December 29, 2006

She rolled over and pushed on his chest and groaned as she tried and stretch out every muscle in her body. It had been a long night, and she didn’t feel like she had slept nearly long enough. When she pressed at the middle of Jim’s chest, he let out a loud snore and pulled her close to his body. She giggled quietly and she looked up at his face just as he opened an eye.

“Caught you!” she exclaimed quietly and playfully nibbled at his bottom lip.

“Why are you up so early?” he asked as he stretched his legs and looked over her shoulder at the clock that read 7 AM.

“You were poking me,” she replied with a girlish grin.

“I was not,” he said as he rubbed an eye with his fist.

“Yes you were,” she said as her fingers started to playfully tickle the middle of his chest and traveled down towards his boxers.

“Oh,” he said, turning a little pink as he rolled his hips away from her. “Sorry.”

“No it’s okay,” she said with a sleepy smile. “It’s kind of comforting…in a really weird way.” He laughed a sleepy laugh and closed his eyes again.

“Go back to sleep,” he said, putting his hand over her eyes.

“Why?”

“You were up until at least 2 AM, because that’s when I finally dragged you up here in bed with me. But who knows, maybe you were up even later,” he said as he shook his head and pulled her against his chest.

“Later.”

“See, I fell asleep before you did and I want to go back to sleep,” he said and he ran his hand along the back of her sleep tussled hair.

“Are you hung over?” she asked quietly.

“Yes, and I’m shocked that you aren’t.”

**

Her party had started at The Golden Beet. They closed the restaurant fairly early in the evening – the last dinner that they had served was at seven o’clock. Slowly after the last couple in the restaurant had received their meal, several guests for Pam’s party started to file into the doors.

Jim had arranged the entire thing – enlisting the help of Dwight. He had even invited everyone that he knew Pam liked. There wasn’t a huge line of guests to show up: Dwight – because he had to be there whether they liked it or not, Angela, Kelly, Michael, Ryan and himself. He had even gone through the trouble to invite Pam’s mother and sister. Her sister hadn’t been able to make it since she lived across the country, but her mother was more than willing to make it into the city for a few hours to see her daughter on her birthday.

Pam had been working in the back of the kitchen while Dwight and Jim planned out the entire evening at The Golden Beet. She had been under the impression that they were just going to hang out at the restaurant for a little while and then maybe go back to Jim’s place. She had no idea that they had decorated the place with blue and pink streamers, that they had made her a special birthday dinner for everyone present to partake in and that Dwight had even made her a huge birthday cake.

Eight o’clock rolled around and she was tired of scrubbing down the stainless steel counters. She was ready to just throw in her rag and quit. It was her birthday after all. Was it really fair for the birthday girl to be working this hard?

“Pam,” Jim had poked around the kitchen doors and smiled at her scrubbing away at the counters. Some of her hair was sticking around her face, “Do you want to come on out here and help us out?”

She welcomed the break from working in the kitchen and nodded eagerly.

“Take off the apron,” he said looking down at her food-stained, restaurant-issue apron.

“If you say so,” she said with a shrug, wondering why she should take off the apron if she was just going to be scrubbing down tables out in the dining room. She lifted the apron above her head and hung it on a hook next to the door as Jim put his arm around her and led her out into the dining room.

She just about tripped over a chair when she was greeted by everyone that was invited – including her mother, who she hadn’t seen in months. She immediately rushed over to her mother and threw her arms around her neck.

“Who invited my mother?!” she exclaimed happily, not leaving her side.

“That would be me,” Jim said raising his hand shyly.

“Jim! Thank you!” she exclaimed as she hugged her mother again. She had hardly even noticed the decorations or the enormous cake sitting on the bar that read, “Happy Birthday Pam!”

**

“You’ve never been a morning person,” Jim groaned as Pam tickled his stomach, refusing to let him sleep as long as she was awake in his bed.

“Well maybe it’s time I change that. I’m twenty seven now, you know,” she said as she twisted herself back and forth along the length of his body.

“Which means that you need more sleep,” he said without opening his eyes.

“No,” she said as her fingers curled through his chest hair.

“Sleep.”

“Wake up.”

“Sleeeeep.”

**

A group of them made the trek across town in two separate taxis. Pam had put up a fight when her mother had insisted that she drive home. She begged her mother to come with the rest of them to Jim’s. She didn’t want to leave her mother so soon.

“I had a great time at the restaurant,” her mother said as she placed her hands firmly on her daughter’s shoulders. “I had a delicious dinner and I had some delicious cake, and I met all of your wonderful friends! I really should get home though before it gets too late.”

“You can stay at my apartment tonight!” she persisted. “You could probably stay at Jim’s if you really wanted to, he has a guest bedroom.”

“No sweetie, I need to go home,” her mother said as she kissed her daughter twice on her cheeks. “I love you. Happy birthday.”

“Thanks, mom,” she said with a twinge of sadness in her voice, “I love you too. Drive home safely.”

“I will,” her mother said as she kissed Pam once more on the forehead and made her way down the street to the location where she had parked her car.

She was just as surprised when they arrived at Jim’s apartment as she had been when she first walked out into the dining room of The Golden Beet earlier that evening. He had set everything up in his living area before he left. The table was full of drinks and snacks, and he even had a couple of Pam’s favorite games stacked on the counter, ready for her to choose from and play.

Ryan had immediately made a rush for the deck of cards, announcing that he would be playing Michael in poker and that anyone else who wanted to join in should join immediately before Michael proved what a sore loser her was and what a horrible poker player he really was. Kelly immediately latched onto Ryan’s side, and stayed there for the rest of the night.

**

“What’s that?” Pam asked as she bolted upright, hearing the sink running on the other side of the wall. Jim pulled her down onto the bed again, and wrapped an arm around her tightly.

“What?”

“There’s someone here!” she panicked as she tried to sit up again to hear better.

“I know,” he said quietly. “Ryan stayed the night. He was really drunk and I think he lost all of his money in a couple of poker games so he couldn’t get home anyway.”

“Ryan spent the night?” Pam asked, her eyes starting to twinkle a little.

“Yeah, why?”

“Did anyone else stay?” she asked.

“I think Michael crashed on the couch downstairs,” Jim replied with a yawn.

“Did anyone else stay?” she asked, craning her head towards Jim’s face.

“I don’t know…why?”

“Did a certain…waitress stay the night?” Pam asked in a sing-song voice.

“You?”

“No…”

“Kelly?”

“Maybe.”

“I don’t know,” he replied, “maybe, she was still here when I came up here to crash with you.” Pam giggled mischievously. “Oh, which by the way, speaking of…you are a complete and total lightweight.”

“What?”

“You were drunk,” he said flatly.

“Was not.”

“Sure you were. I had to carry you up the stairs.”

“Aw, you carried me up the stairs?”

“See, you don’t even remember,” he said as he playfully swiped her nose with her thumb.

“I do too remember,” she insisted.

“Up until what point?”

“I remember arm wrestling Michael,” she stated happily.

**

“I can beat any one of you in arm wrestling,” she stated proudly as she looked around the room of men – and Kelly. Angela and Dwight had left the hour before once things started to pick up and get a little rowdier. As Pam watched the two of them leave she was certain that they had other things to do that night.

“Yeah right,” Michael said. “You’re just a girl.”

“So?” she puffed out her chest a little, maybe to make herself look stronger, but she wasn’t really certain it was adding any credibility to her original statement.

“How much do you want to bet?” he asked.

“Bet what, Michael?” Jim asked from the kitchen.

“I will bet you that I can beat her in arm wrestling,” Michael replied.

“How many drinks have you had?” Pam asked.

“Five maybe,” Michael replied.

“No way, man, it’s been a lot more than that,” Ryan stated as he pushed Kelly away from him for a brief second.

“Whatever, bring it,” Pam said as she slammed a fist on the table out of the spirit of competition.

“How much?” Michael asked.

“Twenty dollars,” she replied.

“I’ll bet fifty that she beats you,” Jim said as he stood behind Pam as she propped her elbow on the table.

“Ooh! Mikey is going to be richy tonighty!” he exclaimed happily.

“I don’t think so,” Pam scoffed as she took Michael’s hand in hers.

“Okay, are the teams ready?” Jim asked as he set his hands on Pam’s shoulders.

“Ready,” Pam replied as she narrowed her eyes at Michael.

“Ready a mundo,” Michael said with a grin.

“One, two, three, GO!”

Immediately, Jim, Ryan and Kelly all started rooting for Pam as she quickly shoved Michael’s arm over, not quite hitting the table.

“Oh come on, why won’t you cheer for me?” Michael asked sadly.

“Because Pam is going to win,” Kelly stated matter-of-factly, and just as she did, Pam slammed the back of Michael’s hand into the wood of Jim’s dining room table.

“Ha,” Pam said with a grin on her face. “Told you.”

“How did you do that?” Michael asked.

“Pay up,” she said holding out her hand. Michael grumbled as he reached into his back pocket and pulled out eighty dollars.

“Do one of you have ten dollars?” he asked glumly.

**

“I still don’t know how you did that,” Jim said as he felt himself drifting back to sleep.

“That’s what being engaged to a football player will do to you,” she said, “it gave me superhuman strength to beat anyone in a game of arm wrestling.”

“I’m sure,” he said as he yawned. She was silent for a few minutes and he relished the silence, he hoped maybe she had suddenly drifted back to sleep.

“Jim?” he groaned a little.

“What?”

“Thank you for a wonderful birthday,” she said as she kissed the bottom of his chin. He opened an eye and looked at her. She had a grin on her face and a sleepy look in her eye.

“You’re welcome,” he said as he kissed her forehead and closed his eyes again.

“Jim?” she asked again, her lips grazing his softly.

“Mm?” he asked without opening his eyes this time.

“I think I love you,” she replied. He opened his eyes this time and looked at her sleepily.

“Really?” she nodded and he smiled.

“I always thought I would be the first to say that,” he said quietly with a sleepy smile.

“Too late,” she said with a grin as she closed her eyes again and quickly fell asleep again.