Pam was frantically trying to find her shoes. It was hard to concentrate on their locality when she was also trying to recall anything from last night. She remembered lugging Dwight’s desk to the roof. The prank took effort. They had to photograph his desk with Jim’s camera phone so they could replace all of his bobble heads correctly. They took out the desk drawers and carried them one by one to their new location. After that there was the desk itself, which was particularly difficult because the elevator only went so far. There was still one set of stairs to maneuver past before reaching the roof. She remembered sprawling herself on top of Dwight’s desk, something she never thought she would do, because she could barely breathe when they finally made it. Making Dwight’s life less orderly she could remember clearly, but after that things started to get fuzzy. Ugh! And where were her shoes?
The answer came from somewhere near by. “Pam, I found one of your shoes,” Jim called the conference room. “Have you seen my tie?”
“No,” she called back. “And only one shoe? You sure the other wasn’t placed neatly next to it?”
“Pretty sure,” he left the conference room. He glanced at the clock on his office phone on the way past his desk. 7:48 AM. “We need to get out of here. The timely people are going to be coming soon.”
“The last thing we need is for Dwight and Angela to find us. But I only have one shoe. And we haven’t found your tie.”
“It’s too late. We have to go! Now! Fifteen minutes ago!” he exclaimed.
“A bit melodramatic, don’t you think?” she countered. “We’ll just have to find everything later.”
They grabbed their coats, after debating Pam decided on going barefoot instead of hopping in her one shoe, and then they flew out the door. They took the stairs down two at a time, not wanting to unexpectedly run into anyone on the elevator. They paused at the bottom of the stairs, slowly opening the door to the parking lot. No one in sight. They made a mad dash to his car.
“Your house first,” Pam instructed.
“Don’t you just want me to drop you off?”
“NO!” she burst out. “I mean… No, thanks,” she recovered. “I don’t want to run into Roy.”
“Don’t you think he is worried about you?”
“I doubt he’s even noticed that I didn’t come home. But if we pull up to the house, like this, together, and he hasn’t left yet…” she trailed off.
“Got it,” he agreed without further question. “My place it is.”
Jim haphazardly parked his car near his parking space. He was half in the lines, half on the curb. Pam pushed open the passenger side door but it was a little difficult considering Jim parked adjacent to a large bush. She squeezed her way out having given up on getting the door to open anymore.
“I think we can slow down now,” she suggested as she pulled a twig from her jacket.
He nodded. She had a point. No one was going to bother them at his place. He unlocked the front door, opened it for her, and closed it behind them both. Mark. Mark with a smirk. Mark was standing in the hallway presumably on his way to work. So much for no one bothering them here.
“Hey guys,” Mark’s smirk grew into a full fledged grin. “Where have you two been?” he asked suggestively.
“Work,” Jim answered with such finality that both Pam and Mark flinched.
“Details later then,” Mark whispered to Jim as he moved past them and out the door.
Pam heard. She blushed, why she didn’t know. Wait … that’s a lie. She did know. For a brief second she allowed herself to imagine what Mark was suggesting. And then she forced those thoughts from her mind. Suddenly, a thought popped into her head that scared her. She didn’t know if something actually happened last night. She had been so preoccupied with getting out of the office and making sure no one saw them that the reality of the situation hadn’t set in. Something could have happened. Her heart sunk, she was always sure she would remember something like that. Not that she expected something like that to ever happen with Jim. Roy, she was engaged to Roy. He had finally just set the date. But it was all right to think of your friends in a mildly perverted way. Everyone does it. It’s a common occurrence, she was sure of it.
“Earth to Pam,” Jim said as he waved his hand in front of her face.
“What? Huh?” she shook her head trying to free it from the clouds. “You’re dressed.”
“I even brushed my teeth and combed my hair,” he teased. “I’ve been in my room for the past 15 minutes. What were you thinking about?”
Blush again, very deep, and very red. “Umm,” she stammered. “I was trying to remember something from last night.”
“Did you?”
“No,” she hung her head in disappointment.
“Do you think it is safe to go to your house now?” he asked as he pulled on his coat.
“What time is it?”
“8:25.”
“Yeah, we should be fine.”
Both Jim and Pam sat in complete silence on the way to Pam’s house. Both were struggling to remember even the tiniest detail of last night. While Pam was trying to remember the actual particulars of last night, Jim let his mind wander to the possibilities. He remembered how they had woken up. Her head on his chest. The smell of her shampoo. Their clutching each other’s waists. He let his imagination take it from there.
“I’ll wait in the car,” he announced as he pulled to a stop in front of her house.
“You don’t want to come inside?” she questioned as she pulled off her seatbelt. The truck was gone from its parking space. Roy wasn’t home. She was a little disappointed. He’d never been inside her house. He’d picked her up and dropped her off on numerous occasions but he had yet to break the threshold.
“Nah, in case Roy comes home it is easier to hide out here.” He had never been able to go inside the house she shared with Roy. He was pretty sure it would kill him to walk inside. He imagined their house was like their relationship, controlled by Roy. It hurt to even think she lived in a house which displayed no reflection of her true self.
“You aren’t going to honk the horn when I take too long are you?” she asked before she left him alone with his thoughts.
“Um, no,” he furrowed his brow. “Who would…?” he didn’t finish his sentence. “Take your time. I’ll be right here until you get back.”
His assurances didn’t stop her from running from the car to the front door. He assumed she was running around like a maniac inside. Running? Pam running. He closed his eyes hoping it would allow him to think harder. A running Pam…
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“Tag you’re it!” she exclaimed. And ran away.
“Wait, no fair,” he pouted as he pulled himself from the floor. He wasn’t expecting tag. They had been sitting on the floor playing … playing…something else and she hit him on the head and bolted. It didn’t stop him from running after her.
“You’ll never catch me Halpert,” she shouted back at him as she weaved in and out of the desks.
“You are wrong Beesly, so wrong.” He reached out his arm and snaked it around her. They both slowed to a stop and then…
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Pam opened the car to the door. He lost the memory. She settled back into the car and little short of breath from the marathon she had been running inside. Jim chose not to comment on her current state. He wished she understood that he had the ability to be patient unlike some other man. In fact, he was excellent at waiting for her.
“We played tag last night,” he blurted out.
“We played tag?” she asked. That was not on her list of things to do with Jim at night. Not that she had an actual list. It was more of a collection of dreams and daydreams. And … wait! Roy, Roy, ROY! What was wrong with her this morning?
“Yep. Tag. We were playing something else…”
“Tidily winks with checkers from Stanley’s desk” she interrupted. She seemed as confused as he did when she said it. “And I hit you on the head, sorry about that by the way, and ran.”
“And I followed.”
“I tried throwing stuff at you to slow you down, again sorry, and then you caught me and…” she didn’t remember anymore.
“Yeah and…” other than the tidily winks part the rest he knew already. He was hoping she could finish the story. “Maybe we should go to work,” he suggested after realizing neither was going to remember right now. He pulled his car back on to the road and pointed it in the direction of Dunder Mifflin.
“We should be discreet when we look for our missing items today,” Pam said as they pulled into the parking lot.
“We should probably also nonchalantly try to clean up the things you threw at me. What ever they were and where ever they ended up,” he agreed.
“So we are looking for other people’s random junk, my shoe, and your tie. Anything else?”
“Nope. That sounds about right.”
Jim and Pam exited the car. Today was definitely not going to be easy. And oh, it would be so much easier if they weren’t lying to each other. Jim discovered while he was changing, he was wearing his pants but he had not been wearing his boxers. Pam in an effort to hide all her clothes from last night, found her pantyhose balled up in the one shoe she did have, but in the franticness of the morning didn’t notice her panties were not where they should be. In the chaos which was neither had noticed the extra airiness until it came time to change their clothes. No today was not going to be pleasant especially with the possibility of one of their coworkers finding their undergarments. Tick, tick, tick. The bomb was about to explode.
Author's Chapter Notes:
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.
A big thanks to Pamalama for betaing this chapter!
A big thanks to Pamalama for betaing this chapter!
