Pam was engaged to her long time boyfriend, Roy. Her time with Jim at the lake was a long faded memory. In many ways, it was almost like a dream.

    But every June, the town gears up for the annual Scranton High School picnic at the lake. Roy can usually be counted on to chime in, “Remember, babe? That’s where we met?”

  “Yeah,” she always said, “I do”. Yeah, I remember…

  Today was Pam’s first day at work for the local paper company that Roy worked at, Dunder Mifflin. She was nervous as she got ready. She wants to look just right for her new job. “Pam, we gotta go!” Roy calls out from the doorway of their apartment.

  “Ok”, she yelled back. “Just a minute!”

   Now, where are those beige heels? she thinks as she rummages through her closet. Coming up empty, she reaches into a box still unopened from when she moved in with Roy a year ago, labeled, “Dress Shoes & Purses”. We need to go out more, she thinks as she opens it with her nails and absently digs through the box.

  Right on top of the pile is an ugly pair of satin coral pumps. Pam crinkles her nose at them as she takes them out of the box.  They’re from her friend Michelle’s wedding eight months ago. Michelle, who now lives in Virginia with her military husband Brian. Pam had been her maid-of-honor. Michelle looked beautiful as she walked down the aisle. No one would even guess that she was five months pregnant, she mused. I should call her…

  Jackpot! She thinks as she finds the errant beige pumps.

  Lifting the shoes out of the box her fingers brush against something rough and crinkly. What the heck is that? She thinks, as she peers in.

  Her eyes fall on a pink stuffed pig nested on the bottom of the box. Smiling, Pam picks it up, and rubbed its fur.

  “Pam, lets go!” she can hear Roy bellow from the doorway.

  Glancing at her watch, she sees it is now 7:40. Shit! Can’t be late on the first day, she chastises herself. Putting the pig gently back in the box, she puts on her shoes and heads out the door.

  Right on time, Roy walks her into the office for her first day. Her new boss Michael is there to greet her, smiling from ear to ear, chattering like a magpie. He shows her the desk where she’ll be working, as Roy walks out the door waving goodbye to her.

  “And this is the desk where you’ll be working as our receptionist.” Michael said. “You know reception-ing and such…”

  Pam bites her lip to keep from laughing. Her thoughts are already wandering. Did he just say reception-ing? she thinks. Oh boy…

  “Oh, and this is someone from our crack sales team,” he said, and Pam looked up to see a man standing at her new desk.

  Their eyes lock, and Pam’s mind instantly flashes to the pink pig she found just this morning. She suddenly feels a little dizzy.

  Jim!

  Her heart starts to beat faster and she can feel her face turning red. His hair is a little darker, and he’s filled out more, but it’s him.

  “Hi, I’m Pam,” she said, and offers him her hand.

  Jim reaches out and grasps her. He’s smiling at her, but his brow is furrowed and his eyes look clouded with confusion.

  “Um, have we met?” he asked her tentatively as their fingers mesh together.

  Michael butts in. “Hey yo, Jimbo! Lay off the merchandise,.” he said in a goofy voice. “She’s engaged man, to one of our own, Roy in the warehouse.”

  Jim pulls his hand away. His brows are raised, and he offers her a weak smile. “Well Pam, it’s nice to meet you. Welcome to Dunder Mifflin.”

  Maybe it’s for the best. It was so long ago, a lifetime really. She looked down and noticed that her fingers are absently stroking over the hand he touched, which feels all tingly and hot. Embarrassed, she dropped her hands to her lap, as more employees filed up to meet her.

    Stumbling into her apartment, Jim is walking in backwards as he kisses her. His face is flushed, and his eyes are dark with passion as he strains to touch and kiss her seemingly everywhere at once.

  Pam takes a ragged breath against his neck, inhaling his scent. He smells like soap, and when she pressed her lips to him, she can taste the salt of his skin. It was like it had been before, all those years ago; warm, sexy, male. Her heart thrills at the memory.

  She had never told Jim about that day at the lake. She kept it a secret all the years they worked and laughed together.

  But that was then, she thought as she led him into her bedroom for the first time.

  She pushed him down on the bed.

  Jim heard a crinkling sound.

  Reaching behind his back, he carefully pulled out the surprise lodged behind his shoulder blade that Pam had waiting for him on the bed.

  He looked down at the pink pig and up at Pam with a puzzled expression on his face. Pam leaned in and grasped both his hands in hers.

  Will you remember? she wondered, staring into his eyes.

  Jim said nothing, as he placed the pig on the pillow next to his head. Then, grasping her around her back, he rocked her over until she was pinned under him.

  Hiding her disappointment, she gave into the pleasure that his touch could so easily bring.

  Then, she felt him chuckling against her neck. Lifting his head to stare down at her, she could see the laughter sparkling in his eyes.

  “Well, well, well, Lauren,” he said slowly as he breathed seductively in her ear, sending shivers down her spine. “You’ve got some explaining to do.”

  Groaning, Pam pulled him down to her.

 “Later,” she said, as she crushed her mouth to his.

  One month later, Jim proposed, by tying a diamond ring onto the pigs tail.

  Now it sits on the mantle over the bed they share.

The End J