The third in a series of themed stories, to fill out Color Wheel and Language Barrier.
10 He's going to have to say something, soon, or learn to live with nothing, for good.
I can't add anything to what everyone else has already said, except to reiterate that this line is just sheer genius. Genius. I'm jealous.
Uh. Did I miss something? We went from Jim pining to Jim and Pam being a couple? I guess I dropped a stitch somewhere. Quite a surprise.
this is love, not business
Heh heh heh. Wanna bet the wedding napkins are printed with a 10 percent off coupon for VR? Gotta love that Bob.
She's distracted by his long finger twirling around in the candy dish
Who doesn't love that?
he's just really, really happy he doesn't have to deny how he feels about her any more, doesn't care who notices that she loves him back
I want to see this Jim so bad I can taste it. Sooo tired of lovelorn Jim and clueless Pam. Thanks for giving us these two being happy together.
You didn't miss anything, except for the part where I forget no one else but me has all the stories available in order of date (because I am a nerd). This chapter takes place after they hook up in Language Barrier and before Christmas in Color Wheel.
10 it's pretty amazing to make her come ten feet from where she'd said I can't. It turns out she can.
What an AMAZING line. Wonderful. Genius. So evocative, teasing the imagination without revealing too much.
It's indicative of how far you have brought Pam from her normally conflicted, passive self that when she asks Jim to marry her, my immediate reaction was "Of course!" and my second was "Why the hell didn't I think of that?" It only works because you not only know Pam so well, you show us the more "assertive" side of her, the prankster side, that we don't get to see much of. That assertive side makes it believable that she would be the one to ask Jim.
And of course, his answer is completely Jim. Short of embedding an engagement ring in Jello, nothing else could say "Jim" so well.
What a wonderful story. Thanks for sharing it. After all the angst of this season, I think I like your universe better.
So he decides he'll start wearing condoms again.
I hope so. Because the idea of Kelly as a mother just makes me want to call Child Services. *shudder* God, what an awful fate for a child.
But that doesn't take away from your writing, which is good. I, like, totally channelled Kelly during her interior monologue. :D
10 oooo how LOVELY. Jim and Pam on the roof in the snow. I need a snowglobe with this scene in it! I love Jim and Pam on the roof any time, and I love Jim and Pam not speaking. Wow. Just. So. Right. Thank you!
10 You witch. Mr.nej, known as AlwaysEnoughToast, or Toasty to his friends, is currently unable to speak. If he were, he would say "Thank you" most gratefully. :)
This was a Totally Hot love scene, thank you very much. Followed by a real punch to the gut. I wanted to slap Pam silly for yanking Jim around like that. What was this, a goodbye fuck? Out of nowhere? Oh, Pam, you evil creature! So humiliating for Jim. So heartbreaking. Oooo!
All of this, of course, is just testament to your excellent writing skills. You really sold me this scene. Lines I loved:
She tastes of chardonnay and something salty. Possibly tears. He can't decide if that makes him happy or sad.
reaching for the zipper of her dress, the downward motion like a caress (the zipper is SUCH an erotic fastener, almost asgood as a tie).
As she leans in for a kiss, their eyes meet. It makes his head spin, to find her expression so unguarded.
Everything is rushing past, a blur of moist and pain and bliss. Wow! [/Jim]]
She smiles sadly and it's the worst possible thing she could have done.
And, of course, the rehash of those few sentences between them is so sad, so different, even, impossibly, even more heartbreaking. *sob*
Well done. You witch.
"Well done. You witch."
Ooh, name calling. I love it! ;) I'm glad I could help out AlwaysEnoughToast. Thank you for the extremely kind review, nej!
she’s single but she still talks in circles and he’s not willing to do that dance anymore.
Well put!
there’s yearning, and hunger, so much hunger
Yummy line!
Pam’s hand nestled in the soft hair of Jim’s chest
oooo what a lovely image.
Thanks for all of this.
8 Oh, I love love love this! Dwigt at Victoria's Secret? With KEVIN? Too good. And "He wondered which way the dice would fall this time", as Jim wraps a perfectly in-character Jim gift? Fantastic.
But the last one, with Creed leaving the mall...pure gold. What a fabulous present! Thank you!
For New Year's he has a few drinks and shows up at Pam's in the shirt she bought him and she proceeds to make her vision of taking it off of him come true.
Par5: You totally have to Make. This. Happen.
maybe you’ll be satisfied with allowing everything else in your life to be just adequate.
Wow. What a great way to start a story; IntrospectiveJim! I like how you explore Jim's insecurities like this. So often writers (me) focus on his sexuality, but you're starting with psychology. Excellent. Thank you.
He still doesn’t refer to Karen as his girlfriend.
Very telling. I wonder if Karen has noticed this 'oversight'.
He likes the things that he can see outright, things he doesn’t have to reach in too far to find.
Oooo. Boy, has this guy been burned! Having gone so far in with Pam, he can't let himself dip below the surface of anyone else. What a defense mechanism. Good work.
He’s glad she’s making friends, but did it have to be with the girl he’s sleeping with?
I love this. Just when Jim thinks Hell can't get any deeper...
I laughed out loud at Jim's 'conversation' with Kelly. You caught her to perfection.
I forget, which fraternity did you rush with?
LOL! Pure Jim-and-Pam. I can totally picture their talking heads, saying exactly what you have written. Especially Pam's hope that Dwangela don't actually show up at the party.
Loved clueless Roy (as usual) not picking up on Pam wanting him NOT to come to the party. Well done. Poor Roy; somebody fill this guy in.
She stares at the back of Jim's head. She's beginning to memorize the way his hair curled around the back of his ears and his collar.
Pam is only now beginning to memorize this? We hussies have had that DOWN for over a year now. :D
I know this is tiny, but I loved Pam thinking her living room is eleven square feet. I laughed out loud at MathImpairedPam; so in character of her.
You're writing Karen as such a good friend here it hurts to think what's going to happen to her. And I am mad at Pam for not telling her the subtext of this party, while I totally understand why she isn't. Great angst!
However, I thought Pam wondering if she should hate Karen to be a bit...high schoolish. I mean, this is the 21st century. That whole "women are inevitable rivals for the same man" thing kinda went out with Women's Lib, we hoped...Anyway, Pam sounds much more mature in this:
Too late to worry about what’s going to happen when Karen finds out that she’d allowed herself to be such good friends with a girl who is hiding way too much
Pam with the multicolored paper napkins! And she does it privately, not telling Karen, because it's a private joke with Jim! Oh, how I love these Jam moments! Thank you.
Love Karen appreciating Pam's kindness while totally not understanding what Pam is really all about, or knowing what the relationships between all the players are.
And then the yearbook photo...who knew something so small could spark so much pain? Brilliant use of that prop.
one of those stores where all of the guys who work there wear pink and call you "sir"
LOL! I guess Jim shops at a different mall than the one I sent him to. I love this image of Jim surrounded by adoring salesmen just dying to put him in something pretty. Thanks.
Gotta ask, though: what the hell is beer pong? Guess I rushed the wrong fraternity. (snicker)
there's never a bad time to mess with Andy.
Amen.
It's getting harder to break away from him every time. Harder to end every conversation, harder and harder to walk away.
Excellent Pam-angst. :D
"I see the way you guys have been looking at each other."
Oh, clueless Karen. I winced.
And Never Have I Ever? Oh good grief. No good can come of this.
I am loving this party. So many interesting undercurrents.
Apparently, he’s not as audacious or reckless as most of his friends were, or are.
Word. Boy needs a heavy dose of gumption.
A hussy is not the same as a whore.
LOL! (high five)
I loved it that everyone has been serenaded by Andy on his banjo. Laughed out loud when they ALL drank.
And wow, can that Karen be a buzzkill or what? Yikes!
I love it that Karen is clueless about all the trouble she's started with that one little question. Brilliant. Love Jim STILL not honest with Roy, and Roy's confusion and pain. I feel for that boy.
And the last part of this? With the bet (yes, I want to see Dwight sing Queen, but I thought they weren't there at the party?) and this:
"It’s New Year’s, Pam," he says softly. "We can all start over."
Long past time, dude. Start over and do it right this time.
He's tired of pretending. "Yes," he simply says.
YAY! Go for it, Jim! I was so excited when I read this I was bouncing in my chair. Which disturbs my co-workers no end.
Jim receives a gift the day after Christmas. And then another one the next day. And again for the 10 days after. Is it a joke, or has his True Love come forward?
I'm not really sure why the rest of last night's date is HERE rather than in the previous chapter, but oh well. I still love the Ben-Gay back rub, but still believe it would last about three minutes and then Jim would be all over Pam. Or any other woman who put her hands on him, at this point. Guy probably has blue balls the size of grapefruit by now. :D
Well, I'll admit the whole Yukon Cornelius thing went past me, but the poem didn't. What a wonderful verse.
Karen's behavior at the restaurant, and Jim's whole interior monologue, made me ache. Call it off, Jim, it's never going to work. She needs to move on, too.
More parking lot angst. Will Jim never learn?
Loved the glimpse of young Jim drowning his sorrows in music. Totally believable.
I immediately 'got' the Patridge family reference "I don't think, I know". I am dating myself. :D
Loved it that Jim made Pam a mix CD. So personal, so him.
He was greedy for what little bit of time alone he could get with her.
WHEN is this boy gonna wake up and smell the chamomile tea?
Dwight's recitation of the Harry Turtledove bibliography was hilarious. So Dwigt of him.
Okay, the Ben-Gay? is To. Ta. Ly. Hot. I don't mean the tingly feeling from the ointment, either. I love her giving him a backrub, even though it did feel a bit contrived. I'm not really sure Pam is comfortable enough with Jim at this point to get physical with him, and a backrub is very physical, very intimate. So much so, that I don't see Jim being able to stand it for more than a few minutes before he rolled over and caught her in his arms. Most guys his age, especially if they haven't gotten laid in a while, will react pretty strongly to a woman's hands on their back like that. Notwithstanding, I loved him just slipping off to sleep like that, and the fact that she stayed with him. And the FRENCH MOVIES. Oh, yeah. Absolutely.
He stared back, a look of insistence and hope.
I can just SEE this so clearly.
"I'm going to make you say it."
..."God, I hope so."
That? Is pretty close to the sexiest two lines I've read in months.
Looking for that cold shower now...
WOW I REALLY HAVE TO NOT READ THIS STUFF AT WORK.
*cough* Um. Wow. Okay, usually the kind of conversation you have them in here is a complete buzzkill in the middle of lovemaking, but you caught their voices so well I believed it. I also don't usually like Jim as SuperStud but here she gets him all off balance with that "Not even a little chuckle?" line and it's perfect. And him teasing her with "I didn't catch that" was dead-on.
I like you showing Pam as being just as turned on as Jim. She comes across so often on the show as being shy and mousy, but this is a woman who's been in a sexual relationship for years; this is not her first time to the rodeo by a long shot. I am glad you made her this self-aware and in charge. Good work!
Now I really, really need a cigarette or five. Whew!
Fanfic is a fun outlet for me after a long day at the office, but it's also a chance to work on some writing issues: character development, style, pacing. So thanks to anyone who gives me reviews!