The contents of the last two glorious weeks - clothes and gifts from what had been an epic honeymoon, spilled out of their suitcases onto the floor of their bedroom, disappearing into laundry baskets, drawers, or neat piles placed in corners ready to be wrapped later as they started to normalise their lives again for the unwelcome but necessary return to work the next day.
Pam felt the familiarity of their surroundings contrasting with the newness of their marital status. It was a wondrous, but somewhat odd feeling, almost other-worldly in its surrealism. It hadn’t completely sunk in yet, and she regularly pinched herself at the change. Sometimes she seriously didn’t believe the last year had actually happened.
House.
Pregnancy.
Marriage.
Though not necessarily in the exact order she’d have chosen, but these were all Very Good Things, courtesy of one James D. Halpert, the same James D. Halpert who was presently throwing various items of clothing over his shoulder chaotically whilst she did her best to work to some sort of logical method to their unpacking. She shook her head and couldn’t help the small smile that came over her as she glanced up at him, trying not to focus too much on the slither of tanned skin that kept appearing as his t-shirt rode up each time he raised his arms. Pam ducked out the way as a pair of boxer-briefs sailed past her head and landed in the hallway behind her.
Jim was finally her husband. She’d had two weeks to get used to it, only she really hadn’t yet. Whilst it was no surprise that he’d morphed from devoted boyfriend to devoted fiancé to devoted husband in a seamless segue, he’d then spent the last two weeks positively worshipping her in every way possible, starting with their wedding day. Every time she thought it couldn’t get any better between them, he surprised her again. The very fact that after all the trials and missteps to get to this point, they had finally actually done the one thing she had never dared thought possible after she’d taken those bold steps across the hot coals on the beach, just blew her mind.
She started to relive the fortnight, moment by moment, to ground her thoughts a little.
Jim was a hopeless romantic, this she already knew, thanks to those Big Jim Gestures, that quite frankly, he could probably patent by now. She considered their wedding, or rather weddings; she’d married him twice in the space of an hour, his planning abilities still blinding her in his brilliance. After they’d eloped, rings safely on fingers that would, ironically, need to be removed and reused just minutes later, he’d whispered his plans into her ear, just as he later told the camera crew, as they watched the Falls begin to recede away from them into the distance, her body tucked into him. She should have been freezing cold standing on a boat deck in the Northeast US on an October morning in a soaked wedding dress, but she’d not really noticed. Her whole body and soul were still in a happy shock from what had just transpired. As he whispered into her ear, quietly but assuredly, to tell her what his “Plan A” had been, she gasped a little and pressed her hand against his cheek, kissing him soundly, before settling her head back onto his shoulder, closing her eyes and just feeling.
The other wedding - the ‘official’ one? Well, once they’d calmed down from what they considered the greatest wedding prank ever, Jim’s brothers and Michael, what a match made in heaven (or hell) that had been, had been fairly well behaved. This was on the strict instructions of Betsy Halpert, who vowed any shenanigans would lead to retribution that she insinuated meant neither Pete, Tom or even Michael would have any further child-bearing abilities in the future, should they disturb or upset the happy couple in any way. This at least left Jim and Pam to focus on enjoying themselves. They’d had a great reception up at Niagara after ceremony number two. They’d barely more than swayed for their first dance, before spending the rest of the evening mostly split between jumping around like total dorks on the dance floor and wandering hand-in-hand between tables, chatting to friends and family. At least twice during the evening, Pam had dragged her groom off into an appropriately dark corner to make out for at least five minutes before a small niece or cousin had appeared, tugging on the hem of a trouser leg or dress for a dance with Uncle Jim or Auntie Pam.
***
As they continued to unpack, Pam blushed as she thought back to that initial seventy-two hours locked away in their suite after they’d arrived off the plane from Buffalo.
Her second trimester had given her a huge boost of energy with a libido to match, and a still only a small bump for them to navigate for now. With no contact with anyone for two whole weeks, just wall-to-wall Jim’n’Pam time, they’d had an experience worthy of the final scene of a Hollywood rom-com. Or in their case, more like some of the scrambled pay-per-view channels on the hotel TV, certainly for the first few days of their vacation.
The wedding night itself at the Statler Falls Hotel had been sweet and thankfully prank-free from his brothers, whose genuine adoration of Pam (and those threats from their mother) had protected them from anything genuinely unpleasant occurring. However, they’d been exhausted after a long couple of days - special thanks to Andy and his torn scrotum for keeping the bride-to-be up for half the night before, over and above the general emotional exhaustion that accompanied a grand wedding day, so it had been a loving, but efficient, rather than passionate, consummation of the marriage, for “legal purposes”, they’d agreed. They’d giggled and yawned in tandem as dress, suit and subsequently underwear all hit the floor with absolutely no finesse. Barely finished from their lovemaking, they slept soundly, passing out for several hours, still wrapped in each other’s arms. It wasn’t the all-night lustful sex fest they’d expected, but strangely, was very much them.
In the morning, they’d woken late from the sheer magnitude of the previous day but had had a flight to catch, so after some handsy kissing under the covers, the alarm call from the hotel precluded all further sexual activities. As they aimed to get to the airport on time for their flight, the little time they had was spent sorting some of their wedding gear to go back with their parents, the remaining clothes for their trip, loving gazes and hand holding keeping them going on the flight south.
Puerto Rico, however, was wholly different from the moment the warm sun hit them as they walked out of the Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport to board their hotel shuttle bus. They shared a look of sheer joy as they arrived at the St Regis resort, set in a former coconut plantation. It was stunning, and that was just the reception area.
They both thrilled as the receptionist welcomed them as ‘Mr and Mrs Halpert’ and gave them their room keys. Hand-in-hand they trailed behind the bellboy as he wheeled their luggage to their suite; opened the doors for them to reveal a sumptuous space with separate lounge/dining area, a small cloakroom and a further mysterious door that Pam guessed must have led to the bedroom and en-suite bathroom. As their bags were wheeled in behind them, they revelled in the sight of lush furnishings and a proper dining table for their room service meals.
“Here’s your bedroom!” the bellboy offered brightly, and as they walked through that mysterious door, a huge canopied four poster bed stood in front of them. Pam looked at Jim heatedly, at which point Jim gave the bellboy a very generous tip who then smirked at the newlyweds as he took the hint and left quickly.
The newlyweds enjoyed several cycles of room service, sex, sleep, shower - multiple sexual activities in said shower, a double-width walk-in with jets pounding at them from several angles, just as they did the same to each other, she’d noted. They’d pretty much utilised the heart-shaped bath the same way. Pam reflected smugly that she’d never been so clean and dirty at the same time.
Reluctantly, deciding that seeing as they’d spent a four-hour flight and a significant dent in their meagre savings for the five-star resort and amenities, Jim and Pam felt they should probably make the effort to see some of the island they’d chosen for their honeymoon. Things generally went well – a segue, catamaran ride, romantic dinners in the town - other than a day where Jim’s credit card suddenly stopped working. They didn’t think they’d maxed it so soon, and it took another full day and several very confusing calls for them to get it working again. Even with that, they’d had a great time. Those first three days though…
***
The memories gave her instant goosebumps and an involuntary, lascivious grin formed along to join the flush she already had. Distracted, she’d stopped unpacking and stood, stock still, eyes miles away, reliving some extremely happy memories.
Jim looked up and caught that same grin.
“Hey, Slacker!” He teased as he wandered over, nudging her gently with his hip. “Whatch’a thinkin’ ’bout, Beesly?”
“Honeymoon…” she responded dreamily, the massive smile still plastered to her face.
“Ooooh, which part? Segues? The Pool?” As if he didn’t know where that shit-eating grin had come from. There had been a lot of great memories, but that first three days had been – well – wow. That was going to be a Pavlovian response to garner from her in the future… he just needed to get a brief flash of feeding Dwight Altoids out of his head as the thought filtered through.
“The first part.” She said demurely, confirming his suspicions and thankfully bringing him straight back to the present. Or past. Or at least the right past.
“Oh, that part. Remind me again what happened? I seem to have temporarily forgotten…” He came to stand in front of her, pulling her in toward him. Pam wound her arms loosely around Jim’s neck, their eyes locked together, matching grins now on their faces. His hands gripped her waist securely but gently, mindful of their growing offspring between them, but not so mindful that he couldn’t get awfully close to her anyway. The Obstetrician had reminded them multiple times during Pam’s early appointments that she wasn’t made of glass, and they should enjoy sex whilst they still had the chance before their growing bundle of joy would arrive in the outside world to keep them awake for years to come.
“We got very naked…”
“Yeah…” his eyes glossed over as he remembered the way they’d undressed each other the very first time, only after they’d started making out like teenagers the moment the bellboy had departed, before guiding her on to the mattress, where they stilled, gazing at each other for what felt like hours as they contemplated their new reality, but was probably only thirty seconds, before temptation overtook and they melted into each other again.
Jim’s abiding memory of that first time was of his new wife riding him vigorously, still half dressed, her head thrown back in pleasure as he pushed into her over and over from below until she collapsed in a contented heap on top of him, allowing him to stroke one hand lovingly up and down her spine under her top, as the other just held her close. By the time they got to their second round of love-making, Jim took control and rid her of every remaining item bit by bit, relishing the removal of each garment, lovingly branding her with his mouth in places where only he would be able see later. Hickeys had never been so much fun.
“Took a lot of naps…” she reached up to gently brush her lips against his.
“We did…”
They’d made love several times on that first day, dozing off still entwined in-between; a picture repeated several times of the course of those three days, when day and night pretty much merged into one, as their curtains remained drawn and for much of the time, they remained cocooned in their four-poster love nest. They mostly snuggled up together, occasionally separating for a longer sleep, but inevitably finding each other, one waking spooned against the other.
“Had a lot of showers…”
“Mmmmm, my memory is starting to come back to me now…”
That shower had been incredible; adjustable powerful jets just at the right height to hit multiple erogenous zones for both of them. They’d tried it out the first time and Pam had nearly fainted at the angle they’d managed. It was perfection; not to mention, wet Jim was a particularly sexy Jim, rivulets of water running down his torso, an invitation for her to lick and stroke him from head to toe. They’d repeated that opportunity several times. They’d enjoyed the bath too, even more so later in the holiday after excursions on bikes and swims had left them both slightly achy from muscles they’d not used for a while. Those baths were slow burning, erotic affairs until the water had started to go cold, so they’d climbed out as gracefully as possible, wrapped themselves in big fluffy towels before ending up back on, and ultimately in, the bed to carry on where they had left off in the shower.
“Oh really…?”
“Yeah…” and then she leaned up just a little to let their lips meet and the kissing began in earnest, before Jim started to unzip her hoodie, pushed the fabric shoulder off of her and moved his lips to the spot where her neck met her collar bone, noting the new freckles that had appeared on her face and shoulders from their time in the tropical sun. He started dislodging the straps from her vest and bra, only to note the tan lines contrasting between the skin he’d just uncovered and what had been regularly exposed, her attire having been mostly those same sorts of vests, a variety of bikinis and cut-off shorts, her baby bump just jutting out a little. He’d made sure she’d applied plenty of sunscreen – he’d done that job himself on her multiple times, and even lotion on afterwards, although on at least a couple of occasions they’d become very distracted by the very act of the application itself and ended up extremely late for the pool. He’d not really noticed whilst they had still been in sunny Puerto Rico, but in the dull late October twilight of Scranton, now he could see just how much she’d caught the sun. He stroked her skin gently with some genuine concern.
“Pam…Baby, you have sunburn. Is it sore?”
“Mhm?” she was too distracted by the way he was caressing her to pay any real attention to what he was saying.
“Yeah, all these cute little freckles, too much sun.” His tone became much more formal and yet remained deceptively seductive. “I think you’re going to need to see a doctor, Mrs Halpert. Luckily, I am available at short notice.” He still delighted at calling her “Mrs Halpert” and she blushed every time she heard it.
“Oh. I see, Doctor… I’m sorry, what is your name?”
“Halpert, James Halpert, Ma’am.”
“Halpert? That is a coincidence!”
“Yes, it is.” He kissed down her arm and pulled her into him, so they were nose-to-nose. “I do house calls and a have a great bedside manner.”
“I see. You wanna show me some of that bedside manner right now? I mean,” her eyelids fluttered seductively at him, “It’s clearly an emergency and you did say you’re available…”
“I am certainly am.”
Their lips and then tongues met and hands began to roam again.
***
Busy with her new husband, Pam missed the silent flash of the call from her mother from her phone on the nightstand by their bed. The honeymoon wasn’t quite over yet. No, that would come tomorrow, when she learned the reason for the missed call…
