On an early June Sunday morning, Pam was propped up in bed, with Jim as her back rest as she nestled between his legs, leaning her back against his bare chest. He, in turn, was braced against the headboard, his arms wrapped firmly around her with his head aligned with hers, resting lightly on her shoulder. Every so often his lips touched down on her skin to kiss any and all accessible spots within his reach. Pam stared at the newspaper in thought as she gently chewed the end of the pen she held, considering the sudoku in front of them. Somewhere in the background, Turin Brakes played quietly, Jim deciding that their recent release, Dark on Fire, was the best album for all sorts of reasons for this particular lazy morning.

“See, I don’t think that box can have a nine in it.”

“No?” He nuzzled against her as his voice rumbled low against her ear. He took an opportunity to nip at her earlobe, making her giggle. “Then what’s in this box?” She held back on her desire to yell out “That’s what she said!” and instead replied chastely:

“A four.” She stuck her tongue out in concentration as she wrote in the answer, which he found adorable, and took the opportunity to steal another kiss from her. Pam pushed him away with a smirk and gamely continued to try and complete the puzzle, but by the time they’d reached the album’s title track, his hands were roaming upwards from where he had had them resting on her stomach, soon finding their way under her tank-top on a direct path to her breasts, as his lips simultaneously hit the sweet spot on her neck that always made her shudder when he kissed her there.  The sudoku was soon forgotten as his boxer-briefs found their way to the floor in a messy heap along with the tank top, her panties and the newspaper. The pen ended up rolling under the bed and they only found it again months later, when they were moving Pam’s things out to store at Jim’s whilst she was in New York. That same pen ended up in the box with the beer coaster, though Pam wasn’t sure quite how she’d explain that one’s significance to their future children.

***

They’d taken things at a pace that suited them. They’d had a lot of ground to make up, emotions to work through. Although it was all now almost impossibly perfect, to have ignored what had gone before, to not work through those thoughts… would have been foolish and probably led to more misunderstandings and heartache. Thankfully, this time, they were communicating properly, and both recognised the need to work through the last year and more. Over those first few weeks, they addressed many of the unarticulated feelings that had been brewing for the last five years. It was needed. Some they did together, some alone.

Pam reflected on taking four years to realise her true feelings, then another year to screw it all up. She held herself back when she should have taken no prisoners and gone for what, or rather, whom, she really wanted much sooner, before finding herself suddenly in what seemed to be Nirvana, almost with a snap of her fingers in its spontaneity. It was a lot to take in. She struggled with an internal debate that maybe she had needed to go through the pain she’d endured to grow and learn about herself enough that when Jim had burst through that door, she was ready for him. Pam realised she’d come such a long way in that year, even with the heartbreak that had come with it. However, that didn’t stop the intense regret she still felt at turning him down almost exactly a year earlier. She couldn’t help but mourn a little for that lost time, especially when she understood exactly what she now had and how she might have had it sooner if she’d been that bit braver.

Weeks later, Pam would gaze at Jim sleeping soundly next to her and wonder why the hell she hadn’t gained some courage earlier. She would reach out for him in the night, particularly in those early days, just leaving her hand resting against his arm, his back or his chest, needing to be physically connected to him in some way, to confirm he was a genuine, corporeal being and not just a figment of her imagination. Happily, he didn’t seem to mind, and she wondered if he felt the same need of attachment.

***

Jim was also coming to terms with finally getting what he wanted. It still consumed him, just as it had done in all the time that he’d pined for her unrequitedly. In rare moments alone in those first few weeks, he would long for her in her short absences away from him, for example, to run an errand or complete the occasional art assignment without him there beside her. Sometimes it still felt weird to be able to reach out to her and not have to check his feelings or his physicality with her anymore. He would wrap his arms around her when they were lounging at home – which was now was whoever’s place they were at, and just inhale, the simple fragrances of the shampoo and perfume she’d used for years triggering the most incredible evocations of love and security in him.

This relationship being real? It was something he’d never dare dreamed he’d ever truly have before they were finally together, and he admitted to himself that that emotional chasm had included his time with Karen. To admit that was a relief to acknowledge honestly in himself. This was something he didn’t think she understood, not yet anyway, of just how she made him feel simply being near her.

Sometimes he worried that now he had what he wanted - that the chase was over, he’d wake up one morning and feel something was missing. That’s how he’d always felt with Karen. He’d liked her, but he always felt incomplete, and that’s how he’d known that his heart was really elsewhere.  But with Pam, that hopelessness never came, just wave after wave of happiness, desire and contentment. Not only did it not stop, but the feelings just became even more intense, like some sort of drug. He’d had a taste and now he was addicted, needing ever-greater hits just to feel normal. He wondered just how he’d ended up with this - what was she to him now?  Everything, he surmised. Girlfriend was simply not an adequate term. Wife might start to get close, and he’d already taken care of one element of that thought, remembering the small velvet box he now had hidden in the sock drawer in his bedroom.

***

In the office, they channelled every last ounce of self-discipline to maintain a pretence of normality for several weeks. Karen had returned and left again within just a couple of workdays, but not before she’d chewed Jim out loud enough for the entire office to hear. Of course, that wasn’t awkward at all for Pam - not the furtive glances from Andy and Oscar, the daggers look from Angela, or Kevin’s general confusion in her direction. She maintained a game face of mild interest with a note of nonchalance, something she’d mastered a long time ago after she’d hidden those nascent feelings towards Jim just weeks after they’d met. That was of course, the same set of feelings she’d started to fight after he’d warned her about her expiring yoghurt with a big goofy smile and she realised she was falling for someone she shouldn’t.

Whilst some of their work colleagues kept a healthy amount of scepticism that Pam and Jim were still now only friends (and it turned out in the end that Kevin had been totally right about that,) once Karen had gone, they fell into a standard operating model during the day. For anyone not aware of their secretly upgraded status, things would have looked much the same as the façade they’d perfected for years when neither of them had had the courage to share their true feelings with the other.

People knew they’d rekindled their friendship.

People knew that Karen had left.

People noted that Jim had once more moved back to his old desk with Ryan’s departure, which allowed them eye contact once more.

People (OK - Kevin, with some back up from Oscar) noted they both looked very, very happy.

However, beyond conjecture, there was enough reasonable doubt that no-one could technically prove there was anything new between them.

For Jim and Pam though, it was a question of ‘little, often and subtle’ during the workday, just enough to satisfy the almost constant itch of desire. Small touches in the break room when no-one was looking. Shared glances across the five feet from his desk to reception. A lot of instant messaging, and a significant number of post-it notes left on each other’s desks. The occasional stolen kiss in the stairwell or up on the roof. With no cameras present for eight weeks, they were able to keep things private enough at work.

As soon as they were away from work, of course, it didn’t take terribly long before lust played a leading role in the evolution of their relationship. How could it not, after they’d waited so long?

***

Pam had clarified a time period in her head to resolve their rampant unresolved sexual tension. That period very soon shrunk to days rather than weeks when she started to get a taste of Jim’s kisses. It was intoxicating. This may have made her somewhat of a hussy in the eyes of an Angela Martin type, Angela’s disgust at Pam clearly revealed upon Karen’s return as she stood in the corner of the room glaring at Pam most disapprovingly as Karen read Jim the riot act, but quite frankly, Pam never minded the overwhelming sense of inevitability in realising the physical aspects of her new relationship sooner rather than later because, quite honestly, she was crazy mad in love. Pam had plain old urges to satisfy and a willing, devoted, sexy Jim to help her with those. Fancy New Beesly was not going to hold her happiness back out a misplaced sense of traditional values. She (and him both) had waited long enough.

Jim promised himself he would take things at her pace, but that didn’t stop him from gently testing the boundaries of just what she wanted and when. So over the course of that first week, there was a lot of kissing and a significant amount of moderately robust mutual groping.  Jim made a point of not putting his hands (or any other body part, in fact) anywhere without Pam’s approval; but when his hand slipped down to grip the waistband at the back of her jeans during a particularly passionate moment on the sofa, it was Pam who reached behind her and guided it further under the denim to a panty-clad cheek as she lay on top of him, nipping mischievously at his lips. There had been a number of similar moments over the week but none of them had really led beyond second base.

***

It was just a couple more days and dates later when the dam finally broke. They’d been out for dinner and À bout de souffle showing at the indie cinema just a few blocks from Pam’s apartment. Afterward, Jim had walked her home, strolling hand in hand on that late May night as they animatedly discussed the film and the merits of the French New Wave movement. He was feeling particularly amorous, perhaps from the French, but probably more from the secret visit that morning to the jewellers on his way back from that morning’s sales call; and where in the sock drawer back at his apartment now proudly sat a half-carat diamond engagement ring. He prided himself that it was bigger than the one Roy had bought her (but not in any way ostentatious) - not that it was a competition or anything (only it sort of was, at least in his head.)

At this point Jim didn’t really care how long he had to wait to be with her in every last way. By now they were firmly together, he got to kiss her every day and every burden he’d felt for years had been lifted over the last week with her reassuring words, kisses and touches.

“You coming in for a drink?”

“Yeah, cool, if that’s OK.” She let them both in, fixed them up a glass of wine each, put on a CD and they sat on the sofa, knees touching as they drank. The glasses were soon drained, and the couple were curled up together. Pam sighed softly against Jim’s chest. She’d had such a nice night with him again and quite frankly, she was more than ready for the next step.

“I think you should sleep over tonight.” To this point, they’d ended up hot and sweaty on multiple occasions, but remained mostly still clothed. More importantly, each time up to now, Jim - or indeed Pam, had gone home at the end of the night.

“A sleepover!? Like Tom Hanks in Big? I get to be on top.” Jim grinned and Pam rolled her eyes below him, before pulling away slightly and looking up to him.

“I’m being serious.”

“Really?” Jim suddenly looked a lot more serious himself.

“Yeah. I mean… it’s been over a week, Jim; we’ve seen each other virtually every night, and I think we’ve waited long enough.” It wasn’t an understatement to say that at that declaration, Jim’s face lit up like he was experiencing every birthday and Christmas all at once. With that, Pam stood up, pulled him up with her and led him confidently by the hand to the bedroom.

“You can be on top if you like. But I don’t have a bunk bed…” she winked. He blushed.

***

As one might expect, their first time was wonderful, sweet and awkward all at the same time, nerves eventually getting the better of them both as they fumbled their way messily out of their clothing and into bed, hands and mouths all over each other. Somehow it all worked out swimmingly in the end though, everything fitting together and doing so extremely well as they imagined and hoped it would, leaving them both catching their collective breath as they came down from their mutual high, still wrapped up in each other.

“Wow.”

“Wow yourself, Beesly.”

“That was…”

“Yeah, it was.”

A few minutes passed and they remained entwined in post-coital bliss.

“Pam?”

“Mmmm…” Pam mumbled contentedly from the top of Jim’s chest.

“One thing I didn’t think through was overnight stuff. I mean, I didn’t entirely have this planned.” Jim looked at Pam slightly sheepishly.

“Well, overnight clothing is optional,” she giggled, popping a kiss on his lips, “It’s a Saturday tomorrow, so no walk of shame to the office, only back to your car, and I took care of the rest already.” She nodded over at her dresser and his eyes followed.  She’d already bought a spare toothbrush for him after their second date. It sat on top of a beer coaster.