Jim Halpert took a deep breath the moment he entered his apartment. He had moved into his Seaside Avenue townhouse a little over a month ago and still wasn’t quite used to the change in scenery. Sure, his new place reminded him a lot of the house he shared with his friend Mark in Scranton, but that’s where the similarities ended.
He wasn’t in Scranton anymore. Hell, he wasn’t even in Pennsylvania. He was in Connecticut; Stamford to be exact. He lived only a few blocks from the beach and was renting a townhouse that he was fortunate to find, especially given the urgency of his move.
He no longer had a roommate. He utilized the second bedroom as a home office, but hadn’t done any actual work in the room yet. For the time being, he used the space to store the majority of his sports memorabilia and random trinkets that didn’t fit into the other rooms of his 1,500 square foot townhouse.
He loved the area. There were several biking trails nearby and he could smell the ocean breeze every time he stepped foot outside. There hadn’t been a rainy day since his arrival, although, judging by the looks of the dark clouds that quickly rolled in during his short commute home, he figured that lucky streak would end in a few short hours.
He managed to survive another week.
No.
That wasn’t right.
Survival wasn’t the word he’d use to describe it. Survival was what he did during his three-year stint at Dunder Mifflin Scranton. What he was doing now was something completely different.
Existing.
Yeah, he merely existed these days. While the change of scenery had been more than welcomed and he managed to get along with most of his new co-workers, at the end of the day, he knew that he was merely existing—just navigating his way through life until everything would ultimately click into place and he’d finally be over it.
He’d finally be over her.
Jim snickered as he made his way to his bedroom and tossed his suit jacket on his bed. As he loosened and removed his tie, he realized that he wasn’t any closer to getting over his—
What was it? A crush? No. A crush was something people typically recovered from within a few weeks or months, perhaps, but he had to move two and a half hours away in order to have a chance at semi-normal life. Had it been love? Absolutely. While he had never experienced that particular emotion with anyone else, he knew that he had been in love with her. Truth be told, he still was. He knew it wasn’t something he could easily get over in a few short weeks or even a few months. He had been in love with her from the day he met her. He, Jim Halpert, who once scoffed at the idea that anyone could fall in love so quickly, was forced to accept the fact that it was possible because he had. It merely took three conversations and one lunch date (that wasn’t an actual date) for him to begin his slow descent into hell.
He found her attractive from the moment they met. He felt a connection the moment he first heard her laugh. He wanted to ask her out after their first conversation, but it wasn’t until she mentioned her fiancé at lunch that fateful first day that Jim realized he was already in way too deep with a girl he never stood a chance with.
And yet, over the subsequent three years, he found himself falling further and further under her spell. They became friends—best friends. She talked to him about everything—including ongoing issues in her relationship with her fiancé—and he confided in her about mostly everything.
Everything except the fact that he was head over heels in love with her.
Eventually, her fiancé set a wedding date and it all became too real. He knew he never stood a chance, but what slight odds he did possess began to fade away with every passing day, so he did the one thing he swore he’d never do: he told her how he felt.
And she shot him down.
Then, he overheard her on the phone with someone—her mom, he assumed. By the time she hung up the phone, he made the decision to put it all on the line one final time. Without a word or a second thought, he wrapped his arms around her and kissed her.
Reality quickly set in, even as the softness and warmth of her lips offered his fractured heart a moment of comfort. He pulled away, petrified at how she would react to his boldness. Instead of smacking or yelling at him, she took him completely by surprise when she leaned forward and pressed her lips to his.
It was heaven on earth. For those ten perfect seconds, nothing else mattered. There was no hesitation, no fear, nothing to hold them back. Jim had never felt more open or honest with anyone than he had with Pam Beesly in those ten precious seconds.
But like with all dreams, reality came crashing back down, and once again, she rejected him. She told him that she was going to marry her fiancé, Roy.
And that was the end of it.
Even before he made his confession, Jim had already accepted a promotion within the company, one that would take him to Stamford, Connecticut. At first he was hesitant to apply because some part of him wanted to stay in Scranton, to stay by her, but after that night, he knew he had to leave.
One month later, and there he was—alone in his apartment on a Friday night.
It wasn’t so bad. He knew that he would get more comfortable with his surroundings as time passed, and after the crazy week he had at work, he was more than happy to sit in front of his TV for the rest of the night and watch baseball.
After he called in a delivery order for a large pizza at a nearby restaurant, he slipped out of his shoes and wandered into the kitchen in order to grab a beer.
Even though the Stamford branch was a little more conservative than the Scranton one, there were still some big personalities he was struggling to get adjusted to, like his co-worker, Andy Bernard.
Andy was nice enough, but while he was the exact opposite of Dwight in a lot of ways, there was something about him that reminded him a lot of the beet farmer. Perhaps it was the fact that he annoyed Jim almost as much as Dwight did. Whereas his annoyance with Dwight stemmed from his general attitude about everything, what annoyed Jim about Andy was the fact that while the Cornell graduate constantly sang—and almost always slightly off-key—it was the way he spoke about women that drove Jim absolutely crazy. He could tell that the guy was harmless enough, but constantly talking about how he wanted to ‘bone’ certain female co-workers made Jim entirely uncomfortable. If he thought, for even a split second, that Andy would sexually harass one of his co-workers, Jim would have reported him to HR, but as it was, even though he had only known him for a few weeks, Jim could tell that he was harmless. He often wondered if Michael and Andy would get along. The two men had a lot in common, but Jim finally came to the conclusion that even Michael would get annoyed with the constant singing.
After his pizza arrived, Jim went back to his bedroom and changed into a pair of basketball shorts and a plain white t-shirt. He ran his fingers through his tousled hair as he padded back to the kitchen in order to retrieve another beer before he sat down with his dinner.
It was nearly 8:00pm by the time he picked up the first slice.
He had barely taken a bite before he heard a knock on the door.
He furrowed his eyebrows as he chewed his food. He wasn’t expecting any company and he didn’t know anyone in Stamford (aside from his co-workers) that would just stop by unannounced.
Curious, he rose from his seat at the kitchen table and hurried toward the door. He paused long enough to swallow the food in his mouth before he peered through the peephole.
His hand hovered over the doorknob, but froze the moment he recognized who was on the other side.
It was impossible.
It couldn’t be.
It had to be another dream.
If it was a dream, then when the hell did he fall asleep?
His heart slammed against his chest as he turned the knob and opened the door.
There, standing on his front porch in the pouring rain, was one drenched Pam Beesly.
Author's Chapter Notes:
I told myself I'd only write one story at a time, but I couldn't get this idea out of my head, so here we are. I thought it would just be a one shot (I know...famous last words), but the idea has quickly formed a life of its own so there will be multiple chapters. I have the first few chapters already completed, so updates should be fairly regular and more concise than the other fic I'm working on.
