The game had ended and everyone was slowly filing back into the offices. Jim was sitting in one of the reception chairs, nursing his swollen, bleeding lip with a wet paper towel. Pam’s inner caretaker kicked in at the sight of the purplish bruise that was beginning to form around the edge of the injury.
“Here,” she half-whispered, handing him some ice cubes zipped up in one of those plastic storage sandwich baggies. Her arms encircled his sweaty back with a light, friendly hug, then changed to an equally friendly massage between the shoulder blades, meaning to soothe him. The heat of her hand through the soaked t-shirt was undoing him one frail thread at a time. Jim’s eyes closed as he basked in her attentiveness for however long it lasted.
“Fanks,” he groaned through the mess around his mouth. Her eyes softened and her hand reached out to move the cold pack away from his mouth. For a moment, Jim jerked back in obvious pain, hissing at the sting from her actions. He hadn’t meant to be so skittish, but it was a lot more painful than it looked. “Ouch! “ she exclaimed in surprise,”That’s a lot worse than I thought. Oh god, I’m so sorry…”
Pitiful green eyes stared up at her, and yet through all of the torment his minced upper lip, he managed to crack a half-smile. “Not your fault,” he replied, wincing as the smile widened a bit too much for comfort.
Ice pack aside, she traced around the edge of the sore with her index finger, sending shivers, that were totally unrelated to the cubes, down his spine. Her hands were so soft and delicate, swirling around his lip like the tip of a feather and circling down to the corner of his mouth, swiping a smudge of blood onto one of the digits. She stood mesmerized at the crimson stain that had soaked into the swirls of her fingertip. His mouth burned in complaint for her to repeat the touch just once more…to feel the seductive gentleness that was all Pam.
“Do you need more ice? Anything? Jim, what Roy did was totally uncall—“
“Not another word, Beevly.” he interrupted. At the mispronunciation of her name, the tears that he had seen stinging the corners of her eyes poured out in laughter, rather than sadness and regret. “What’f fo funny, Beevly?”
By now, Pam was nearly rolling on the floor in a fit of giggles. “I’m sorry! I’m so….oh god, please say my name again. Please?”
“Fam Beevly? What’s so funny about that?” he questioned, eyebrow raised in curiosity. Her laughs came in between gulps of air and hiccups as the hysterics continued. “Fam Beevly! Fam Beevly! Hahahahahahaah” she continued. The joke dawned on Jim, though his mind went into a dirtier place than hers probably was, but it was definitely chuckle-worthy to say the least.
Her goofy sense of humor never ceased to amaze him. On any given day she could get into a giggle fit over the smallest play on words or one of his goofy impressions. It pained him and impressed him all at once when she would gush to the cameras about his impeccable imitations and elaborate pranks. ‘Course, she could hold her own when it came to pranks and silly antics--she was just more subtle about it.
“Nife, make fun of the difabled guy…,” he chided, elbowing her as he stood to head to the restroom and change. Nothing was less sexy than the smell of fermenting sweat in one’s underwear and he figured he’d be getting pretty ripe in a short amount of time. Not to mention that if he stayed too long being nursed back to health by this angel of mercy, his gym shorts were not going to hide the evidence of his approval.
Jim’s hands struggled to hold the ice pack on and all of the clothing and toiletries he needed to freshen up. Before he could say a word, Pam’s hands were underneath the jumbled mess, removing them from his hand. “I got it, just point the way.” Her cheerful and helpful demeanor was just another quality that Jim found himself bragging about to the cameras when Pam wasn’t within earshot. The cameramen would smirk as if they had been let in on a secret that everyone knew but him. Apparently there was something funny about him talking about his best friend in such a way. But really, what was wrong with having the hots for your best friend? He was sure nothing was wrong with that at all and just did his best to ignoring the teasing glances and hushed snickering after his daily interviews.
Arriving at the door as if this were their first date—except this wasn’t exactly a romantic getaway, it was the men’s restroom--she passed off the armful of stuff. As he reached for the load, his hand broke free from his mouth for a moment. He watched as Pam seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. “Looks better already. Dr. Beevly, at your service.” Pam bowed to her audience of one and giggled once more as Jim rolled his eyes and shook his head at the silliness of his friend.
