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“I sent out an Evite this morning. That is an online invitation to a part-ay. Jan and I are throwing a little shin-dig now that she is all moved in.”
From his desk Michael looks out at his staff, all engaged of various stages of Monday boredom.
“Alright, so let’s so see who’s coming.”
He opens up the invitation and his face falls. “Don’t worry about it, this is not going to be like your ninth birthday.” he whispers to himself under his breath.
He gets up and stands in his doorway, clearly disappointed by the lack of response to his Evite.
“Hey Pam, did you see my Evite?”
“Umm, yeah Michael I did. But I am actually really . . .”
“Well are you coming? You have to choose YES so that I know you are coming.”
“ I don’t know I have a lot to do.”
“Nonsense, it isn’t a party without our little Pam–ala.”
“I didn’t get a . . .” Toby starts to say.
“Stanley how about you?” Michael says interrupting him.
“Is this a required off hours work function? Are we getting paid for this? Because I do have better things to do on a Friday night.”
Michael is all smiles. “It is not required, but it is mandatory. So I expect to see you there.”
Karen: “Yeah I am not going to Michaels little wine party. I have the day off. I am interviewing for a position in the city. So yeah . . . I have no interest in going.” she says grimly.
Kelly: “This is going to be really awesome. Because you know there may be some single guys there, and I could really . . . meet someone new.”
Creed: “At the commune we made our own wine. Making wine is like an act of love. In fact I had my first love affair, in the barrel of some freshly picked Pinot grapes. There is nothing like sardines, the feel of grape skins between your toes, and large Italian women.”
Michael: “This was really Jan’s idea. She thinks that we should be more social. I think I am very social. Have you seen my space page? Ton’s of friends.”
Kevin knocks on the door of Michael’s condo, some of the others behind him.
Jan answers the door, and jarringly, she looks like some kind of fifties housewife. Lips very red, her hair done up, an apron on.
“Kevin, nice to see you. Come on in.”, Jan says gesturing them in. “Hi everybody, welcome.”
‘You look . . .nice.” Kevin says.
“Thank you.” Jan says a little disturbed.
Jim and Pam exchange an amused glance. This is not the Jan they know.
Creed walks in and hands Jan a can of sardines. “Put these on ice.”
Dwight holds up a large plastic bag. “Homemade havarti”, he says to Jan as he hands it to her. “A Schrute family tradition.”
Jan looks grossed out a moment before regaining her composure. “Thank you Dwight.”
“Guys, welcome to my casa.” Michael says putting his arms around Jim and Pam.
“Our . . . Casa” Jan’s says flashing Michael a tight smile.
“Right because you’re living with me now. So yes our house. Hey Jimbo what do you think of the tunes. I made this mix myself.”
Love is a Battlefield is playing, and Jim shrugs. “Retro, I like it.”
Jan is pouring a splash of red wine into Pam’s glass.
“Let it swirl around in your mouth, breathe it in. You should taste cherries, a hint of vanilla.”
Pam can feel Jim’s eyes on her, blushes. Takes a sip.
Jan moves on to Meredith and pours a splash.
Meredith taps her glass. “Fill er’ up. I don’t do sips.”
Jan pauses for a moment. “Michael comes rushing out of the kitchen, the smell of something burning. “Jan, I need you in here, pronto.”
Jan hands the bottle to Meredith, “can you finish pouring this bottle?”
Meredith takes it out of her hand “Oh yeah.”
Pam leans over, and carefully selects a cube of cheese on a toothpick, avoiding Dwight’s havarti. Her cheeks are very pink, now that Meredith has taken over pouring the wine. She is a little giddy, and thinks about how she hasn’t really had anything to eat since breakfast, and how Jim is so near, and she is thinking about . . .
Jim is behind her, closer than he normally would in front of people from work. “Come on.” he whispers into her hair, and it makes the little hairs on the back of her neck stand up.
“Where are we going?”
“It’s a surprise.”
She rewards him with one of those smiles, that are just so . . . Pam, and he is warm all over, although it might be the wine, but he is not sure. Things are still kind of in flux.
She follows him through the kitchen, briefly looking back to see if anyone has noticed them. Creed is walking around the room finishing off the half full and nearly empty wine glasses. Meredith is poking at Dwight’s havarti, with a fork, while chugging an almost full glass of red wine.
Dwight and Angela are having an intense conversation in the corner, and Pam briefly wonders if anyone else has noticed how close they are. Dwight’s lips are stained red with wine and Angela looks irritated.
Kelly is still hiccupping into her glass, her eyes teary, as Andy pats her on the back. “It’s going to be ok, my little Kelly cat” he is saying in her ear. Pam shivers in revulsion. That would just be so incredibly wrong.
Kevin looks bored as he flips through channels on Michael’s plasma. Michael and Jan are missing, and Pam gets the distinct feeling that they are either making out or fighting.
Jim is surreptitiously reaching back for her h and as they go out the back door, down the steps of the wooden deck, and then under the deck. It is July and still warm and clammy, but she shudders just a little bit. It kind of still feels like high school, and it is Jim, so she is all fluttery, or maybe it is something else. Everything feels off tonight.
“Cold?”
“No, I just . . . we’re all getting drunk at Michael and Jan’s. It kind of feels like the world is upside down or something.”
“Yeah, that’s umm . . .wow . . . are you really drunk? “
“So what’s the deal?” Pam says interrupting him. Unsure of exactly where they are going with this. “Are you going to confess something again? Because this time I want to be prepared.” She almost kicks herself, when she sees the look on his face.
“No. You already know everything I have to confess.”
It makes her shiver even more. “I do?” She says more serious than she means.
“Yeah. And I just wanted to say some things. Even though we are here with everybody, I keep thinking what it would be like if we were . . . together here . . . with everybody . . .”
“That would be gross.”
Jim laughs. “You know what I mean.”
Before they can go any further they hear heated voices coming from the deck above them. It is Dwight and Angela. Pam’s mouth drops open and Jim covers it shaking his head. They have to hear this.
“I don’t want to hide our love anymore.”
“No Dwight. I don’t care about any of these people. They don’t need to know our business.”
“Are you ashamed of me? Is that why you won’t wear the ring?”
“Ring?” Pam mouths to Jim.
He tries to shake off the image, and mouths back “Ewww.”
“Stop pressuring me about this. You know how I feel and it’s final.”
“If you want to become a Schrute, you have to have courage, especially in the face of your co-workers. Let them say what they will, together we can fight the forces of evil.”
You just don’t get it Dwight. Maybe this was all a mistake.”
They wait for a moment, listening to the sound of Dwight still reeling from Angela’s words, and then his footsteps as he crosses the deck and quietly closes the sliding glass door behind him.
Jim takes Pam’s hand as they climb the grassy knoll behind Michael’s deck, where someday houses will be.
They sit quietly for a moment, Jim’s legs stretched in front of him, resting on his palms, Pam Indian style next to him plucking grass.
They figure everyone has left by now, because they can hear Michael blubbering through the open kitchen window, and Jan angrily slamming things around.
Then the song “Big Girl’s Don’t Cry” comes blaring on. They both imagine Michael silently mouthing the words at the exact same moment. And they giggle just a little bit about the absurdity of it.
“Weird night.”
“Definitely.”
“Yeah, ok and Dwight and Angela?”
She gives him a strange little look. A half-smile really, full of secrets and he wants to kiss her then.
“Oh, no, Beesly, how long have you known?”
“Known what?”
He raises his eyebrows and she laughs.
“And yet strangely you don’t seem that shocked.”
“I saw them.”
“Saw them what?”
He pauses and nods his head.
Her eyes widen. “Oh, ok, gross. Strike that image from my brain.”
“Pam?”
Then Jim is looking at her, and she knows that they are done avoiding the in between time.
“Yes, Jim.”
“I am glad I came back. And I think it’s time . . . I mean I am ready to . . .”
And she knows what he means.
“Me to.”
Stamford, the beach, Karen, the broken engagement all those things, and more swirl between them in the space of a second.
Michael’s Wine Party play-list is still going, and the words float across the evening air towards them.
A heartbeat skip, relationship
Inside a bubble bath
An icing drip below your lip
So we undo the math
A sudden slip between
A real life script of how
Mistakes became our medicine, so
Pam sighs, because for once it is a perfect moment. Sighs, because as fate would have it she loves this song, and it’s on her IPod, and she has listened to it more than a dozen times thinking of him. Sighs, because that is the past, and now they are sitting in Michaels back yard, smiling at the moon, and talking about the in between time. Making their way closer to what they long to be.
Story Notes:
Part of the While We Were Waiting (for season 4) series.
Author's Chapter Notes:
This one took a really long time to get out. I keep trying to get the pacing of the show down, but I feel like things are moving really slowly.
I also do not own the lyrics to the Blue October song mentioned at the end.
I also do not own the lyrics to the Blue October song mentioned at the end.
Chapter End Notes:
Hopefully a few more "episodes" will be done before the start of the real season 4.
andromeda is the author of 12 other stories.
This story is a favorite of 1 members. Members who liked Wine Party also liked 1048 other stories.
This story is part of the series, While we were waiting . . . Season 4 Fanfic. The previous story in the series is Strange Frequencies.
