OLD FRIENDS - THE THING THAT MAKES EVERYONE HAPPY

"What is wrong with you?" Jim asked, pausing the shopping cart in front of the cereals for the second time. It was the second time she'd done something...weird.  

"Nothing...just - let's not go that way," she said starting to pull the shopping cart in the direction from which they'd come.

Jim pulled back on the handle. "Uh...ok...but the Vanilla Swiss Almond ice cream is down aisle 9 I'm pretty sure."

"No...yeah, I just...," Pam eyes darted towards the end of the aisle.

"Wow...what..." Jim trailed off when she literally flattened herself against a bunch of cereal boxes. "Pam."

He glanced in the direction of her stare, spotting a guy at the end of the row, in an old bomber jacket and baseball cap. He was intently perusing a box of Captain Crunch.

"Do you know that guy?" Jim asked, feeling a little weird suddenly. "Pam?...What's going on?"

She licked her lips nervously and let out the breath she'd been holding when the guy finally threw the box of cereal in his basket and rounded the corner.

"Pam?"

"Yeah," she said shaking herself out of the fog she'd been in. "Um...he's Roy's cousin, Lou."

Jim's eyes widened. "Wow...seriously?...Should we -

"No...I mean it's fine," she said waving him off. "Totally."

"Oh right. Looked fine.....absolutely," Jim said, glancing towards the Captain Crunch again. Roy's cousin was nowhere to be seen now, but Pam was still as white as a sheet.

Pam took another deep breath. "Ok, so listen...he is fine...really. He's a totally nice guy -

Jim muttered under his breath, "Well you said that about Roy so..."

"My bad - did you want to hear this story or not?"

"Sorry...yeah....Go."

"Like I said, he's a total nice guy," Pam said, her voice almost too low to hear over the muzac that pumped it's way through the grocery store, but Jim could tell she wasn't about to speak any louder. Even if the guy was currently buying toilet paper all the way on the other side of the store.

Pam continued. "He was pretty much the only member of Roy's family who didn't call to give me shit when I broke up with Roy."

Jim looked down at his shoes. He hadn't known that...That they'd called her? What a shitty time that must've been. He and Pam had never really talked about all the by-products of her break up with Roy. He wondered what other things she'd yet to reveal. He wondered if he really wanted to know.

"So why the fugitive impression?" Jim asked gesturing to the row of cereal she'd leaned against.

Pam bit her lip. "It's...kinda complicated. But...well...we kinda made out."

Jim's eyebrows hit his hairline. "What? You made out with Roy's cousin? Pam - when?"

For some reason - he didn't quite know why - because it didn't make any sense...he felt a little amused by this revelation.

"Ssssh! It was like...a long time ago. Way before I met you even...but it's always been awkward since then....Roy and I were fighting" She added before Jim could ask another question. "We were at this family thing - the big 4th of July picnic they have every year...where Roy and his brothers act like total idiots...and Lou was just...he was always just really nice to me, and I was drunk and......Lou was always the cousin Roy made fun of...and I think we both just wanted to get back at Roy a little and so...I mean it was totally stupid...we went for this walk in the park and just...I'd had a few beers - and you know me...cheap date."

"Oh my God...Pam,"  Jim said, smiling a bit. Was it the fact that she'd done something like that to Roy that was amusing him so? He wasn't sure...

"Stop. I was like 19....and nothing really happened...we just made out.......And then we promised that we'd never ever talk about it because neither one of us wanted anything to happen...I felt totally bad about it...but...yeah, so there you have it - a huge Pam Beesly secret...nobody knows that. Not even my mom."

"And you never told Roy?"

She shook her head.

"So wait," Jim said leaning against their grocery cart. "Let me get this straight...you told Roy about me kissing you...once...but you made out with his cousin and never bothered to mention that?"

Pam tried valiantly to squelch a smile, but failed miserably.

"Pam I nearly lost my life...and this guy's walking around - seemingly unafraid of being attacked."

Pam smiled, "Dwight totally saved you...say what you will - but you can't deny he's got amazing reflexes."

"Wow. So not the point."

Pam started walking down the aisle and Jim followed, she turned to glance at him. "You're wrong anyway."

"About?" Jim said, still a bit flabbergasted that they were having this conversation. Pushing the cart behind her. 

"I didn't tell Roy that you kissed me...I told him that I kissed you."

Jim squinted. "Well...you did - but I initiated."

"I know that."

"So then why did you -

She stopped, put her hands on the back of the cart to stop him as well.

"Maybe I wanted him to think that I...that I initiated......"

Jim could only stare at her. Wait for it...

"Listen Jim...that thing with Lou -- why would I mention that? It didn't matter in the slightest...it was something I did for stupid reasons. Something he did for stupid reasons. But when you told me that...when you..." Pam shook her head and her eyes filled a bit. She dashed the tears away before they fell. "All I know, is that night at Poor Richards...I knew I was taking a chance. I knew Roy could either say ‘ok' or he could decide not to forgive me...either decision - I was ok with...I...I knew that seeing the two of us at work together would eat away at him though...I knew eventually he wouldn't be able to deal. And that might sound...I don't know what that makes me. Maybe it makes me a bad person...and believe I didn't realize he'd react quite the way that he did...but I did it. I told him...I told him because it mattered. Because you and me - mattered...because it wasn't some stupid 4th of July kiss brought on by hurt feelings and too much beer."

Jim stepped around the cart and pulled her close, his hand slipping around to the back of her neck. Not drunk. It DID matter. They were all the words he needed to hear. Everything about her...everything about them...

This was what he wanted - to be at the grocery store with her, buying ice cream. Everything he wanted was right here.

He pressed a kiss against her forehead and pulled back after a moment. "Such a hussy..."

She giggled and he kissed her again. "You wanna go get in the car?...I'll finish the rest of our list."

"Really?" She asked beaming up at him. He brushed at the corners of her eyes with his thumbs.

"Yeah....Don't want you making out with Lou while I'm in frozen foods."

"Ok..." Pam said smiling as she grabbed her purse out of the cart and started backing away. "But if he tries to make out with you...tell him easy on the tongue - he's kinda messy."

Jim shook his head, ignoring that one. "Do we need fabric softener?"

"Yes, please."