September 3, 2006

Jim spent the night on Pam’s futon the previous evening. He had walked home with her after work as he had promised, but once they arrived and he was sitting on her comfortable furniture, he completely crashed. The fact that he was horribly jet-lagged, and the impending stress of his divorce coming back to haunt him made him incredibly fatigued and he had fallen asleep on Pam’s legs as the two of them watched television. He hadn’t even had a chance to give her the souvenir that he had purchased for her while in China.

He left early in the morning the next day, kissing Pam on her temple as she slept in and leaving a note that read:

I’m sorry I had to leave so early – work.
I’ll give you a call later on in the afternoon and I promise I’ll come back over later this evening. I still have souvenirs for you!
Thank you for letting me crash on your couch.
I’ll talk to you later.
-J

Since it was a Sunday, she had nothing better to do. She wasn’t working, she certainly didn’t have class and she was feeling lazy so she didn’t want to walk very far. There was a cool breeze drifting in through her windows and there were lots of children out playing in the park across the street. She pulled out her art easel, a large piece of watercolor paper and went to work.

She spent most of her day painting, taking a break a couple of times to snack, but for the better part of the day, she spent her time sitting in front of her window and watching the children play outside.

By five o’clock, she still hadn’t heard from Jim and she was starting to wonder if he was going to call her at all. Rain clouds were starting to move in and by quarter after, the park had cleared out and there was a severe weather watch being broadcasted over the local television stations.

She jumped when her phone rang at the same time a loud crash of thunder boomed overhead.

“Hello?” she asked, not even bothering to check the caller I.D. before she picked up.

“Hey, I’m sorry it took me all day to call,” he replied on the other line.

“Jim! It’s okay,” she said with a smile.

“So I’ve actually been out of work for a while, trying to figure out if I should come over or not,” he said and she could sense the smile that he inevitably had on his face.

“I don’t think there’s any if about it,” she said as she kicked a dirty shirt into a basket of dirty clothes sitting next to her bed.

“Good, because I’ve been standing outside of your apartment for the past fifteen minutes trying to figure out if I should ring the buzzer or not,” he said.

“What? Are you kidding?”

“No.”

“I’m unlocking the door right now, I can’t even imagine how wet you must be,” she said as she looked out her window at the rain pouring down.

“Thanks.” She quickly rushed to her door and clicked the ‘unlock’ on the intercom to let Jim up.

She was always endlessly amazed at how fast he came up her stairs. She had just walked over to the stove to take off a boiling kettle of water for tea when there was a knock at her door. She set the kettle aside and walked to the door.

“I swear, every time I come here, you’re dirty!” he said as he looked her up and down. She was wearing a pair of cut-offs that were splattered with paints, a gray tank top and red apron-like piece of clothing over the tank top that was just as paint-splattered as her shorts and legs were. “You must be the messiest painter, ever.”

“Creativity knows no cleanliness,” she said as she walked back over into her small kitchen area to pour the boiling water into a large green mug. “Do you want some tea?”

“No, I’m fine,” he said.

“You’re also soaked,” she noted.

“I know, I kind of wish I had a change of clothes,” he said.

“You can go into the bathroom and dry off if you want,” she said with a shrug. “I don’t really think I have anything that would fit you though, so you may have to deal with some wet jeans for the rest of the evening.” She frowned.

“I’ll probably deal with it,” he said as he started walking towards her bathroom.

“I’ll see what I can find for you,” she said. “Why didn’t you buzz me when it started raining?” she asked as he ducked behind the bathroom door.

“I don’t really know, honestly,” he said as he peeled the shirt over his head out of her line of sight. “Do you have a large t-shirt I could wear?”

“Yeah, probably,” she said as she walked over towards a bin of t-shirts near her bed. “How large are you looking?”

“Something larger than you’re wearing right now,” he said and she laughed softly as she sorted to the bottom of the bin and found a gray t-shirt that she hadn’t seen in months. She walked over to the doorway of the bathroom and avoided looking around the corner of the door – even though she kind of wanted to.

“I hope this fits,” she said as she blindly waved it around, waiting for his hand to catch it.

“Thanks,” he said taking it from her hands. As she backed away from the door, she caught the slightest glimpse of the top of his bare chest from his reflection in the mirror.

“I’m sorry, I really wish that I had some bottoms that you could wear…”

“It’s okay…”

“Wait!” she reached down into another bin of clothing near her bed and quickly returned to the bathroom doorframe.

“What is it?” he asked as he poked his head around the door. She looked in slightly and could see a small pool of water standing in the middle of her bathroom floor from water dripping off of Jim’s clothing.

“Here,” she said with a big grin on her face as she handed him a pair of blue checkered pajama pants.

“You think these are going to fit me?” he asked speculatively as he took the pants from her.

“They’re not mine,” she replied with a smile as she walked back into the area of her living room, grabbed her cup of tea from the counter and went to sit on her futon.

“Pam, should I be worried that you seem to have other men’s clothing in your apartment?” he asked as he walked out of her bathroom, looking like he was ready for bed dressed in a gray t-shirt that was too big for him and blue checkered pajama pants that were hanging around his hips.

“I stole them from Roy before I left,” she said with a shrug. “They were my comfort clothes.”

“Ah, so that’s why there is a football mascot on the back of this shirt,” he said thoughtfully. She giggled as she took a sip of her tea and turned her attention to the weatherman on the television.

“So what are the weather wackos saying?” he asked as he sat next to her on the couch.

“Lots of storms moving in,” she replied quietly. “Looks like you’re going to be stuck here for a while.”

“Good,” he nodded thoughtfully.

“Good?”

“What? You don’t think so?” he asked when she turned to him with wide eyes.

“No…I mean, yes…I guess?” she stammered, he laughed at her response and quickly stood up. “Where are you going?”

“Before I forget,” he said as he walked over to his wet messenger bag sitting near the door. “I need to give you the things I bought you in China.”

“Oh! I almost forgot!” she exclaimed as she straightened herself and set her mug of tea on her coffee table. She watched as he pulled a small box from his bag and smiled as he walked back to where she was sitting and sat next to her again.

“Now, I don’t really think that you’ll actually use this. I don’t know if you even know how to use this,” he said as he set the box wrapped in a delicate red tissue paper in her lap, “but I figured that it’s pretty and it kind of goes along with you being into art and everything…” she nodded happily, “so…I hope that you like it.”

“I’m sure I will, whatever it is,” she said as she took the box into her hands and tore off the tissue paper covering it.

“It’s a box!” she exclaimed happily as she held the dark wooden box sat in her hands.

“It’s really what’s inside the box that’s the present,” he said with a wink. She giggled and flicked open a small gold latch with her finger.

“Wow…” she said in a hushed voice as she opened the lid and examined the contents. The only implements in the box that she immediately recognized were the two ornate paintbrushes affixed to the lid with ribbon.

“It’s a Chinese calligraphy set,” Jim said with a smile. “I don’t think that you know calligraphy, do you?”

“No, but that’s fine,” she said, “it’s really beautiful.” Her fingers softly brushed over the ornate implements that lined the bottom and she looked up at Jim with a large smile.

“Do you like it?”

“I absolutely love it,” she said happily as she set the box over onto her table. “Thank you.” She leaned in towards him and gave him a generous hug.

“I’m glad…”

“Oh! But wait! Jim Halpert, it is your birthday today!” she exclaimed happily as she clasped her hands together. “Oh shit, and I was going to make you a cake or cupcakes or something…”

“Yeah, way to taunt me,” he said with a grin. “You live above a bakery too, so my entire way up here I was smelling cookies. Here I thought you had made me cookies for my birthday and now I find out that you forgot.” She giggled.

“I can still make them,” she said with a smile. “Oh, and I also have a present for you too.”

“You have a present for me?” he asked.

“Yes.”

“Are they imaginary cupcakes?”

“No, and the cupcakes will be real,” she said as she hopped up off the couch and darted behind her kitchen counter.

“So what’s my present?” he asked as he hopped off the couch himself, and leaned over her counter as she reached up into a cupboard for the box of cake mix she had purchased earlier in the week.

“You’ll see later,” she said quickly as she grabbed a large mixing bowl from the same cupboard.

“Oh you are not going to do the whole, ‘You can’t open your presents until we blow out the candles on the birthday cake’ are you?” he asked.

“If I was, you’d never get the present because I don’t have any birthday candles,” she said with a shrug as she ripped open the top of the cake mix and poured it into the bowl.

Jim let out a dramatic gasp as he rushed around to the other side of the counter, meeting Pam in her tiny kitchen space, “Certainly you jest, Beesly! No birthday candles?”

“Sorry,” she said with a simple shrug. “Slipped my mind.” She reached into her refrigerator for a couple of eggs and reached into another cupboard for some vegetable oil.

“Do you have a hair tie?” he asked.

“What? You want to pull your hair back?” she asked with a grin as she turned around to face him.

“Do you?”

“Yes, in the bathroom, there should be a couple next to the sink,” she stated as she started to dump the remaining ingredients into the cake mix. He dashed into the bathroom and emerged only a few seconds later with a hair tie in his hands.

“If you are going to make me a cake…” he said as he gathered up a bunch of her hair in his hand. She froze as his fingers entangled themselves in her hair and she gripped the edge of her counter as he swept her hair up off of her back and neck.

“What are you doing?” she asked quietly, trying to giggle or something to keep up with the lighthearted nature of their conversation. She knew that he had no idea that one of her biggest weaknesses was someone else’s hands in her hair.

“Pulling your hair up, I don’t want Beesly curls in my cupcakes,” he said with a chuckle as he snapped the hair in place with an elastic hair tie.

“Of course not,” she said with a nervous giggle as she started to stir the batter, resisting the urge that she felt in her stomach to turn around, pin him against the counter and cover him with kisses.

“So do I get to help?” he asked, completely unaware of the tension that Pam could feel building between the two of them.

“Well…” she turned around a little, “it’s your birthday, and it’s your cake, so…no.” She smiled.

“I don’t understand your logic,” he said.

“I’ll let you help decorate them when they’re out of the oven!” she exclaimed as she finished mixing the batter.

“Oh come on!”

“Well, all that needs to be done now is pour it into the cupcake pan,” she said with a shrug as she reached into the cupboard next to the stove and pulled out a silicone cupcake pan.

“Well…don’t I feel useless now,” he said with a sad pout.

“You’re supposed to feel that way! It’s your birthday!” she exclaimed as she dipped the tip of her finger in the batter and smeared it on the tip of his nose.

“Cute,” he said as he wiped the batter from his nose and licked it from his finger.

“I know,” she said with a squinted grin.

“So are you a good chef?” he asked as he leaned against the opposite counter and watched as she poured chocolate cake batter into little cupcake molds.

“Oh, you know, I’ve made a charity cake or two in my day,” she replied proudly as she finished off the cake batter and popped the silicone tray into the oven.

“I don’t think that answers any questions,” he said with a smile. She quickly turned around with the large mixing bowl in her hands and a devilish glint in her eyes.

“Do you want to help me finish off the batter?” she asked eagerly as she dipped her finger into the bottom of the bowl.

He smiled, “Oh Pam, you certainly know a man’s weaknesses.”

“Do you want the spoon?” she asked as she reached behind her and grabbed the spoon that she had been mixing the batter with.

“I don’t even know why you bother asking,” he said as he grabbed the spoon from her and ran it along the inside of the bowl. As he brought the spoon to his mouth and started to lick off the chocolate cake batter, Pam felt herself completely melt. She couldn’t remember the last time that she felt this attracted to anyone. Maybe it was because she hadn’t seen him for a month and maybe it was because he was the first person that she knew after breaking it off with Roy that she actually felt a real connection with. Whatever the case was, she knew that she had to give herself a chance with this smart, talented, devastatingly attractive advertising businessman.

“Jim, I have something to tell you,” she said quickly as she watched him licking the cake batter from the spoon.

“You have no present for me,” he said with a smile.

“No, not quite,” she said, straight-faced.

“The cupcakes are my only present?” he asked with a goofy frown.

“No…” she said slowly, she could feel the heat rising in her cheeks and she could feel her heart starting to race.

“What is it?” he asked, the smile starting to fade from his own face as he continued to lick the spoon in his hand.

“I want to be your boyfriend…wait…” she felt herself turn completely red in the cheeks and Jim’s eyes widened as his mouth dropped.

“Well gee, Pam, I’m flattered, but I was really under the impression that you were a woman,” he said, trying to make a joke out of her statement, though he could feel himself blushing slightly.

“That came out totally wrong,” she said as she hung her head in embarrassment.

“What did you mean to say?” he asked as he set the spoon in the bowl of remaining cake batter and set it on the counter behind him.

“I want to be your girlfriend,” she corrected herself. “Or I want you to be my boyfriend.” She smiled at the floor and kicked imaginary dust under the refrigerator. She had never, ever asked anyone out on so much of a date in her entire life, and now she was standing in front of the man that she could see herself falling head over heels in love with him and she was actually asking for a relationship.

“I always imagined that I would ask you that,” he said with a smile as he took her hands in his own and pulled her closer to him.

“Sorry,” she mumbled.

“Pam,” he said, she mumbled something that he couldn’t hear and smiled. “Pam, look at me.” She swallowed the lump in her throat and looked up into his face and her eyes scanned every part of his face except for his eyes. She was too afraid to look there and face the truth that could either crush her spirit or make her heart soar.

“I feel kind of like an idiot now,” she said softly as she focused in on his chin.

“Look me in the eyes,” he said in a soothing voice. She took a deep breath and her eyes traveled upward to meet his. “I would love to be your boyfriend.” A wide smile crossed her face which he earnestly returned.

“Really?” she asked, feeling like she was in high school all over again.

“If you hadn’t said something, I would have,” he replied.

“Oh, I’m so glad that you said that!” she exclaimed with a breath of relief. She threw her arms around his neck and pulled herself close to his body, feeling like for the first time in a long time she was able to actually enjoy the feeling of another body against hers.

“But seriously, I do have a birthday present, right?” he asked. She pulled away from him and playfully slapped him on the shoulder.

“Yes! Yes you have a birthday present,” she replied with a laugh. “I take it you’re the kind of person who doesn’t like to wait for gifts?”

“That and I don’t really like surprises,” he said with a wry smile.

“Well then, you must have really hated what I laid on you just now,” she said with a giggle as she walked over to one of her bookshelves.

“Not really,” he replied. “I mean, I hate to break it to you, but it probably wasn’t as surprising as you might have hoped it would be.”

“And here I thought I was doing something so spontaneous,” she said as she grabbed a cylindrical package wrapped in blue tissue paper.

“Should I guess what it is?” he asked as she walked back into her kitchen, handed him the gift and hiked herself up to sit on the edge of her counter.

“I bet that you could guess,” she replied with a smile. “Especially seeing as I have very few ideas of what you like other than the color blue and grilled cheese sandwiches.”

“Ah, you know me well enough,” he said with a grin.

“And there’s also the little tidbit of information that I really have very little money that I’m able to spend on things like…gifts,” she said.

“But that’s okay, because the best gifts come from the heart,” he said as he maneuvered himself between her knees and discarded the blue tissue paper on the counter next to where she was sitting.

“Well if you like those kinds of gifts then you’re going to love what you have there,” she said as he pulled a sheet of rolled up paper from a cardboard shipping tube.

“Let me guess…” he said as he started to unroll the paper.

“I don’t know what kind of art you like,” she said with a shy shrug. She looked down at the black and blue piece of art that she had created for him. It was a simple charcoal sketch of the New York City skyline that was drawn on top of a vibrant splashing of blue watercolor. It had been a complete experiment – she didn’t often combine watercolors and charcoal together, but for this she couldn’t resist.

“It’s beautiful,” he said as he looked at it with a smile.

“I hope that you like it,” she said, “I was going to get a frame, but I really couldn’t afford to get it framed, and I didn’t want to just buy you a cheap frame from a thrift store or something like that…”

“I love it and it’s perfect the way it is,” he said with a smile as he admired it once more before rolling it back up and inserting it back into it’s cardboard tube. The two of them stared at each other for a long moment before their intense stare was broken by the ding of the oven timer signaling that the cupcakes were finished baking.

“That’s the…” she pointed to the oven with a silly grin on her face. “Cupcakes…” She pushed him out of the way, grabbed an oven mitt and went to pull the little cupcakes from the oven.

“They smell delicious,” he said as she set them on the counter to cool.

“They will be,” she said, “I don’t think there are a whole lot of ways to mess up box mix cupcakes.”

“You’d be surprised,” he said with a thoughtful nod. She giggled softly and turned to face him again.

“So…what do you want to do while they cool?” a thunder clap shook the windows slightly and Pam smiled.

“I can think of one thing,” Jim replied with a shy look on his face.

“Oh?”

He pulled her close to him with a swift movement like something that one would see in the movies and planted a soft, tentative kiss on her lips. Pam allowed herself to close her eyes softly, and as soon as she felt him starting to pull away from her, she pulled herself in closer to his body. He had kissed her before, before he left for China, but that time had been more of a nervous kiss where neither of them exactly knew if that kiss was what the other person wanted. Maybe Jim still felt that way when his lips tentatively touched Pam’s, but as she pulled herself closer to him, they both knew that they wanted the same thing.

He spun her around, switching positions in her small kitchen, and pinned her against her countertop. She kissed him a little more fiercely as his body pressed against hers; however her lips did all the work. She brought her hands up Jim’s chest, briefly rest them on his shoulders before lacing her fingers through his hair and massaging her fingers at his scalp, urging him further because she didn’t want to be the one to take things any farther. As if on cue, his tongue swept along her lower lip, parting her mouth slightly and she forced herself to suppress a moan bubbling up inside of her as he did.

“Jim,” she said in a squeaky whisper, pulling her head away from his and letting her hands travel away from his hair and back to his shoulders.

“Pam,” he said hoarsely as he looked in her eyes, afraid that he might have done something wrong.

“I…I don’t know,” she said as an embarrassed flush came into her cheeks. He smiled and pulled himself away from her body, taking her hands into his own.

“Too fast?” he asked. She looked up towards her ceiling and her eyes traveled back down to meet his as she shrugged.

“I don’t…think so,” she replied. Her eyes darted down to his lips – bright red and slippery from their kiss. She laughed softly to herself and looked back into his eyes.

“You don’t think so?” he asked with a smile.

“I don’t really know,” she replied, realizing how ridiculous she probably sounded. “It’s just…it’s been a long time.”

“Since…”

“Anything.”

“Anything?”

“Anything.”

He smiled and nodded as he ran his thumbs against the tops of her hands.

“I mean, don’t get me wrong,” she said quickly, “there’s nothing more than I would like to do than go and pull you over to my bed over there and do…” she stopped herself before she said too much. He laughed and nodded.

“The feeling is mutual,” he said.

“It’s just…there’s only been…” she refrained from saying ‘Roy’, “the one and…I haven’t been in the early stages of a relationship since high school.” She shrugged with flushed embarrassment.

“No need to explain,” he said as he let go of one of her hands and ran his hand against her cheek, her jaw, the side of her neck. She smiled and cleared her throat.

“Unfortunately, I don’t know a whole lot else to do that will keep the two of us entertained during a thunderstorm,” she said with a shrug.

“Decorate cupcakes,” he said with an eager smile.

“Okay,” she said, “I’ll grab the frosting…” she reached up into her cupboards and grabbed a can of chocolate frosting, a tube of blue icing and a tube of pink icing.

“Why pink?” he asked as she set it down on the counter in front of him.

“I remember you saying once that you thought pink was pretty,” she replied. She pulled a clean dishtowel from a drawer next to the stove, laid it out on the counter and then dumped the chocolate cupcakes on top. “Have at it.”

They both grabbed a warm cupcake and immediately fought over the can of chocolate frosting before Pam grabbed two knives and handed one of them to Jim.

“We could make this into a competition, I bet,” Jim said as he smeared frosting all over the top of his cupcake.

“We could, but I think we both know who would win,” Pam said with a wink.

“Me?”

“No, me.”

“Why you? I’m the one with the birthday.”

“Yeah, we’ll, I’m the artist.” He nodded as he went to grab the tube of blue icing, but Pam quickly grabbed it away from him before he could get it.

“It’s my birthday!”

“It’s my birthday cupcake to you,” she countered as she turned her back to him and wrote on the top of the cake with the icing.

“Unfair,” he said as he shook his head in defeat.

“Here,” she turned around with the cupcake in the palm of her hand.

“What does that mean?” he asked as he looked down at the top which read, “HB JH”.

“Happy birthday, Jim Halpert,” she replied with a grin. He smiled as he took the cupcake from her and took a bite off the bottom.

“Yeah, I think you would win,” he said as he happily ate his birthday cake.