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Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author.  The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise.  No copyright infringement is intended.

 

As he walked away, Jim thought about how he really hadn’t expected her to tell him no. It’s not like he expected her to confess her returning love to him right there, but he’d… he didn’t know what he’d expected her to say. It was foolish for him to think she’d tell him right there, a few weeks before her wedding to another man, that she returned his feelings. But he just needed her to know how he felt. He’d known it was selfish, but he couldn’t go on much longer loving her like this and knowing he’d never taken a chance to at least tell her before it was too late. 

 

Before he knew it, he was sitting in his car, key in the ignition, unshed tears still blurring his vision, but he couldn’t bring himself to actually start the car and leave. Michael had told him to never give up where Pam was concerned, and though he tried, he felt like he hadn’t tried hard enough. As he turned this over in his mind, staring out the front windshield of his car, he saw her form cross the parking lot from where they’d been standing. He watched her as she paused and wiped her eyes before returning back inside.

 

Her tears had to mean something; that she was feeling something that she hadn’t told him; more than she maybe had realized before, and with a last pause ad a deep breath, he opened his car door, and walked slowly back to the warehouse. He did a once-over of the room, seeing his coworkers enjoying themselves at the tables, chatting to each other with drinks in their hands. He continued to scan the room until his eyes caught the shine of her purple dress disappearing behind the closing door up the warehouse stairs.

 

He tried to be casual, to take his time, to not make it obvious to anyone else (namely the cameras) that he was following her, stopping by the table where Ryan and Kevin were playing poker, and feigning interest in their game for a minute or two, and then finally making an excuse that he was going upstairs to get something from his desk that he’d left behind.

 

He climbed the metal stairs casually, trying not to rush, trying not to get his hopes up; he just listened to the clanging sound of his feet on the metal steps as he ascended them. Once he was inside, he heard her voice coming from inside the office. He opened the door and let it shut behind him quietly, and realized she was talking on the phone. But she wasn’t on her own phone at the reception desk; she was somewhere else in the room. From the sound of it, she was using his phone, was at his desk. This gave him a little thrill, and a feeling of hope bubbled up in his chest. It meant that her mind was still on him. That she was trying to be closer to him. He paused, not wanting to interrupt, but also not feeling right about listening in on her conversation:

 

“About ten minutes ago…
I didn’t know what to say…
I don’t know, Mom, he’s my best friend…
Yeah, he’s great…
Yeah, I think I am…”
 

His mind couldn’t help but filling the blanks of her mom’s side of the conversation:


When did it happen?
What did you say?
How do you feel about him?
He seems like a really good guy…
Are you in love with him? 

With each of her answers and his subsequent realization of the prompting question, he felt a tug in his gut, and by the last answer, it was just enforced in his mind what he had to do- this wasn’t over between them. He had to fight for her. So he walked around the corner with a purpose. His breath caught in his throat for a second when he actually saw her at his desk, on his phone, the blue light of his computer screen, and the dim lights of the desk lamps made her glow even more than usual, and his stomach did a little flip. The fact that she’d been talking about him was cemented by the fact that she couldn’t get off the phone quick enough, giving her mother a hasty goodbye and slamming the phone back into its cradle. She began to speak, addressing him by name, but he didn’t let her finish, or veer him off his collision course. He just simply walked up to her, wrapped his arms around her, and kissed her.

 

And she didn’t pull away.

 

In fact, in the last fraction of a second before his lips met hers, he noticed that she’d tilted her head up to meet him halfway.

 

She was stunned at first, he could tell by the way she just let him kiss her; let him take her bottom lip between his, and lightly suck on it before releasing it again. And that is when she came alive, sliding her arms up into his hair, returning his kisses actively, slowly kneading his mouth with hers, and he couldn’t help but sigh at the sensation, at the thought of her kissing him back the way he was kissing her- soft and tender- the way you kiss someone to show them how much you love them. So when she realized what had happened and tried to pull away, he tried to hold onto the moment for just a bit longer, kissing her again. Even as she was moving away, he felt her return the kiss to him again, briefly, before sliding her hands down to his chest and pulling back. She didn’t step away, though, and he was about to stay there, with her in his arms and pressed against him like that for as long as she let him, until he realized that she was still backed up against his desk, and had nowhere to go anyway. So he decided to step back a little, give her some room in case she needed it, and he tried to read her face.

 

He shoved his hands in his pockets and stood there, staring back at her like she was staring at him. He saw the sheen of tears in her eyes, and was dying to know what she was thinking, what she was feeling. When one tear spilled over the edge and slid down her face, when her chin began to quiver, he reached out to her, his hand cradling the side of her face, the pad of his thumb wiping away her tear.

 

He whispered her name, to comfort and to coax, and at this break of the silence, time seemed to speed forward with a whoosh and the sound of a sob, and suddenly, Pam’s face was buried in his chest and his arms were wrapped around her, his nose in her hair. He whispered to her that everything would be okay, that everything would work out the way it was supposed to, because that’s what she needed to hear. Right now, while she was in his arms, it almost didn’t matter to him how it all turned out, as long as she was truly happy.

 

After a few moments of tears and comfort, she stood back from him a little, her hands sliding from where they’d been resting on his back to his hips, and smiled a little.

 

“I’ll call you tomorrow,” she said, decision in her eyes, and stood up on her toes to kiss him softly on the lips. With that, she was gone, leaving him smiling to himself, butterflies swirling in his stomach, knowing that things would turn out just they way he knew they were always meant to.

 

END.



PuffingNoise is the author of 41 other stories.
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