It started on their very first date. After dinner, Jim suggested that he and Pam take a walk around McDade Park because he had no intention of this night ending early. Pam readily agreed, because funnily enough, she felt exactly the same way. So, they walked around the playground, passed the basketball court and before long, they were almost at the tennis courts. And that's when it happened.
Just as Pam happened to look up at Jim, he looked down at her,paused and took her hand in his, stopping her in her tracks. "I...I -," he stammered.
"I know," she cut in, tiptoeing up to press her mouth to his. She immediately dropped her purse on the ground, and brought both of her hands to his shoulders. As soon as she felt his arms wrap around her waist and pull her closer to him, she moved her hand further up to run her fingers through his hair, just as she had done last May. He groaned slightly at the feel of her as their kiss deepened, but before long, Pam was pulling back slightly to stare up at him with a shy smile.
"That was," he began with a wide smile, lightly ghosting her bare arms with his fingertips.
"I know," she smiled up at him, but a shiver ran over her from his touch.
"Are you cold?" Jim asked, his voice suddenly full of concern.
"No," Pam replied with a shy smile and a shake of her head, before reaching up to kiss him again. She pressed herself against him, and they lost themselves in the moment until they heard giggling from some passers-by and sprung apart.
They tried to hide their smiles, but nothing could wipe the grins off of their faces. So instead, Jim reached for Pam's hand, kissed the back of it and nodded towards the path so that they could continue their slow amble around the park. Just as they reached a large cherry blossom tree, a cool breeze blew, sending pink petals flying their way and a slight chill across them both. Pam felt Jim's shoulders shiver and his spine straighten slightly next to her where their arms were touching, skin on skin.
"Are you cold?" Pam asked, looking up at him.
"Kinda, yeah," he said as he rubbed his hand that wasn't holding Pam's over his goose-pimpled arm, the back of his fingers brushing against her skin.
Pam reached into her purse and pulled out her pink cardigan that she had brought with her just in case it turned cooler. "You're welcome to this if you want?" she said with a slight giggle, holding the cardigan out to Jim.
"I think I'm good," Jim laughed, as he slipped his arm around Pam and pulled her against his chest. "You'll just have to keep me warm instead."
"So cheesy," she laughed into his polo shirt, before reaching up to kiss him once more.
--
The following Sunday, three days after their first date, and the evening of their fourth, technically third date, Jim picked Pam up from her apartment approximately two hours after she had left his. He'd insisted that she stay, doing anything he could to get her to, but Pam was adamant about getting fresh clothes for dinner that evening. Clothes that she hadn't left Dunder Mifflin wearing two days beforehand. Jim had eventually relented, despite his puppy dog eyes and doing everything that he could to keep Pam in bed with him. She'd laughed at him and swatted away his roving hands as she tried to leave. But two hours later, those hands were back at it as soon as Pam opened her front door.
"And hello to you too," she laughed as they pulled apart. "Come in for a minute? I just need to grab something."
"Sure," Jim replied as he stepped into the hallway and closed the door behind him. He watched Pam dart into her living room before running back out with a large gift bag and an even larger smile on her face. "What's this?" he asked as he eyed the bag that Pam was holding out in front of her towards him.
"Open it," she said, jiggling the bag slightly.
He took the bag and looked up at Pam with a smile. She stood still in front of him, her hands clasped behind her back, bouncing up and down on her toes in anticipation. She watched as Jim pushed the green tissue paper to the side and reached his hand inside. He pulled out a navy blue cardigan, and looked at her with a confused but happy face.
"You know, for when it gets cold," she smiled. "So I don't have to offer you mine again," she giggled.
"I love it, thank you," Jim said, before leaning down to pull Pam in for a deep kiss. "When did you even have a chance to buy this? We haven't left each other's side since Thursday evening."
"It was Friday afternoon when Michael sent me to pick up his dry cleaning. I passed this menswear store and thought I'd see if they had any. And then I just made a quick trip home to drop it off, so you would be surprised."
"Well, I am surprised," he smiled. "It's awesome, thank you." He put the gift bag onto the floor, pulled the tag off of the cardigan's label and slipped it over his plain white t-shirt. He slowly did the buttons up on the cardigan, before shoving his hands into the back pockets of his blue jeans and looking bashfully down at Pam. "How's it look?" Jim asked, his cheeks tinged with pink.
"Really good," Pam whispered with a sly smile as she stepped towards Jim and tiptoed up to kiss him. She walked him backwards until he was pushed up against the wall and ran her hands up his chest, but stopped before she reached his shoulders, and instead made her way back down towards his belt. She felt him groan when she stopped just above where he clearly wanted her hands to be, and Pam smiled into their kiss. She began to slowly unbutton Jim's new cardigan, before reaching up to push it off of his shoulders. His white t-shirt soon followed, along with Pam's yellow t-shirt, and before long, the brand new cardigan was forgotten under a pile of discarded clothes that stayed there until they tripped over them while getting ready for work the next morning.
--
Washed and pressed, the blue cardigan was what Jim chose to wear to meet Pam's parents one Sunday evening at Casa Bella. He paired it with a blue gingham shirt and grey and blue tie that Pam had assured him that her mom would love. She did, of course, and had complimented him on his good manners to wear a tie to dinner. The cardigan definitely ended up on the floor again following that dinner when they got home. Pam was so amazed at how Jim had impressed her parents, that she'd ripped the cardigan off of him, causing a button to pop off in her scramble. She'd promised to sew the button back on. She never did.
For Jim's birthday the following year, his mom bought him a chunky knit black cardigan, and he realised this was a look he kind of liked. And Pam really liked it. Not so much the look, but more so the actual cardigan. Whenever Jim would wear it around the house on a cold and cozy Sunday afternoon, Pam would inevitably find some way to get him out of it and wrap herself up in it, before snuggling up against Jim as he read a book or a sports magazine. He'd just roll his eyes and chuckle to himself. The times that she wore just that cardigan had him rolling his eyes in an altogether different way.
For Athleap's ten year anniversary, the management board decided it was time to update their headshots on the company website. Jim had protested; he saw nothing wrong with the early 30s version of himself that greeted potential clients, but the CEO had other ideas. So a stylist was brought in, plus hair and makeup, and Jim found himself wearing a Gucci cardigan, having to lean up against some wall, being told to look pensively at the camera. He wasn't entirely sure what he was doing and if it was correct, or if he just looked constipated, but when he heard a small laugh coming from somewhere behind the camera, he knew he was never going to live down that moment. Pam had appeared, full of giggled apologies. At that point, Jim had taken the cardigan off, thrown it on the floor and diva stropped his way back to his office. Pam couldn't stop her laughing, even when she asked the stylist if she could keep the designer cardigan. She was told no.
In the years that they've been together, Jim's owned many cardigans, but it would always be that dark blue one, his first ever cardigan, that Pam loved the most.
