It had been nearly a week since Pam had admitted her feelings to Jim only to discover that the were reciprocal, and she felt as though she had been floating for days, hardly able to focus at work, always glancing over at him for to share secret smiles, and painting or drawing his features in her evening art classes. Jim hadn’t yet asked her on a date, but Pam’s mom was in town to take her out for dinner and had been asking after Jim almost all summer, so Pam decided that she could get the ball rolling. They had started carpooling into work together on days that Pam didn’t have classes last week, and they weren’t even met with any raised eyebrows at work, which honestly surprised Pam. She had been expecting to have to justify the action to Angela at the very least, but no one had said anything if they noticed.

Pam wondered what all of that said about her and Jim’s relationship if admitting they were in love with each other changed so little that their nosy co-workers hadn’t picked up on anything. Did everyone just assume that they had already hooked up months ago, or did they really buy the best friends line that they had been fooling themselves with for years? Ok, that wasn’t quite true, Pam amended, she had been selling herself, Jim had apparently known all along, and he was very adamant in that fact.

“What ch’ya thinkin’ about there Beesly,” Jim pulled her out of her thoughts, and she looked over in the car to see him quirking am eyebrow at her.

“I was just wondering if maybe you’d like to join my mother and I for dinner tonight,” Pam said, purposefully leaving it rather open ended, bracing for Jim to turn her offer down.

“So, you think we need a chaperone for our first date,” Jim shot back with a reassuring smile, relaxing her fears.

“Purely for your benefit of course,” Pam said with a smile, “We wouldn’t want you to feel like I was taking advantage of you.”

“This is the second time you’ve threatened to take advantage of me Pam,” Jim said with a smirk, “Do I need to bring my mother along?”

“I mean,” Pam fumbled for a comeback, “If you want to do the whole meet the parents thing before we’ve even gone on a date, that’s fine by me,” she recovered.

“Miss Beesly, how forward of you,” Jim’s smirk cracked into a wide smile, “Of course, I would love to join you and your mother for dinner, I’ve got it on very good authority that she is a very nice lady.”

“Oh,” Pam challenged, raising an eyebrow back at him.

“Well, you know what they say, like mother like daughter,” Jim said, shooting her a significant look, “And if I love her daughter…”

“Wow, ok, walked right into that one,” Pam chuckled, “I love you too.”

“Not to mention I’ve already met your parents,” Jim pressed on with a wink as they pulled into the business park, “So there is that.”

As Jim pulled his car into the parking space, Pam cast a quick glance around the lot, before ducking over to plant a quick kiss on Jim’s cheek before fleeing the car, skipping towards the office doors giddily. Pam heard Jim call out from behind her.

“How dare you,” he called out, and she looked over to see him halfway out of the car with a huge smile on his face.