Jim grabbed his coffee mug from the counter and then sat down at the kitchen table with the newspaper spread out in front of him. He slowly sipped his coffee while he skimmed over the sports page. He looked up when Lauren walked into the kitchen.
“Hey…” she said grabbing a mug from the cabinet.
“Good morning.”
“How was your thing last night?” Lauren asked taking a banana from the bunch that sat on the counter and sitting down next to him at the table.
Jim stiffened slightly, but Lauren didn’t seem to notice. “It was fine. Just what you’d expect.”
“Sorry I couldn’t be there. We have this huge group coming in today and I needed to oversee all the prep stuff.”
“It’s okay. Trust me. You didn’t miss out on anything.”
“So when did you get home?” Lauren asked taking a section of the paper.
“Around 9:30. I gave one of my co-workers a ride home.” Jim said glancing over at her.
“Did Kevin get drunk again?”
Jim forced a little laugh and then said, “Well yes he did, but I didn’t take him home. It was actually Pam.”
Lauren didn’t even look up from the article she was reading as she said, “The receptionist?”
“Yeah. I didn’t think it was a good idea for her to drive herself. Was that okay?”
“Why wouldn’t it be? You guys are friends right? It was nice of you to help her.” Lauren glanced at her watch and sighed heavily. “Oh crap. I have to go. See you tonight.”
Then just like that the conversation was over. Lauren grabbed her keys, gave Jim a quick kiss goodbye and was out the door. Jim heard the sound of her car starting and then let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. Part of him thought that he should tell Lauren about what had happened the night before, but it had been so quick that by the time he climbed into bed he couldn’t even be sure that it had really happened. Plus, Pam had been drunk and there was a very high possibility that she was just trying to give him a friendly kiss on the cheek and misjudged her target. Or she had forgotten it entirely and bringing it up would just make her feel embarrassed and he didn’t want that. He decided that it would be best to wait and see if she said anything before he risked getting in a fight with Lauren over something that didn’t mean anything. However, a thought struck him as he climbed into his car a few minutes later. If the kiss wasn’t that big of a deal…then why had he spent the last ten hours thinking about it?
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Pam pulled into the parking lot and was instantly relieved that she didn’t see Jim’s car there yet. Most of last night had been a blur to her, but two Aspirins and a gallon of coffee later she had been jolted back to sobriety and the memory of the kiss had come rushing back. She wasn’t quite sure what had happened leading up to the kiss, but she clearly remembered the brief instant that her lips were pressed softly against his. His lips had been soft and warm and before she could stop herself she was smiling at the memory of it. She turned slightly just as the doors closed behind her just in time to see his red Corolla pull into the parking lot and that’s when it hit her like a giant, flashing Stop sign. He was engaged. Holy crap…he was spoken for, not available, taken…and she had kissed him. She had crossed a line and had taken advantage of the friendship they had begun to develop. Her heart began to pound in her chest as she was bombarded with a million thoughts at once. Was he mad? Did he tell Lauren? Would he even look at her…let alone talk to her again? She stood there frozen in place, when she saw him approaching the door, head down, iPod in one hand and adjusting the headphone in his ear with the other. He hadn’t noticed her yet and she snapped out of her trance quickly enough to duck into the stairwell.
She sunk down on the steps, head in her hands as she tried to sort out the questions racing through her mind. What should she say? She should approach him? Should she wait to see if he approached her? Pam glanced at her watch and took a deep breath. She was going to be late and she didn’t really need an interrogation from Dwight on top of the stress she was already feeling. She began to make her way up the stairs when a thought struck her. He had kissed her back. Even though it had been just a split second, a fleeting moment, he had her kissed back. What, if anything, did that mean? Her heart sunk slightly as she realized it meant nothing, absolutely nothing. It couldn’t. The butterflies in her stomach were threatening to explode out. She was his friend, it was probably just a reflex, and there was no way he thought about her like that and…as she reminded herself for the hundredth time that morning…he was engaged. “Whoa Pam,” she thought to herself as she approached the door to the office. “Just calm down. Just go inside and feel things out.” She grasped the handle, pulled open the door and walked inside.
Her breath caught in her chest as she saw him, leaning back in his chair, talking on the phone. He looked up as she took her place behind the reception desk and she instantly felt some of her nerves subside as a familiar smile spread across his face and he lifted a hand to wave at her. She waved back and sunk into her chair, breathing a sigh of relief. He had smiled and waved, so that was a good sign. Now she would just have to wait and see how the rest of the day played out.
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Jim finished his sales call and glanced over at Pam. She was staring intently at the side of her desk. He squinted slightly at her and then a small smile crossed his lips. He pushed away from his desk and slowly made his way over to her. He leaned his elbows comfortably on the counter and grabbed a couple of jelly beans from the container.
“Hey…” he said softly.
She didn’t respond for a moment and then blinked suddenly and turned to look up at him.
“Hey…” she said looking a little dazed.
Jim tried hard not to smile as he popped a jellybean in her mouth and then said, “What are you doing?”
Pam looked back down at her desk and then up at him sheepishly.
“I think…I was just staring at my desk.”
Jim couldn’t help but grin at her. She looked innocent and yet there was a twinkle in her eye that made his heart beat a little faster.
“Sorry to interrupt. Do you want to get back to that?”
She raised her eyebrows playfully and then said, “Yeah…do you mind leaving?”
“Not at all.” Jim grabbed another jellybean and then turned back towards his desk. After he sat down he glanced back over at her to see a huge grin on her face. A smile that made something twist deep down
inside of him. It was at that moment that he decided not to bring up the kiss. Things seemed normal between them and he concluded that she clearly didn’t remember it and he had read too much into it. Unfortunately, that decision didn’t help him to stop thinking about it for the rest of the morning. He had felt something in that kiss…as much as he didn’t want to admit it. Something new…something different…something exciting. Her lips had been soft and he could still almost feel it, taste the hint of strawberry from over indulgence of drinks. It had only been a second, but the fresh scent of her hair had lingered long after she had disappeared inside her apartment. He made another trip up to her desk under the guise of needing a jellybean, just to feel things out a bit more and again nothing seemed out of the ordinary.“Snap out of it…” he thought to himself as he went into the break room to grab a soda from the machine. “Why does it matter? Even if she does remember it or did it on purpose it’s not like you could or ever would act on it.”
Jim sunk down into a chair and ran his hand through his hair. He popped the top on his soda and took a long drink hoping that the carbonation would do something to squelch the weird curling that was in his stomach. What was going on? He was engaged…not dating…not casually seeing someone. He was engaged. He was a one-woman guy. Always. He should not be having this sort of a reaction to another woman. He pinched the back of his neck and took a deep breath. Pam was just his friend. He needed that…someone like her in this place. Otherwise he would surely go insane. They were friends. That was it and so it would be okay, Jim tried to reassure himself, but for some reason he couldn’t shake the nagging in the back of his mind.
