They weren’t going to meet up tonight. He had to stay late at work, then help his mom move some boxes up to his parents’ attic after work, and then was supposed to go to a basketball game at the Y. By the time he would have been done, gotten home, showered, and got ready to head over to Pam’s, she would have been already going to bed. And since she lives across town, it didn’t really make sense for him to drive all the way over just to go to sleep when his apartment is five minutes away from the gym. So, they agreed that they would just see each other tomorrow.

But, as he was leaving his parents’ house, Mark had texted him to say that the game was cancelled. Four players had the flu, so they would just pick back up next week. He almost called Pam right then, but headed home instead, deciding to surprise her at her apartment. 

He pulls up to her apartment an hour later with a few new songs on his ipod and a pint of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream. He can hear Girlfriend by Avril Lavigne through her front door and he grins, picturing her dancing alone on the other side. He slides his key into the lock as quietly as he can, hoping she’s distracted enough to not hear the door opening. 

He peeks his head in and spots her at her stove, her back to him, and she’s mixing something together. He carefully steps inside and closes the door behind him, setting the ice cream down on the table in the entryway. He walks up and leans against the counter, listening to her sing and dance along to the radio. 

After another minute she turns around, dropping her spoon and screaming as she notices him, but doesn’t register who it is until he’s practically on the floor laughing. 

“Oh my God, Jim! You scared the hell out of me! What are you doing here?!”

“My game got cancelled, I thought I’d surprise you,” he answers, still chuckling. 

“A text would have been nice.”

“But then it wouldn’t have been a surprise.”

“Yeah, but at least I wouldn’t have had a heart attack. I knew I shouldn’t have given you that key.” She had made her way over to him at this point, wrapping her arms around his waist. 

“You love me.”

She rolls her eyes and mumbles with a smile, “Yeah, yeah.”

He reaches up, “I haven’t seen these before,” he says, touching her pink oval glasses.

“Oh my God, I forgot I had these on.” 

She moves to take them off, but he stops her. “No, I like them.”

She raises an eyebrow at him, “Really?”

“Yeah, why don’t you wear them?”

She shrugs, looking a little embarrassed, “Roy would always comment on them, so I don’t know, I guess I stopped wearing them as much as possible. But my contacts were bothering me and I didn’t know I would be having company tonight,” she gives him a pointed but playful look, “so I put them on. I don’t know, they are kind of dorky.”

Maybe, he thinks, but he doesn’t care. Her hair is up in a messy bun, she’s changed into sweats and one of his t-shirts, and he remembers a time when he could only hope to see her like this. The fact that now he can, that this is now normal, makes his heart swell. 

“Well, I think you should wear them more often.”

“Shut up.”

He leans down and kisses her, because he can and that’s normal now too. He can feel her smile against his lips, her hands sliding back around him. He pulls back after a moment, kissing her forehead before looking down at her. 

“As much as I would love to keep interrupting your dinner, the ice cream I brought is currently melting on your table.”

Her eyes light up and she moves around him to the front table, opening the bag as she brings it to her freezer. “Ugh, you’re the best. I guess the key was a good idea.”

The glasses ended up on her bedroom floor a few hours later, but she put them back on the next morning as she got ready for work, giving him a small smile and a whispered, “thank you,” as she passed by him. 

It’s the combination of her thanking him (when he knows she shouldn’t need to be), of knowing she trusts him enough to wear her glasses around him, and the actual sight of seeing her in glasses, that has him falling even deeper.