’t…” he wasn’t speaking so she tried to find words to fill the chasm that had suddenly opened up between the two of them.

He cut off her words. His hand went to the side of her neck and he pulled her head towards his, his lips meeting hers somewhere in the middle. He heard her gasp slightly and he quickly closed his eyes, relishing in the touch of her mouth against his. Her fingers danced along his forearm, she pulled his hand away from her neck and she pulled her lips away from his slowly.

“Wow…” he barely whispered as his eyes quickly scanned her face. They sat in a hushed silence for another bitterly long moment, just staring at each other, trying to somehow read the other’s thoughts.

“I hope you have a good time,” Pam said quietly.

“I’m sorry,” he said quickly. “I should have told you sooner, I really should have but…”

“No, it’s fine,” she said. “I mean…China, wow. That sounds like an awesome place to go to.”

“It’s business,” he said with a shrug.

“So you’re going to be gone for…”

“A month,” he said quietly. “I’ll be back September first.”

“Two days before your birthday,” she said with a weak smile. He smiled back at her.

“You remember.”

“I remember all my friends’ birthdays,” she said. “Hey, I’ll throw you a party when you get back.”

“Really?”

“Certainly! I don’t know where, and I’m not really sure when since I’ll be back in school at that time, but…yes, I will throw you a birthday party.”

“You are awesome,” he said with a grin that quickly faded away again. “I’m really sorry I didn’t tell you sooner.”

“Well,” she said with a shrug and a sigh, “if you had told me sooner, I just would have had more time to think, ‘Well crap, my best friend is leaving for a month’.”

“Yeah…” he said quietly. “Wait, what?”

“What?”

“I’m your best friend?”

“I…I guess,” she said with another small shrug. “I mean, I can’t really think of anyone else that would fit the profile well.” She thought briefly, “I mean, there’s Kelly and Angela. But I think Angela thinks that I’m a sinner and Kelly just kind of talks too much sometimes. And we’re kind of different.”

“I’ve noticed,” Jim said with a chuckle as his arm stretched out along the back of the sofa. Pam looked along the side of his body and felt herself gravitating towards that empty spot along his side.

“I’m going to do something…” she said, wondering why she was even talking. “Something I haven’t done in a long time.” She smiled and yawned as she leaned against his side and nestled her head against the round part of Jim’s shoulder. His arm came around her shoulder and she looked up into his face.

“I think I’m going to miss you,” he said quietly and she smiled.

“I think I’m going to miss you too,” she said as she looked back down and closed her eyes slowly. “I’m especially going to miss you if we have another heat wave.”

He laughed softly as he lowered his head to the top of hers. He happily inhaled the scent of her hair and kissed her very softly on the forehead.

“I’ll bring you back a souvenir,” he said quietly and within only a few minutes, he realized that she had fallen asleep in his arms.