“Roy?” he heard Pam ask, “What are you doing here?”
“Roy? Who’s Roy?” Jim asked himself. “Roy is definitely not the little old lady next door. Roy, Roy, who’s Roy? Oh, Roy is, oh, yeah. Roy. Damn it.”
Jim froze in his spot on the floor, watching Pam. From where he was sitting he could see her and the door, but not the interruption on the other side.
“Pammy?” Jim heard a burly voice question, “Can I come in? I really need to talk.”
The voices in Jim’s head were begging her to say no. With every passing second, he was losing his nerve to tell Pam how he felt about her. If he didn’t do it soon, he wasn’t going to do it and it would be incredibly awkward to do it in front of her ex-fiancé, not that he would ever have the nerve to do that.
“Roy, I don’t think that’s such a good idea,” he heard Pam respond, “How did you know where I lived anyway?”
“Why won’t you just let me in? Do you got a guy in there or something?” Roy asked with a laugh like it was such a huge improbability that Pam would have a guy over.
“Well, actually,” Pam began to respond, but was halted when Roy barged past her and into the apartment.
Jim just sat and stared as the large man came barreling through the front door. Roy was not at all what he had expected. He wasn’t exactly sure what he had expected, but it was not this. Roy was a big guy, in a way where you could tell that he was once muscular, but years of eating fast food and drinking too much had left him with a sizeable gut. He also smelled like he was soaked in cheap beer and his eyes were bloodshot, leading Jim to conclude that he was drunk. “Fantastic,” he muttered to himself.
“What the hell is this?” Roy’s voice boomed through the tiny apartment.
“Roy! Stop it,” Pam raised her tiny voice, “Nothing is going on. He’s a friend from work. His name is Jim. Besides, I think you’re the one who needs to explain what you’re doing here.”
“I need to talk to you,” Roy said, calming down, “But you won’t return my calls so I asked around back home and found out where you lived. You have to understand, I had to see you, baby.”
Jim just watched waiting for Pam to respond to Roy, unsure of what to do. Should he politely excuse himself, telling Pam he would see her tomorrow at work? Should he just stay perfectly still and hope they forgot he was there so he could continue to watch the scene unfold? Jim was mentally debating with himself when Roy moved closer to Pam.
“Listen, Pammy,” Roy said trying to whisper but the alcohol was making that impossible, “I need to talk to you about some things that have happened lately, but I don’t want an audience.” Roy nodded towards Jim.
“Oh, umm,” Jim started to stand, but Pam cut him off.
“No, Jim, you stay,” she said and turned her attention to Roy, “He’s not leaving. You can’t just show up here unannounced and drunk and expect me to drop my plans. Now, you’re obviously too drunk to drive, so why don’t you go sleep it off in my bed and you can drive back to Hazelton in the morning.”
“No, Pam, that’s what I’m trying to tell you,” Roy sat down as he began to spoke, standing proving to be too difficult, “I have nowhere to go back to. I haven’t been right since you left me, babe. I lost my job last month and I lost the apartment. I was crashing with Kenny for a while, but we got into a fight last night because he said I, well, he said some things I didn’t agree with. I have nowhere to go and no one. I thought I’d come here and if you could just see me, you’d remember how great we where together and I could start over here with you.”
Jim couldn’t believe it, but he actually felt bad for the guy. “Listen, I should go,” Jim piped in, breaking the silence, “It’s getting late and you two obviously have a lot to talk about.”
Jim watched Pam’s face visibly deflate. “I guess,” she answered, “Let me walk you out.”
Jim walked out of the apartment without saying goodbye to Roy with Pam following behind him. She followed behind him, shutting the door.
“Listen, Jim,” she whispered, “I had a really nice time tonight. Sorry it got interrupted.”
“Not your fault,” Jim responded, unable to hide the disappointment in his voice.
“Regardless,” Pam continued, “I feel bad and I was having a great time. We should do it again sometime.”
“I don’t know if that’s such a good idea,” Jim responded not sure where the words were coming from, “Not at least until you get things sorted out with Roy.”
“It’s not like that, Jim. Before tonight, I had worried that if I saw Roy again, I would be sucked back into the life I had with him. But, tonight, when I saw him, I knew that being with him was the last thing I wanted. I’ll let him sober up here tonight and let him know that it is absolutely 100% over with us in the morning.”
“Okay,” was all the response Jim could muster, “Bye, Pam. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
He began to turn to walk away when Pam caught his hand. “Jim, wait, I…” Pam started as Jim turned back to face her. They stood there staring at each other for what seemed like hours, but was actually a few seconds.
“Yes, Pam?” Jim was the first to break the silence.
“I just,” Pam started to speak, but when she couldn’t find the words, she closed the gap between them and placed a gentle kiss on his full lips.
Jim responded immediately to her kiss, wrapping his arms around her. After a few gentle pecks, he got caught up in the moment, gently sliding his tongue between her lips, seeking entrance. She parted her lips just slightly and when their tongues met, Jim was sure he saw fireworks. Pam’s hands were alternating between resting gently on Jim’s chest to playing with the hair that curled at the nape of his neck.
Jim had just pulled Pam closer to him when a loud crash came from her apartment and she pulled back slightly.
“Crap,” Pam breathed, “I forgot about Roy.”
“Yeah, me, too,” Jim said, leaning in for another kiss, but Pam pulled back.
“We should stop,” Pam said, pulling herself out of Jim’s embrace.
“Yeah, no, you’re right.”
“I just need a day or two to deal with Roy,” Pam said smiling, “Then we can get back to this.”
Jim couldn’t believe the bold words coming out of the usually shy Pam’s mouth. The kiss and her forwardness had rendered him speechless.
“I mean, I guess, that’s if you want to,” Pam spoke up, an unsure quality to her voice.
“Wow,” Jim replied, still shocked, “No, I definitely want to get back to this. I’m just a little taken aback by the ‘Fancy New Beesly’ that emerged.” Pam blushed. “I’m not saying I don’t like it,” Jim continued, “I’m just wondering where she came from.”
There was another crash from inside the apartment followed by Roy’s booming voice, “Paaaaaammmmmm!”
“I should get back in there,” Pam said, “But we’ll talk more about ‘Fancy New Beesly’ soon. Just give me a couple of days.”
“Okay,” Jim said, kissing her softly on the cheek, “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Goodnight,” Pam said as she turned and went back into the apartment.
Jim took his car keys out of his pocket as he strode to his car with the biggest smile on his face.
Author's Chapter Notes:
So sorry for the delay yet again. If you've read the health topic over on the boards, I've been dealing with insane migraines over the past two weeks, but they let up enough today for me to get this chapter done.
This chapter just did not want to get written. In fact, it ended up completely different from what I intended. I'm not 100% satisified with it, but I figured I kept you guys waiting long enough. Also, this chapter is a little different as it's solely from Jim's perspective. I usually do half the chapter in Jim's and half in Pam's, but this one got away from me.
This chapter just did not want to get written. In fact, it ended up completely different from what I intended. I'm not 100% satisified with it, but I figured I kept you guys waiting long enough. Also, this chapter is a little different as it's solely from Jim's perspective. I usually do half the chapter in Jim's and half in Pam's, but this one got away from me.
Chapter End Notes:
So, what did you think? Weren't expecting that where you? Don't forget to review!
