The light streamed through the windows onto Pam’s bed, rousing her from her sleep. As she opened her eyes and adjusted to the light, she suddenly remembered she wasn’t alone. She froze for a moment, memories of the night before flooding back, and soon a broad smile appeared on her face. Not wanting to face the consequences yet, she let herself indulge in the man sleeping next to her, his long frame sprawled out against her shorter one.
Slowly, not wanting to wake him, she snaked her arms around his torso and snuggled her head into his shoulder. She let out a deep sigh and closed her eyes, enjoying being close to him. But she was only able to enjoy it for a second; her eyes shot back open when she felt a pair of arms slowly wrap around her. She looked up and watched a small smirk form on Jim’s face, his eyes still shut, and she couldn’t help but smile herself.
“Jim—”
“Shh,” he whispered. “This is a dream, Pam. And if I open my eyes you’re going to disappear.”
She buried a grin into his shoulder and told him, “I’m not going anywhere, I promise.” He slowly opened one of his eyes hesitantly, finding her giggling slightly at him, and so he opened the other one and let out a sigh.
“You’re still here.”
“Yes, I am.”
“Good.”
They lay there for a while, watching the light dance against the walls and sheets of the bed, and enjoying the peace of the morning. As their fingers casually entwined, Pam couldn’t believe how natural this felt, being in his arms, their bodies secured in one another. She thought about how silly she had been with him, being too stubborn to recognize that he was the one for her, and it made her wonder what took her so long to come to her senses.
She giggled at the thought, which made Jim look at her, still smiling, but a bit confused at her sudden laughter. Assuming her thoughts were on the same wavelength as his, he said, “Well, I think it’s safe to say that our friendship is effectively ruined.”
“Ruined?” she asked with a laugh.
Jim shrugged, “Well, changed.”
“Better,” she corrected him.
“Better,” he concurred, and the room fell into a peaceful silence. Things were better between them, surprisingly better than they had ever been. Tension had always seemed to plague their relationship, making them self-conscious or uneasy, but all traces of anxiety had melted away with every kiss and every touch of the night before.
As a small growl escaped his stomach, Jim realized how late it was getting. “Hey, are you hungry?” he nudged her gently.
“Yeah. What do you want?” she asked affectionately as she traced a line up and down his arm with her finger.
“What do you have?”
“I have tea… coffee… um…”
Jim chuckled, “ I guess I’ll just have some coffee then.”
“Alright,” she said as she sat up and pulled herself out of bed, wrapping a sheet around herself.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
She turned back to him, covering herself up a little more, “I’m going to get my pajamas from the drawer.”
“Uh, I don’t know if you realize this, but… there’s no need for that sheet anymore,” he smirked. “I mean… even with it covering you, I still have a pretty clear picture of what’s under it, which will in fact be permanently ingrained in my mind forever.”
She shook her head, half embarrassed and half giddy, and jokingly threw the sheet over his head in response. “Picture this,” she told him as the sheet covered his eyes, allowing her just enough time to slip on underwear.
Jim laughed as he pulled the sheet off his head and watched her dress. His gaze caused her to blush in embarrassment, not from him seeing her body, but from the adoring look in his eyes. She wasn’t used to this much attention, and so she did her best to deflect it. “So, are you going to get dressed?” she asked him.
“What do you have in my size?” he inquired with a smug smirk.
She shook her head at his reply, “Nothing. But luckily your walk of shame isn’t very far.”
“Is that what they’re calling it nowadays?” he asked as he slid out of bed and she threw him his boxers. “Well, then I’ll be back soon, dressed appropriately for breakfast—”
“Bunny slippers?”
“Obviously.”
He gathered the rest of his clothes, and before leaving, he pulled her in for a tender kiss. It felt so good to be able to kiss her, to stand so close, taking in the smell of her hair and the heat radiating off her body. As they parted he held onto her securely and whispered, “You have no idea how much I’ve wanted to do that.”
“Me too,” she whispered back, a smile dancing on her lips.
He looked down for a moment, a new thought plaguing his mind, and finally asked her, “Um… what about Roy?”
Jim watched her expression as she thought about Roy, showing up as uncertainty on her lips and fear in her eyes. He flashed her a compassionate smile, wanting to show he would support her any way he could, and once again she was reminded that she had made the right choice. She finally took a deep breath and said, “I can handle it.”
He nodded his head in understanding and told her, “Okay,” then gave her forehead a soft kiss and made his way out of her apartment to change into a cotton t-shirt and pajama bottoms. When he went back across the hall, he found Pam with a pot of water in her hands, pouring it into her coffeemaker.
She handed him a mug and he smiled, “Thanks.”
“No problem.”
“So what were you planning on doing today?” he asked, as the smell of coffee infiltrated the kitchen.
She leaned over the countertop and gave him a contemplative look, “Well, as you can plainly see, I need to go grocery shopping… And, I was thinking about going to the park, if it’s nice out.”
Jim glanced out the window at the sun shining through. “Looks nice enough,” he said as she poured coffee into his mug. “Would you want some company?”
“Sure,” she smiled. “I was just going to take my sketchbook and do some drawings—”
“I thought you liked graphic design better.”
“Well yeah,” she laughed. “But that doesn’t mean I don’t like to draw. I just don’t do it professionally.”
“I see,” he smirked. “Well then, consider this your last chance to tell me to just buzz off...”
Pam giggled, “”Buzz off’? How old are you?” He shook his head at her and finally decided just to take a sip of his coffee, not having any verbal ammunition to retaliate with. “No, actually, I would love for you to come along,” she told him sincerely. “That is, if watching me draw isn’t too boring for you.”
He smiled kindly, thinking about how even watching her draw would be captivating, and told her earnestly, “It would never be boring.”
Just then, they both heard a heavy knock at the door. They jumped at the sudden noise and exchanged an uneasy glance, wondering who it could be, and then heard the voice on the other side shout, “Hey Pammy! You home?”
Pam practically dropped the mug in her hand as she let out a small “Oh no…” Sensing the fear in her voice, Jim took a step forward determinedly, but was stopped by a small wave of her hand, telling him she would handle it.
She opened the door and put on a faux smile, greeting him apprehensively. “Hey Roy,” she said, trying to keep the annoyance out of her voice. “How did you get in?”
He shrugged, “Some tight-ass Christian chick let me in. I thought I’d surprise you.”
“You certainly did,” she chuckled nervously. “How are you?”
“I haven’t seen my girl in over a week, how do you think I am?” he asked in a half cheerful, half irritated tone. She opened the door and motioned for him to come in, but he stopped in his tracks when he saw Jim standing at the kitchen counter. “Hey, what the hell, Halpert?” he said angrily.
Jim felt frozen to the floor, bewildered and uncertain. Did Roy know what they’d done? He shot a quick glance over at Pam, but she looked just as panicked as he was, so he swallowed the lump in his throat and asked, “What do you mean?”
“Where were you last night?”
“Sorry, what?”
“Where were you?” Roy asked again. “The Sixers lost, man, and it’s cause you weren’t at the game.”
Jim breathed a sigh of relief, masked by nonchalance in front of Roy. “Oh, yeah… I was… busy last night,” he told him as he shot a quick glance over at Pam, who was covering a smirk.
“Well you know, I should kick your ass for it, but I guess it wasn’t anything important like missing the finals or something,” he said, now sounding more forgiving than annoyed.
“Yeah… good thing it wasn’t something important like that.” he grinned.
“So what are you doing over here?”
“Oh, uh…” Jim stammered. “Just uh, just came over for a cup of coffee.”
“Oh,” Roy nodded, a look on his face that made Jim wonder if he fully believed him. “Well if you don’t mind man,” he said as he put a hand on Jim’s shoulder forcefully. “I’d really like to spend some time with my girlfriend, so can your little breakfast gab session wait for another day?”
Pam decided to jump in at this point, silently letting Jim know she was going to deal with Roy as soon as he left. “Yeah, I really want to spend some time with him. Do you mind, Jim?”
“Uh, no. Of course not.”
“Good.” She smiled softly as Roy led him out the door with the coffee mug still in his hand.
“Don’t worry, buddy. You’ll probably see her later or something.”
Jim nodded, “Very true. See you later.”
“Bye Jim,” she gave a little wave as Roy closed the door on him. He turned around and gave a wide smile to her, to which she could only respond with a grimace. “Um, so... what were you going to surprise me with?”
“Oh,” Roy said as he sat down on her couch and inspected the lilacs sitting on her coffee table. “I dunno. I just wanted to come over and hang out. Maybe we could watch some TV or something.”
She frowned, “Roy, can we talk, maybe?”
“Sure babe, what’s up?”
“Um…” she sat down next to him on the couch, further away from him than normal. She took his hand and held it gently, “Um, Roy…. I don’t think we should see each other anymore.”
“What?”
“I just… we fight all the time, and we don’t have the same interests…”
“Pammy, everyone has rough patches,” he told her, gripping her hands a little tighter.
She slowly pulled her hands out of his grasp, “Not for months at a time they don’t. Roy, you just don’t get me. You don’t like this lifestyle I have and never supported it, and you don’t like that I have a career—”
“Is there someone else?” he snapped, his blood now boiling.
“No!” she responded halfheartedly.
He stared at her and grunted, “Liar,” forcing her to shrink into the couch cushions in fear, worried he might do something to her. Although he had come close before, Roy had never laid a finger on her with the intention to do harm, and she wasn’t about to let him start now.
“Roy,” she sighed, trying to regain her courage. “It doesn’t matter if there’s someone else. This is over because of us, because of our… incompatibility.”
He stood up and kept his eyes on her like a hawk watching his prey, “Fine. Break it off for some random guy. But I know that you will come crawling back to me, just like you always do.” He shot a quick look to the vase of lilacs and sneered at her, “Are these from him?”
“No,” she replied, her voice quivering.
“Yeah, right,” he growled, picking the vase up and hurling it to the ground, glass shattering everywhere. Pam shrieked at the noise, jumping out of her seat. He gave one more terrorizing look to her and stormed out of her apartment, his boots clunking down the hall.
“I’ll never go crawling back,” she whispered to no one, collapsing on the floor, scared, shocked, and practically in tears. She sat there and shuddered for a moment before pulling herself up and stumbling into the hall, finding Jim standing in his doorway looking fearful.
“Are you okay?” he asked as she collapsed into his arms, still shaking from fear. He held her close, scared that Roy had hit her, but was paralyzed to ask her if he had.
“He—broke your flowers,” she sniffled into his shoulder.
“Hey, that’s alright,” he hushed her as he stroked her hair. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine,” she whispered, wanting to say more but not being able to. She wanted to tell him how scary Roy had looked when he yelled, how much the sound of shattering glass shook her, how she hoped Jim would never do something like that to her, but it was as if her mouth couldn’t form the words. She felt like he knew all of it already anyway.
“Do you still want to go to the park?” he asked. “We can just stay here if you’d rather do that…”
“No, let’s go to the park,” se insisted, giving his hands a small squeeze. “It’ll help take my mind off of everything. Just let me get dressed.” She wiped way the last of her tears and placed a delicate kiss on his cheek before hurrying into her apartment. Jim went back into his own apartment to grab his cell phone and keys, and then waited out in the hallway, wondering if there was anything more he could do for her.
But he knew she was strong when she had to be, and he didn’t doubt that she would make it through this. He would just have to take things very slowly, ready to be there when she needed him, and ready to give her space if she didn’t. There was still so much he didn’t know about her, and he was nervous and excited to find out more.
Moments later she appeared, smiling brighter than before, and told him, “Okay, ready.” As they walked down the hall to the stairs, Jim took her hand in his own and they instantly felt calm wash over them. This felt right.
Author's Chapter Notes:
So sorry I made you all wait so long for a new chapter! I went on a wonderful yet busy vacation, and the only downtime I found to write was on the plane! I'm back now though, and excited to get back into working on this. Truthfully, I'm just as excited as all of you are for it!!
Most appreciative thanks to EmilyHalpert, who helped turn this chapter into what I intended it to be. Enjoy!
Most appreciative thanks to EmilyHalpert, who helped turn this chapter into what I intended it to be. Enjoy!
Chapter End Notes:
P.S. There is a reference to another show in this chapter, which EmilyHalpert found right away and I left in just because it makes me laugh. I'm not going to tell you what show it's from, but if you can find and identify it you win fifty cool points!
