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Author's Chapter Notes:
Jim and Pam go to relax.

The bridge climb had left Jim with indelible memories, a renewed sense of wonder at the beauty of the universe, and one holy hell of an aching back. He was used to physical exertion of course, but basketball and bridge climbing weren’t the same muscles, and (he had to admit) he’d probably been overdoing it the last few days walking all over creation when his normal day’s work had nothing in it more stressful than walking to the copier or the break room.

 

Pam didn’t appear to be quite as aching, or maybe she just hid it as well as he hoped he was hiding his aches from her, but she did seem extremely willing when he suggested they find a pool to soak in. They had to walk back to the hostel first, of course, but along the way they found the perfect place: a public pool across the street from Hyde Park that advertised heated pools year-round.

 

Jim wasn’t too proud to admit it, not to Pam, but he’d really forgotten it was winter, given the unusually moderate temperatures, and he hadn’t thought about it at all when he’d been packing, so he’d definitely packed a swimsuit. He wasn’t sure what he’d planned to do with it exactly: he hadn’t had a beach tour or anything and even he knew Sydney wasn’t the sort of place you jumped in the water from the street or anything. But he’d brought it because it was a vacation to a place he thought of as warm.

 

Pam, apparently, had brought a suit too—or as she put it to him “my whole damn wardrobe’s in these suitcases”—and so they suited up in their respective rooms (under the clothes of course) and headed back out.

 

He couldn’t deny that the aching in his back was less of a concern now that he was wondering what, exactly, was hiding under Pam’s clothes. It wasn’t that he hadn’t seen her naked; it wasn’t even that he hadn’t seen her in revealing clothing, because the image of her lingerie from that first night together was burned into his mind forever; but there was something about knowing she was wearing a swimsuit that felt special, and he was definitely distracted; enough to almost walk past the pool before a laughing Pam dragged him back to the front doors.

 

**

 

Pam was usually pretty shy about her body. Sure, she knew she wasn’t entirely ugly or anything. Even if Kevin had called Katy Pam 6.0, that still meant she was on the Pam spectrum, and she could definitely tell that Katy was hot—and anyway, she owned a mirror and a sense of self-esteem. But she hadn’t exactly been swimming in compliments her whole life, and it wasn’t the easiest thing in the world to show herself off in public even at the best of times, even at her most confident.

 

But she didn’t think of it as showing herself off in public. She was there with Jim, and a bunch of Australians she’d never meet again. So it was really just showing herself off in front of Jim and that she was happy enough to do. After all, she’d worn that lingerie she’d never really intended to wear, and a whole lot less. And they were going to be under water most of the time anyway.

 

So of the three swimsuits she owned she originally planned to just wear the skimpiest. After all, she liked it when Jim looked at her, when his eyes focused on her, just her, and everything else seemed to fall away. But after a little deliberation, she opted instead for the most conservative, most respectable, least revealing swimsuit. Not because she didn’t want to show herself off, but because of the reason she’d bought it in the first place.

 

She could tell Jim was just a tiny bit disappointed when she emerged from the changing area in a suit that covered her not from head to toe but close enough. It wasn’t a wetsuit or anything, but it was definitely, she could tell, not what he’d had in mind when he’d been envisioning going to a pool with her.

 

She figured she had better explain.

 

“So, I, uh, got this for the booze cruise.” She shrugged as his arm came around her and they walked towards the leisure pool together. “And I figured that gave it some sentimental value.”

 

“For the booze cruise?” He looked confused, then snapped his fingers. “The memo.”

 

“A toothbrush, rubber-soled shoes, a ski mask…”

 

“And a swimsuit.” He nodded. “But why this one?”

 

“Don’t you see? Or more precisely, you don’t see. Can you imagine being at a company event, with Michael and Dwight and Kevin, and wearing a regular swimsuit?”

 

“Oh god.”

 

“Yep.” She smiled. “Kelly made a big fuss about it, but she wasn’t the only one who bought a swimsuit for that one. I just didn’t feel like mentioning it.”

 

“And I’m guessing hers was a little bit more…”

 

“I think you mean a little bit less.” They grinned.

 

“Yeah, I’d say that does make for some sentimental value.”

 

She slipped into the water and smiled up at him as he waited for her to clear the entry ladder. “Hey, Jim?”

 

“Yeah?”

 

“Just so you know, if it had just been you coming on the cruise, I wouldn’t have bothered buying another bathing suit.”

 

She pushed away from the wall as fast as she could in the shallow water and he splashed after her laughing.

 

It wasn’t so bad a thing when he caught her, either.

Chapter End Notes:

Hope you enjoyed the fluff. More on the way when they get to their flights home tomorrow. Thanks for reading and reviewing! 


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