Pam practically skipped to her apartment. She was giddy with anticipation over her date with Jim tonight. She had managed to sneak out of work early this afternoon, stopping at the Steamtown Mall to pick up a new dress and shoes. Jim told her this morning he had made reservations at a small bistro downtown and she wanted to look her best. She was so excited, she felt like she was in high school, which made sense considering she hadn’t been on a first date since high school. She paused for a minute, outside her apartment door, recalling her last first date. The thought of Roy leaving her at a hockey game deflated her mood for just a minute when she realized tonight was going to be nothing like that. Jim is not Roy, and she is pretty sure he wouldn’t be bringing either of his brothers along.
Pam unlocked her apartment door, hoping Roy wouldn’t be there. Yesterday when she arrived home work, he wasn’t there. He stumbled in sometime around 10, a little tipsy, telling Pam he went out for drinks with some guys he met at a job interview earlier in the day. He passed out on her couch 15 minutes later and was still asleep when she left this morning.
Pam glanced down at her watch and realized Jim would be there in an hour. He had said it was against his “Gentleman Code” to allow her to drive herself to the restaurant, but he agreed to wait in his car instead of coming to the door to avoid any issues with Roy. She had to hurry. She wanted to be ready before Jim got there and she still had to shower, straighten her hair, and do her makeup.
It wasn’t until Pam started heading down the hallway to her bedroom, that she heard it; Roy fumbling around in her kitchen. She peeked her head and could not believe her eyes. Roy had his back to her, cooking, that’s right cooking in her kitchen. There were candles lit on her table and classical music coming from a portable stereo on the counter. “Oh, crap,” she thought to herself.
“Roy,” Pam spoke up, recovering from her shock, “What are you doing?”
“Pammy!” Roy turned toward her, a huge smile on his face. “You’re home early. Sit down, I made us dinner.”
“What?” she was confused, “Why are you doing this?”
“I told you the other night, babe, I know I took you for granted,” he said softly, “I’m just trying to show you how much you mean to me so you‘ll take me back.”
“Roy,” Pam leaned against the wall, “I told you, I’ve moved on. You should, too. Besides, I really can’t, I have plans tonight.”
His face fell and Pam felt a twinge of guilt for making him upset. “With who?” he asked.
Pam thought for a second before answering. She knew the right thing to do would be to tell him the truth, that she was going on a date with Jim, but she felt like that would be pouring salt on his open wound.
“I’m just going out with some friends with work,” she lied.
“Oh, okay,” Roy said as he started covering the food he prepared with foil, “We can save this for tomorrow. Why don’t I go with you?”
Pam was dumbfounded. Never once, in all the years they were together, did Roy ever show any interest in spending time with her friends.
“I don’t think that would be such a good idea,” she said, turning to head to her bedroom.
“Pam, wait,” Roy shouted after her, “What’s with you? I mean, you said I could stay here, but you are constantly blowing me off. I thought maybe you wanted to give this another chance.”
She couldn’t believe it. He was delusional. All the years of drinking had finally rotted his brain and he was delusional. That was the only explanation for what he was thinking.
“No, Roy, I don’t,” she said, turning to face him again, “I don’t want to give this another chance. In the two days you’ve been here, I haven’t given you any reason to think that. I’m letting you stay here because you are like family to me and I want you to get your life together. But, and this is a big but, I do not want to get back together with you. Now, I’m going to be late, I have to get ready.”
Pam turned and entered her bedroom, but not before she noticed Roy’s eyes filling with tears.
“How dare he!” Pam said aloud to herself as she showered. She was livid. What gives him the right to start trying to be a good guy now? If she didn’t know any better, she would fall for it all over again only to have him revert back to his usual, thoughtless behavior in a short period of time.
She let the hot water hit her face. She had to calm down, she had a date to go on. She didn’t want Roy’s action to affect her mood and therefore affect her date with Jim. She had been waiting for this date since yesterday morning when he had asked her out after an intense make out session in the stairwell.
Pam stepped out of the shower and after drying off, headed to her bedroom. As she made her way wrapped in a towel, she heard the distinct sound of Roy opening her refrigerator, grabbing a bottle, and popping the cap off.
“Great, he’s drinking,” She thought, “That should make this easier.”
She contemplated heading into the kitchen and knocking the beer out his hand, telling him if he was going to stay with her, this wasn’t going to fly. There was no way he was going to get his life back and track if he got drunk every night. She resisted, though, because Jim was going to be there in 20 minutes and because she knew that’s what Roy wanted, to take her attention away from getting ready and onto him.
“Screw it,” she thought as she focused all of her attention on making herself look her best for Jim.
*************************************************
It went against everything Jim stood for to wait in his car for a date. His parents had raised him as a respectful guy, and a respectful guy always picks a girl up at her front door. “Never, ever wait for the girl in your car,” his dad had told him the day he got his driver’s license, “And so help me God, if I ever find out you honked your horn instead of picking her up at the door, you will not leave this house until you’re thirty.”
Jim chuckled at the memory. He was sitting in his car, playing with his iPod, waiting in the parking lot of Pam’s apartment complex. When he told her he would pick her up at 6:30, she had said she would be waiting in the lot for him. It was 6:27 and he knew he was early, but he had expected she would be as excited as he was and be ready early.
Jim had left his apartment five minutes earlier than he intended. The combination of his own excitement and Mark’s incessant teasing made him restless and he just had to get out of there. He had stopped at a florist, picking up a small bouquet of lilies, asking the florist to put the ends of the stems in one of those little vials of water. He figured if he wasn’t able to pick her up at her door that the flowers would spend the night in the car and he didn’t want them to die. That’s not a good way to end a first date, he had thought to himself.
At 6:33, Jim had sent Pam a text message: I’m waiting in the parking lot. Hope your not standing me up… :-p He had thrown in the smiley face with a tongue out so she would know he was only kidding about her standing him up, mostly.
By 6:36, Jim was getting worried. Pam was always on time. Most mornings, she was early to work so the fact that she was now 6 minutes late in meeting him was worrying him. Four minutes later, he had made the decision that he was just going to go up to her apartment, Roy be damned.
He paced outside her door for a few seconds, working up the nerve to knock, silently praying Roy wouldn’t answer, flowers clutched in his right hand. He finally got the nerve to knock and silently cursed when it was indeed Roy who had opened the door.
“Hey, man,” Jim said, extending his had to Pam’s ex to shake, “I’m Jim, we met the other night. I’m here to pick up Pam.”
Roy just stared at Jim for what seemed like hours, a look of confusion on his face. Unsure of what to do, he just stood there until Pam emerged, breaking off his undeclared staring contest.
“I’m so sorry, Jim,” Pam said, coming from behind Roy, “I was getting ready and I lost track of time.”
Jim caught a glimpse of her then and his breath caught. She looked gorgeous. He thought she looked beautiful everyday, but this was nothing short of incredible. She had straightened her hair and added big, round curls at the ends. She wore makeup, her lip gloss making her mouth look even more kissable than usual and she was wearing a black dress that hugged her curvy body in all the right places as well as the sexiest pair of black heels.
“Oh, yeah, it’s fine,” Jim replied, handing her the flowers, “These are for you.”
Pam accepted the flowers from him with a quiet thank you, but Jim could tell she felt uncomfortable. He supposed it would be uncomfortable to be picked up for a date with your ex-fiancé staying with you.
“Pam,” Roy spoke up, “You said you were going out with friends from work.”
Jim shifted on his feet, looking down. If things were uncomfortable before, they were downright awkward now.
“Oh, well,” Pam stammered, “I am. Jim is my friend and we work together, so…”
“Is anyone else going?” Roy questioned.
“Umm, no,” Pam answered, “But that’s not really any of your business, so just don’t start.” With that, she turned and went into the kitchen, setting the flowers in some water.
“Let’s go,” she said to Jim grabbing her purse. Neither of them said anything to Roy as they left.
They walked to his car in silence. Jim was upset. He was so excited about this and she didn’t even have the courage to tell Roy she was going on a date.
“We don’t have to do this if you don’t want to,” he finally spoke as they reached his car.
“What? Huh? No, I want to,” Pam was confused.
“It’s just,” Jim began to speak, but the words were stuck in his throat. He looked her in the eyes and she nodded, urging him to continue. “I mean, do you even want to go on this date? You told Roy you were going out with friends.”
“Oh, no, Jim,” Pam took his hand, lacing her fingers with his, “I want to do this. Roy made a big romantic gesture tonight and I wanted to let him down easy. If I told him the truth, it would have been messy. I am so sorry.” She placed a soft kiss on his cheek.
The kiss sent a shiver down Jim’s spine. “Okay,” he said, opening the car door for her.
Author's Chapter Notes:
I promised an update this weekend, and here is Saturday night and ta-da, an update! This chapter is mostly filler, so I apologize for that in advance!
Same disclaimers apply.
Same disclaimers apply.
Chapter End Notes:
Don't throw garbage at me. I promise we'll get to the date in the next chapter, which should be up sometime Sunday. Yeah, you read the right, I'm planning on two updates in one weekend. You can thank my husband's insane work schedule for all this free time I have.
Oh, and don't forget to review. Reviews make me more eager to write... wink,wink!
Oh, and don't forget to review. Reviews make me more eager to write... wink,wink!
