Jim adjusted the last desk on the back row and stood back with his hands on his hips to admire his work. He always surprised himself with how much he actually enjoyed setting up his classroom each year. They were two weeks away from the first day of school and Jim’s 4th year teaching English at Edward Truck Memorial High School, and he finally felt like he was getting the hang of things. His first year was terrifying and difficult and he nearly quit. His second year was fine, but he had quite a few difficult students that made it hard to love. The third year was definitely better. But this year—this year already felt different.

His summer had been good, but nothing too exciting. People loved to say, “At least you have your summers off” when he told them he was a teacher, not understanding how much work he had to put in to get ready for the upcoming school year. He had also started teaching Drivers Ed for some extra money, which kept him busy and also took time away from his lesson planning as well as his social life. Despite all of that, he was able to spend a lot of time with family and took a two week trip to the Oregon coast with a few of his buddies in July. Being a teacher did have its perks.

He checked his watch and saw he had about five minutes until he had to be in the faculty lounge for their first meeting of the year. For the most part, he got along great with his fellow faculty members, especially the English department. He was the first to admit he thrived on good social interaction, so it was nice to like the company he was in while at work, even if they were a quirky bunch. That just kept things interesting.

He flipped off the lights to his classroom and headed to the lounge, hands in his pockets. Walking down the locker-lined hallways before a new school year always gave him a twinge of excitement. He would have never admitted this as a teenager, but he had always loved school. Of course he would put on mock grumbling and sighing when his friends complained about it, but there wasn’t much he actually had to complain about. He got good grades, was on student council, had friends in many different groups, and was the star point guard on the basketball team. He was a jock who spent his bus rides home from games with his nose in a book and always felt like he was a pretty well-rounded kid. He even pulled off one heck of a senior prank involving about 15,000 goldfish and the school cafeteria. The principal liked him, though, so he got off with only a finger wag and a gentle scolding.

Grabbing a seat next to his fellow English teacher Darryl, he settled in for what was likely a longer meeting about the upcoming year, expectations of the staff, scheduling—those kinds of things.

He held up a fist and tapped it against Darryl’s. “Hey Philbin, how was your summer?”

“Excellent, man. Got to go to Disneyworld with Jada. Watched a lot of baseball. You know.”

“Nice! Jada starting her new school this year?”

Jim started listening to Darryl’s reply, but slowly got distracted by a new face across the room. She was sitting quietly, doodling idly on the pad of paper in front of her. She was wearing a yellow floral dress with a pale green cardigan over top of it. There was something incredibly breathtaking about her simple beauty and Jim couldn’t help but stare at her while mindlessly nodding in response to whatever Darryl was saying.

“Hey,” he said once Darryl had finished his thought. “Who’s that sitting next to Stanley?”

“I haven’t met her yet, but I think she’s the new art teacher.”

“So they finally canned Creed, then, huh?” he asked, eyes still focused on his new colleague.

“Thank the lord for that,” Darryl uttered. “Dude was weird.”

“Alright, attention everyone!” their principal, Ms. Jan Levinson, boomed over the hum of chattering voices. “Welcome back to another school year! I hope your summer treated you all well. It’s great to see so many familiar faces and some newer ones as well, who we’ll introduce in just a minute. Unfortunately, Vice Principal Scott couldn’t make it today because of a...conflict. But he’ll be back next week.” Jan let out a sigh, which seemed to happen often when she spoke about Michael.

Jim leaned over to Darryl. “I’m guessing Magic Camp.”

Darryl stifled a laugh. “Wouldn’t be surprised.”

Their vice principal Michael Scott was...a lot. A lovable idiot, really. But Jim had to admit, even though he was a bit much, the students loved and respected him (way more than his faculty did) and he was actually pretty good at his job. That was enough to keep him around.

Jim shot another look toward the new teacher but this time was met with her green eyes looking straight back at him. Looking down quickly, he was unable to contain a small smile from creeping up his cheek. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see her smiling down at her paper as well. His stomach gave a small flutter.

“Now onto our new faculty members,” Jan announced. “We have a new theater teacher, Mr. Andy Bernard. Mr. Bernard, please stand up.” A man in some very brightly colored pants stood up. “Andrew Bernard, at your service,” he said in an over-exaggerated cockney accent, bowing theatrically.

“Oooookay.” Jan raised her eyebrows and moved on. “And we have a new art teacher! Ms. Pam Beesly, go ahead and stand up.”

Shyly, Pam half-stood out of her chair and gave a modest wave to the group. She sat back down as the teachers lightly applauded, and she nervously moved her curly hair to one shoulder. As the meeting went on, Jim couldn’t help but steal glances at her the entire time, watching her long fingers drag and maneuver her pen on the paper in front of her, her head tilted to the side and her lips slightly pursed into a concentrated line as she drew. She truly was beautiful and he had the overwhelming desire to get to know her.

The meeting ended sooner than he expected (probably because Michael wasn’t there) and he stalled awkwardly, trying not to get trapped in conversation so he could leave when she did. As she made her way to the exit, he picked up his stride so he could meet her at the door.

“Hey,” he attempted to say as casually as possible. “Beesly, was it? Pam?”

She smiled sweetly and turned to him as they walked, “That’s me!”

He shook her hand. “Welcome to the school! I’m Jim Halpert. English.”

She smiled and dipped her head in acknowledgement. “Nice to meet you, Jim Halpert English.”

They were both smiling as they continued down the hallway.

“So,” Jim started, “is this your first year teaching or just your first year at a new school?”

“Uh, my very first year. I graduated in art a few years ago, enjoyed being broke for a little bit, then decided to get my masters in education. And now here I am!” She shrugged and then her brow furrowed, worriedly. She lowered her voice to a meager whisper. “Is the first year always this terrifying?!”

Jim let out a little laugh. “Pretty much. But don’t worry. It gets better. I promise you’re more qualified than you think you are. And you’ve already had practice being broke, so you’re all set for a teacher’s salary!” he joked.

She chuckled and smiled at him and he realized he was done for. She radiated warmth and sincerity and Jim was well on his way to being smitten, even with such a brief encounter.

Pam pointed to the classroom on their left. “Well, this is me.”

The administration had rearranged which teachers were in which classrooms over the summer, and a stupid grin spread on Jim’s face as he realized what an idiot he was for forgetting that his new classroom was directly across from the art room.

He pointed to their right. “And this is me.”

“Fancy that,” she sang. “Guess I’ll see you around, Halpert.”

“See you around, Beesly.”

He watched as she turned and walked into her classroom, dress gently flowing behind her.

Jim stuck his hands in his pockets, still unable to stop smiling. This year would definitely be a good one.

Jim’s first month of lessons were already planned, his classroom was set up, and his syllabus was written. There wasn’t much left to prepare and the teachers weren’t required to be at the school until the start of next week. However, Jim also remembered how much time he spent in his classroom the weeks leading up to his first year teaching and figured a certain art teacher might do the same. So, he found things to do at the school. Mostly he ended up reading at his desk, perusing ESPN.com, and playing online Scrabble, but he did all of that while keeping one eye on the art room door, which he could see from his desk. He and Pam had crossed paths a few times in the last couple of days since they met, but Jim was still working up the courage to have more than the usual, “Hi, how’s it going” conversations they’d been having.

It was around lunchtime and Pam hadn’t shown up at her classroom today, much to Jim’s chagrin. He thought maybe he would just pack up his things and spend the next few days relaxing before he was required to be back. He’d see Pam a lot during the school year, he told himself, so it was okay if he didn’t see her today. As he slung his bag over his shoulder, he heard the faint sound of a key in a lock and looked into the hallway to see Pam unlocking her classroom door. She looked over her shoulder, caught sight of Jim, and smiled.

“Hey, Jim!”

He raised his hand up to wave at her. “Hey!”

She pointed at the bag on his shoulder. “You just getting here too?”

“Uh...yep!” he lied, slipping his bag right back off his shoulder and back onto his chair. He ran his hand quickly through his hair. “How’s the, uh, classroom coming?”

“We’re getting there, I think! Hopefully I can knock the rest out today.”

“Good luck!” he smiled.

She thanked him and went into her classroom as Jim kicked himself for not offering to help her or finding some other way to keep talking to her. He pulled out his tattered copy of Fahrenheit 451 and started reading. After distractedly reading the same sentence 12 times, he slammed it shut and popped out of his desk, heading for the faculty lounge.

A few minutes later, he took a breath and poked his head into Pam’s classroom.

“Excuse me, Ms. Beesly?”

She was on a step stool on her tiptoes, hanging posters on the wall opposite him. When she turned around, her face lit up upon seeing it was him.

He shrugged one shoulder. “It took me until about October to get used to being called Mr. Halpert, so I figured I’d start warming you up to it now.”

“You’re right, it’s a little strange,” she chuckled.

“I brought you some mediocre faculty lounge coffee, if you want it.” He lifted the styrofoam cup toward her.

She got down from her step stool and walked toward him. She was wearing fitted overalls over a baseball tee, black converse sneakers, and her hair in a perfectly messy ponytail. She also had on black-rimmed glasses today that he had never seen her wear before and he couldn’t help but think how utterly adorable she looked. Pam took the coffee from his hand, barely brushing his fingers as she did.

“Thank you,” she smiled brightly.

They sat opposite each other at the nearest table sipping their coffee and talking.

“So I met the German teacher today,” Pam said. “Oh, what was his name? Interesting guy, glasses—“

Jim nodded emphatically, smirking. “Dwight Schrute. ‘Interesting’ is one way to put it,” he laughed. “Did he tell you about his beet farm?”

“What?! No! He has a beet farm?” Pam asked, eyes wide.

“Oh, does he ever.”

She giggled. “Amazing.”

“And have you met the vice principal?” Jim asked.

“He hired me. So yes, I have definitely met Michael Scott.”

“Oh man!” Jim marveled. “I would have loved being in on that interview. How many times did he do a terrible impression of someone?”

“Twice,” she said through her laughter.

“Only twice?! Impressive.” He took a sip of coffee. “In all seriousness, though, we have a pretty good group here at this little school of ours. I’ve really liked teaching here and I bet you’ll like it too. There’s never a dull moment, that’s for sure.”

She gave him a soft, genuine smile. “Thanks, Jim. And thanks for the coffee. It really was mediocre,” she winked.

“Tax payers money, hard at work,” he joked. He took her empty cup from her and stood from the table. “Can I help you hang the rest of those posters? They say if I don’t use my tallness it might disappear.”

She smiled. “And who is ‘they’?”

“I dunno. Just looking for an excuse to keep hanging out with you.” The words just fell out of his mouth before he could stop them. He was never that forward, but there was something about her that made his brain work half-speed and do things without clearing it with the rest of his body.

She blushed, looked at the linoleum beneath her, then looked back up at him with a smile. “I’d like that.”

A breath of relief escaped him. “Okay, awesome. Put me to work, Beesly.”

“Hey now,” she scolded mockingly. “That’s Ms. Beesly to you, young man.”

“Atta girl,” he applauded, giving her a high five as she passed by him, her smile nearly knocking him flat.

Pam handed him a small poster with some tape. Jim held it out in front of him and pointed to it.

“Who’s this guy?”

“That’s Raphael. His self-portrait.”

Jim squinted at it. “I thought Raphael was more...green. And turtle-like. And a teenage ninja.”

“Ha-ha,” she droned with a smile. “But really, all the ninja turtles are named after Renaissance artists. Did you know that?”

Jim looked up in thought and mumbled, “Donatello, Leonardo, Michelangelo...holy crap. You’re right. How did I not realize that? Probably because I don’t have an art degree.”

“Yes, there’s a whole course on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. TMNT 201.”

He laughed. She was quick. And he liked it.

“So,” Pam continued. “Who do I need to know about at this school? Give me the rundown.”

Jim grabbed another poster from Pam. “Well,” he said. “You’ve obviously met the most important teacher already.”

“Who, Dwight?” she winked.

“Ouch. I meant me, but I see how it is.” He smiled. “Um, let’s see. Be careful around our school librarian, Angela. She’s a little intense.”

“How so?” Pam asked.

“You’ll just have to see. She and I get in regular arguments about what books should be allowed in the library. She’s also the PTA president without even having kids in school. I think it’s so she can plan all the ‘parties’,” he said using finger quotes.

“Wow…”

“Yep. Let’s see, who else? Stanley Hudson teaches Geography and he’s all the student’s favorite because he basically hands them maps all semester to “study” and really couldn’t care less what they do during class. He just does the crosswords at his desk. He retires next year, so I think he’s just given up.”

Pam laughed with her tongue barely poking through her teeth and Jim’s heart skipped with how cute it was.

“Then there is Oscar Martinez, who teaches Social Studies. Super great guy, but never get in a debate with him because he’ll win every time.”

“Personal experience?” she smirked.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Jim chuckled. “Of course there are more teachers, but I think it would be more fun for you to discover their...attributes...personally.”

She squinted at him. “Fine.”

He squinted back. “Fine,” he parroted. He pointed at the wall of posters. “This looks good!”

“It does. Thank you for your tallness,” she stuck out her hand to shake his.

He took it and felt a wave rush through him. “You’re very welcome. But I think you can thank my tall parents for that.”

He nearly asked her if she wanted to grab dinner sometime, but his tongue seemed to suddenly swell inside his mouth and he couldn’t seem to get a word out. After a few beats of silence, Pam pointed behind her to her desk.

“Well, all I really have left to do is finish up a couple of lesson plans.”

“Oh, yeah, no,” he stumbled. “I’ll let you get to that. See you Monday?”

“Yeah! See you Monday. Thanks again for your help,” she smiled warmly at him.

Jim retreated back to his classroom and sat down in his desk. He continued to attempt to read, but really he couldn’t seem to tear his eyes away from Pam as she worked. With both of their doors open, there was a perfect line of sight from his desk to hers. He noticed little details about her. The way she played with her necklace with her free hand as she wrote or drew, or how she seemed to be able to type a million words per minute. He wasn’t sure how he would ever be able to get any work done.

After a couple of hours, Pam stood up and grabbed her purse. She packed up her notebooks and supplies and headed to the door. Jim glanced up to catch her leaving and waved.

“Have a good weekend, Pam!”

“You too!” she smiled.

She shut the door behind her and made her way down the hallway. Jim noticed that she didn’t lock her classroom as she left.

“Rookie mistake,” he muttered to himself under his breath with a smile.

He opened a new window on his computer, did a quick Google search, and printed something off. He snatched the paper from the printer and checked down the hallway to make sure she had really left. Then he carefully opened the door and slipped inside the art room. Walking over to the wall of posters he helped her hang, he took one down and replaced it with the paper in his hand and stood back to admire his work.

“Perfect,” he nodded. “Welcome home, Raphael.”

A picture of Raphael, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, looked back at him approvingly.

He walked back to his classroom, Raphael the artist in his hands, a smile on his face, and nervous anticipation in his gut. He couldn’t wait to see her reaction.

But mostly he just couldn’t wait to see her again. Monday couldn’t come soon enough.

Jim walked down the hallway Monday morning, earbuds in and head down. He looked up as he got closer to his classroom and his heart skipped a beat as he saw Pam leaning against the wall right outside his door. She stood up straight and held up the picture of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle. He pulled his headphones out.

“I think you have something of mine, Halpert.”

He was relieved to see a sly smile on her face instead of annoyance or frustration. It was a risk one had to take as a compulsive prankster and he was grateful this one landed.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he said, unable to keep his mouth from turning upward.

“I’m talking about you holding my poster of Raphael hostage,” she chided playfully, following him into his classroom. Jim stopped at his desk and grabbed the poster in question.

“Oh, you mean this guy?”

She snatched it from his hands and glared at him, but smiling through it. She turned quickly on her heels and walked back toward her own classroom holding the picture above her head.

“Thief, I say!” She called back to him over her shoulder.

He grinned and leaned back in his chair. Just then Michael poked his head into his classroom.

“Jimbo! Halper-tino. How goes it?”

Jim sat forward, a little deflated that his view of Pam had been blocked.

“Michael! How was your summer?”

Michael took the chair from the desk closest to him, flipped it around, and sat in it backwards facing Jim.

“Oh, dude, it was freakin’ awesome. A little beach ,a little broad,” he lowered his voice and spoke though the side of his mouth. “Know what I mean?”

Jim raised his eyebrows. “I don’t actually, but sounds...fun…”

“Oh,” Michael laughed. “It was.” He winked at Jim.

“O-kay. What else can I help you with, Michael? I have a English department meeting I have to be to in just a minute.”

“Just checking in on my favorite teachers!” he said, standing back up. “Hey, did you meet the new art teacher I hired? Hot, right? In an artsy-fartsy kind of way.”

It took everything in him to not visibly roll his eyes. He tried acting collected, even though the mention of Pam made him anything but. He ran a hand quickly through his hair.

“Yeah, I met her. Seems nice!” And funny, and smart, and beautiful, and…

“Alright, back to making my rounds,” Michael said, standing up. “I promised Dwight I’d come by his classroom today. You know me, such a hot comradery.”

Jim bit his tongue, knowing full well it was better not to correct him, as much as the English teacher part of him wanted to.

“See ya,” he waved.

With it being the week before students came back, his schedule was filled with meetings and last minute prep work, but last night he brainstormed a way to still spend some time with Pam. He dug into his bag and headed across the hall.

Pam saw him coming and put her hands on her hips. “What, you here for Starry Night, now?”

He put his hands above his head. “I come peacefully, I swear.”

“What are those?” she asked, pointing to the stack of CDs in his hands.

“These,” he said, “are confidential. Unless you’d like to be part of something great.”

“Go on…”

“How do I know I can trust you?” He squinted toward her.

“The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them.”

His mouth fell open. “Did you just quote Hemingway?!”

She grinned and looked at him through the corner of her eyes playfully.

He just might be in love now. Her voice snapped him out of his trance.

“C’mon, Halpert. Spill the beans.”

Jim sat down at an art table and put the stack of CD’s on the desk, nudging them toward her. “Okay. Something you should know about me is that I love pranks.”

“Noo…” she said sarcastically. “I wouldn’t have guessed.”

“Another thing you should know is that Dwight Schrute is almost always my target. Can’t help it. He deserves it. This is a simple truth.”

She laughed. “Okay…”

“Every year, Dwight makes these CDs of himself speaking German to apparently help teach his class. They are really annoying and he plays them really loudly.” Jim pointed at the stack in front of him. “These are me, pretending to be Dwight, speaking what sounds like German but is definitely not German. This is where you come in.”

“Lay it on me,” she said seriously.

“After four years of teaching with me, he has begun to distrust me for whatever reason.”

“I wonder why,” she laughed.

“Anyway, he knows I usually prank him at the beginning of the year so I doubt I’ll be able to get into his classroom to swap them out.” He looked toward her expectantly.

“So you want me to help?”

“If you choose to accept.”

Pam thought for a minute. “Well,” she said. “The first time he met me he looked me up and down and told me I had excellent childbearing hips. So, I’m in,” she grinned.

“Excellent,” he beamed and gave her a high five. “I have to go to a meeting right now, but I’ll give you a rundown when I get back.”

“Aye, aye, captain,” she saluted.

He couldn’t recall a single word that was said at his meeting that morning.


******

The next day was when they agreed to execute their plan. Jim and Pam headed to Dwight’s classroom together, but using different hallways. Pam arrived first and stuck her head into Dwight’s classroom.

“Hey, Dwight?”

“Ah, yes, Ms. Beesly. How can I help you?”

“Can I talk to you a minute out here?”

“Of course. I hope you’re getting acquainted with our fine school.”

“I am, thank you.” Pam said as Dwight joined her in the hallway. “Lots of great people.”

“I suppose so,” Dwight conceded. “So, what can I help you with?”

“I, uh,” Pam started, obviously trying not to look at Jim as he snuck behind them into Dwight’s classroom. “I think I might have a bear problem? And...Phyllis...told me you might be able to help?”

A look of complete seriousness came over Dwight’s face. “You are correct. I have extensive knowledge of the species and types of bears most commonly found in the northeastern sector of Pennsylvania. Now,” he put his hands on his hips, widening his stance. “Describe to me the personality of this bear.”

“Oh,” Pam said surprised. “I...wasn’t aware they..” she shrugged. “It looked like a brown bear?”

Dwight rolled his eyes. “Brown is not a personality trait,Ms. Beesly. Though that does help.”

Pam saw Jim slip out of the classroom and shoot her a quiet thumbs up as he escaped into the hallway behind Dwight.

“You know what?” Pam interrupted. “Now that I think about it, maybe it was a raccoon. Thanks for your help, Dwight!” And she turned and swiftly walked back to her classroom, faintly hearing Dwight scoffing and muttering, “Typical…”

Jim and Pam met back outside his classroom and broke into laughter.

“Nicely done, Beesly!” Jim praised.

“That was...exhilarating!” Pam laughed. “I see why you do it,” she smiled.

“Get to know Dwight better and you’ll really see why I do it.” He looked at her and grinned. “I think we make a great team.”

“Like Batman and Robin.”

He shrugged. “I was going to say Spongebob and Patrick, but that works too.” He winked.

She looked at her watch. “Crap, I need to get to my meeting. Thanks for the rush, Patrick.”

He called out to her as she walked away from him.

“Hey! You’re supposed to be Patrick!”

She turned and started walking backwards, shrugging her shoulders and grinning at him. “Can’t win them all, Halpert!”

But he had already had the glowing feeling of victory.

********

The first day of school rolled around. Jim was at his desk while his class read their books. Pam sat at hers while her own class sketched.

Down the hall, they heard a loud, “HALPERT!!” from Dwight. Jim and Pam both looked up at each other, eyes and smiles wide.

“Okay, everyone, books down.” Jim stood up and walked to the front of the classroom. “Today, we’re going to learn about conflict.”

School had been in session for one month. One very good (albeit long) month. He forgot how it took some time to build his stamina back up to teaching all day, as high schoolers were almost as exhausting as toddlers sometimes. But the biggest thing pushing him through each day was getting to observe Pam from across the hallway. She was often lecturing while his classes did their daily 15 minute reading time, so he would sit at his desk and watch her teach as inconspicuously as possible. He loved the way she played with her hands as she taught and how she seemed to light up while talking about art. Every now and then she would catch him looking at her and a small smile would creep onto her face.

In the month, they had eaten lunch together every day in the faculty lounge, but Jim felt stuck there. He had never been good at asking girls out at any point in his life and this was no exception. He could sense that she might be interested in him as well—their conversations were seamless and they easily made each other laugh—but the intense fear of rejection paralyzed him from asking her to do anything past sit by her at lunch. It was like being in high school all over again.

One night, he had decided to come back to the school to do some grading he had yet to finish. He found that he was much more productive in his classroom than at home, where his roommate Mark was always inviting him to watch a game or go out drinking with him, both of which always sounded more appealing than grading papers. By coming to the school, he eliminated the temptation completely.

He started his usual grading routine, which consisted of putting in his headphones, neatly stacking the papers he had to grade, kicking his feet up on his desk, and cracking open a crisp grape soda. For whatever reason, he liked grading with the main lights off and just working with the light from a lamp he had on his desk. The nerdy student in him got a slight thrill out grading. It felt like studying, only this time he was doing the grading instead of being graded, which naturally made it way less stressful.

He was halfway through his stack of papers when he looked up to see a figure standing in his doorway, causing him to nearly jump right out of his skin. He yanked his headphones out and clutched his chest.

“Holy hell, Beesly! You scared the crap out of me! What are you doing here this late?”

Pam doubled over with laughter. “I’m so sorry! I just came back because I left my favorite charcoal pencils in my classroom and I wanted them this weekend. Then I saw your lamp on and thought I would say hi. Didn’t mean to scare you!”

“Good thing I keep a spare pair of pants in my desk…” he joked.

She chuckled. “Why are you here so late?”

Jim stood up and leaned against his desk, arms folded against his chest. “I prefer to grade at night from my classroom. Easier to concentrate.”

“How’s it coming?” she asked.

“Well,” he said, looking at the stack of papers. “Pretty good, except for this kid.” He held up one of the essays. “My AP Literature class had a reading assignment over the summer to read To Kill a Mockingbird and write a short essay about the themes in the book. This genius wrote his paper on a book called ‘How to Kill a Mockingbird’. Definitely not what I assigned, but I have to admit...it sounds like a very compelling book.”

She snickered. “Probably a real page-turner.” She pointed to his headphones that were still in his hand. “What are you listening to?”

“What? Oh. Little bit of everything. Some Sufjan Stevens, Death Cab for Cutie, Iron and Wine, Black Sabbath…”

Her brow furrowed. “One of those things is not like the others…”

He laughed. “Okay, not so much the last one.”

He desperately wanted her to stay, so he gulped down his fear and stepped out onto a limb.

“Would you want to...hang out here for a bit? I don’t know if you have somewhere to be. But I definitely need a little break from grading and I have a perfectly chilled grape soda that has your name on it.”

She grinned and walked further into the room. “Grape soda, huh?”

“Only the best grading fuel.”

Pam sat herself on the couch Jim kept in the back of his classroom. He offered the couch as a reward for students who aced his reading quizzes, letting them use it for their free-reading time instead of their desk if they scored 100% on three consecutive quizzes. Right now, seeing Pam comfortably sinking down into it, he thanked his past self for coming up with the idea.

He grabbed an unopened can of grape soda from his desk and joined her on the couch. He offered the can to her. “So,” he started. “Any fun plans this weekend?”

Pam popped the lid on the grape soda. “My sister is actually in town. We’ll probably grab lunch tomorrow, walk around the Steamtown Mall, maybe see a movie. What about you?”

He gestured with his head toward his desk. “I have two more class periods of papers to grade. That’s pretty much my exciting weekend.”

“Wow. Wild and crazy Jim!”

“Look out, Scranton,” he smiled. “Tell me about your sister. Is she your only sibling?”

Pam took a sip of her soda and nodded. “Yep, just Penny and me. We used to fight all the time but we have gotten a lot closer as we’ve grown. What about you, do you have siblings?”

“I do!” Jim answered. “Two older brothers and a younger sister. My brothers are idiots but I guess I still love them. And my sister, Larissa, is probably one of my closest friends. She’s going to school at the University of Michigan right now and I miss her like crazy. But don’t tell her that,” he warned.

Pam mimed zipping her lips shut and smiled at Jim. Her face was glowing by the light of the lamp on his desk and she looked absolutely radiant. He had the overwhelming urge to brush one of her curls from her face, but refrained. Instead, he placed his arm on the back of the couch behind her. Close enough to feel more intimate, but not close enough to feel presumptuous, he hoped.

“So, Ms. Beesly, how do you feel about your first month at ET Memorial?”

She turned toward him and recounted the last few weeks. She told him about the great moments she had, and named the kids she had already had started to bond with as well as the ones that make her want to rip her hair out. She expressed her fears about teaching that hadn’t quite dissolved with the start of the school year, but that she also felt like she was in the exact right place in her life.

Looking at her next to him, he would have to agree.

She tilted her head and looked at him. “How did you know this is what you wanted to do?”

“Wow,” he sighed. “That’s a good question. This may come as a surprise to you, but I’m a giant nerd.”

“You? Never,” she mocked.

“I know. But it’s true. And I did a lot of things growing up. I played basketball, I hung out with friends all the time, and I’m the reigning Mario Kart champion in my family. But books,” he smiled. “Books got me through all the times in my life that weren’t so rosy. James Baldwin said it best. He said, ‘You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read’. And I found that to be true. I could always find a character in a book that related to me and whatever I was going through. I could escape.”

“I love that,” she said softly.

He smiled and continued. “Then I had this amazing English teacher in 10th grade. He found so many cool and unique ways to teach us. He led us in these great discussions and debates about books and even the kids you would least suspect would participate and get in on it and it was just...oh man, it was amazing. It was then that I told myself that I wanted to do what he did and teach. If I could make just one kid every year grow to love reading the way he could, it would be worth it.”

She put her hand on his shoulder and smiled softly. “That’s amazing, Jim. I bet your students love you.”

He tried to respond, but his brain had shut down the minute she touched him. Luckily for him, she continued talking.

“I wish I had some inspiring story like that. I mean, obviously I love art and always have. But I never thought I would teach it. I just felt like I was at a dead end after I graduated and teaching felt like the next logical step. Thankfully, I still feel like it was the right decision, even if I’m scared out of my pants every time I step in front of a class.”

“Yeah, I don’t know if that ever fully goes away.”

She laughed. “Well, that’s encouraging.”

“No, I bet you’re wonderful. I mean, you are wonderful.”

“Oh stop it,” she blushed. “But thank you.” Her hand was still resting on his shoulder.

This was it—this was his moment.

“Did I tell you I’m also the basketball coach here?”

Damnit, Jim. THAT’S what you choose to have come out of your mouth?! He tried not to visibly wince.

“No!” Luckily, she didn’t seem too put off. “That’s awesome! When does your season start?”

“Not until November. If Coach Anderson had his way, we wouldn’t start until the new year so he could keep his beloved football season going longer,” he scoffed. He loved football as much as the next guy, but their high school football coach took it to the next annoying level.

Pam averted her eyes and Jim sensed a shift in her demeanor.

“Did I say something?” he asked, worried that she was secretly the world's biggest fan of second-tier high school football and he just offended her.

“It’s nothing,” she said, still not looking at him. “It’s just...I kind of know Roy. The coach.”

Uh oh.

“He and I actually dated all through high school. When I left for college we broke up and I hadn’t heard from him at all until I got this job and realized he worked here as the gym teacher and football coach.”

Jim relaxed a little bit, but there was still a little bit of tension between his eyebrows.

“Then,” she continued, “when he realized I was here, we went on a few dates. Reconnected a little bit.”

She must have seen the pained expression on Jim’s face, because she put her hand on his knee, assuringly.

“But it ended there,” she said hurriedly. “I broke it off. He constantly seemed threatened that I had a masters degree and made more money than him,” she smirked. “Honestly, he never even wanted me to go to college back when we were in high school. He assumed we would get married right away and have kids.”

“Ass…” he involuntarily muttered. “Sorry.”

She smiled at him. “Don’t be. He kind of is.”

She checked her watch. “Wow. It’s after midnight. I should probably get going. Penny will be here pretty early tomorrow.”

He nodded. “Can I walk you out? Sometimes the janitor Mose sleeps in his custodial closet and it can be a little startling.”

“Wait, what?”

“Oh, you haven’t met Mose? Please let me know when you do. You’ll need someone to talk to,” he joked.

She laughed and stood up, grabbing her purse. Jim waited as she grabbed her pencils from her classroom. As she opened her desk drawer, he noticed that she had taped the picture he printed of Raphael (the turtle) next to her computer. He couldn’t hide the smile on his face if he tried.

They got to the parking lot and Jim shook his head a little, lost in his thoughts.

“What?” Pam said, noticing.

“Oh nothing. Just...you and Anderson, huh? I never would have…”

“Oh?” she probed. “And why not?”

“It’s just that...you’re so...and he’s so…”

They reached her car and she let out a little laugh and raised her eyebrows, turning to him.

“You know,” she said, smirking. “For an English teacher you sure are having a hard time finding words.”

He lowered his head and laughed himself. He looked up and met her eyes. He could hear his heart thumping in his ears. “I just think you’re amazing. And talented, and funny, and warm, and...I like you a lot. I just need you to know that.”

Her eyes sparkled under the glow of the stars as she looked back up at him. Then she reached up and wrapped her arms tightly around his neck, pulling him into a hug. He slinked his arms around her and they stood in the nearly empty parking lot, embraced in each other’s arms for several minutes, neither of them saying a word. Jim marveled at how perfectly she fit against him and almost went light headed from how good her hair smelled. He could probably stay like his forever.

She pulled away and planted a soft kiss on his cheek before she lowered back down to the ground. “Thank you, Jim. I had a really, really nice time with you tonight.”

She opened her car door and turned back to him. “And for the record, I think you’re pretty amazing yourself.” She winked at him and shut her car door behind her. He backed away slightly so she could pull out, and lifted a hand to wave to her, his smile reaching both his ears.

He stuck his hands into his pockets and turned back toward the school, grinning. He shook his head in disbelief, and muttered to himself.

“That’ll do, Halpert. That’ll do.”

The late September air had finally started to cool down, so the next Monday Jim suggested that he and Pam eat outside for lunch. There was a small courtyard off the faculty lounge that was reserved specifically for the staff.

“But,” he told her. “I forgot my lunch at home so I’m going to have to grab something from the lunch room really quick.”

“I’ll join you!” she chirped with a smile.

Since their late night at the school few days prior, they had been texting each other non-stop. Jim’s stomach leapt each time his phone had buzzed and his adoration of her continued to grow. Earlier that morning she surprised him with a warm cup of non-mediocre coffee and a smile that was a mile wide. He had been completely unable to concentrate on anything since then.

They entered the student-filled lunchroom, bustling with teenage laughter and smelling like a terrible mixture of chili and way too much cheap cologne. Ah, to be 16 again.

“Follow me,” Jim motioned. “I know a guy.”

They passed through the lines and groups of students.

“Mr. H!”

“What’s up, coach!”

Jim responded, high-fiving and joking with all his teenage admirers. Pam beamed up at him.

“What?”

“Nothing,” she smiled. “You’re just very well-liked, Mr. Halpert.”

He gave a bashful smile and pushed open the door to the school kitchen, beckoning Pam inside with him.

“Kev!” Jim called out.

“Hey Jim!”

A heavy-set man approached Jim, wearing a messy apron and a hair net, despite not having much hair. He and Jim fist bumped each other.

“A little bird told me it’s your famous chili day. Can you hook us up?”

Kevin looked back and forth between Jim and Pam. A thin smile spread on his face and he locked eyes with Jim, slowly nodding.

“Niiiice,” he said quietly to Jim, but definitely not quietly enough. Jim’s cheeks flushed and he ran a hand through the back of his hair.

“Chili, Kev?”

“Right,” Kevin remembered. He left and shortly came back with two bowls of chili and a small white paper bag. “Here you go. Chili for two,” he winked enthusiastically at Jim, “and some rolls and silverware in the bag.”

Jim gave him a high five. “Thanks, man. See you this weekend for poker?”

Kevin nodded in agreement and Jim and Pam headed back out into the lunch room. One of the students noticed the food in Jim’s hands.

“What?! No fair, Halpert,” he complained. “You skipped the whole line!”

“Get a degree, Jorgenson. It gets you these kinds of privileges,” he joked.

Back in the courtyard, Jim set out their food in front of them. “I normally wouldn’t touch a lot of what comes out of a high school kitchen, but believe me when I say...Kevin’s chili is next level.”

They started eating and talking. Suddenly, Jim felt Pam’s hand on his knee under the table. She glanced at him with a sly smile and he couldn’t help but smile back. He took his free hand and casually slipped it under the table, intertwining his fingers with hers. He rubbed circles on her hand with his thumb and suddenly couldn’t think of anything to say. He was usually a man with all the words, but she had a complete hold over that sector of his brain, apparently.

“So,” Pam said, smiling at Jim’s obvious scrambled brain. “I’ll be seeing you at the dance tonight, right?”

Homecoming was set for that night. Jim hated chaperoning those things, but as soon as he saw Pam’s name on the sign up sheet in the office he changed his mind completely.

“You know it. The only Homecoming dance you’ll ever attend on a Monday night.”

Pam chuckled. “Yeah, what’s that all about?”

“Angela, who apparently has a huge part of planning the whole thing, is convinced it will stop students from hooking up afterward.”

“Oh yeah? And what about the teachers?”

Jim immediately started choking on his chili.

“Beesly!” he said between coughs.

Her eyes widened. “No! I meant what do the teachers think about it! Not if they...” She started laughing. “Not what I meant!”

Just then, they heard the door creak open and they quickly let go of each other’s hands. Phyllis, the front office secretary, walked out.

“Hi Pam. Hi Jim,” she smiled at them. Jim didn’t think she saw anything but Phyllis always had a knack for knowing things. Luckily, she was also very good at keeping those things to herself. He wasn’t quite sure if he was ready for the rest of the school to know his feelings for the new art teacher quite yet. And by “the rest of the school”, he definitely meant Michael Scott.

“Hi, Phyllis,” Pam said sweetly. “Great weather, huh?”

Phyllis grinned. “Oh, yes. Just lovely.”

Jim looked at the smile on Phyllis’ face. She definitely knew. He stood up.

“Alright, ladies. I need to get back to my classroom,” he shrugged. “Thanks for the company, Pam.”

“See you at the dance!” she waved.

*********

Jim probably spent 30 minutes picking out his tie, combing his hair, and taking off and on his suit coat trying to decide which way he liked better. Or rather, what he thought Pam might like better. It really was like being 16 again.

He settled on a blue and red plaid tie (their school colors) and a navy blue, slim-fitting suit with the coat on. He sprayed his favorite cologne, straightened his tie in the mirror, and headed to the high school.

He walked into the gymnasium to see the lights dimmed, fog machines going, strobe lights blaring, and all kinds of other colorful lights flying all around the room. Mambo #5 was playing.

Michael was here.

But luckily no students were there yet.

“Hey, Mike,” Jim said. “I think the fog and strobe lights might be a little much. Don’t you?”

“Whaaaat?! You’re crazy, man. The fog is totally hip!”

“You know what,” Jim shrugged, “I actually just read in ‘Cool Teen Magazine’ that fog machines are not ‘totally dope’ anymore. Can you believe it?”

Shock spread over Michael’s face. “Really?! Dwight!!”

Seemingly out of nowhere, Dwight came running over. “Yes, Michael?”

“Clear out the fog machines, STAT!”

Dwight made eye contact with Jim. “You heard him, Halpert! STAT MEANS NOW.”

Jim stayed where he stood, hands in his pockets, while Dwight scurried around collecting the fog machines. “Oh, I think he was talking to you.”

“You’re useless!” Dwight shouted.

For some reason, Dwight completely dedicated himself to Michael Scott, despite Michael only being the Vice Principal. Jim thought he once heard Dwight say something about how he could never be a subordinate to a female such as their principal Jan, but he couldn’t be sure.

Thirty minutes later, the gym had returned to a suitable atmosphere for a high school dance, and the students began shuffling in. Jim’s duty was to stand next to the door and greet the students as they came in and look for any signs of intoxication, as per Angela’s instruction.

As he stood there, he felt someone touch his arm.

“Hey, teach,” he heard in his ear and a smile spread on his face.

He turned around to see Pam, wearing an emerald green dress and sparkling heels. She had curled her hair more than normal and pinned it back on one side. Jim was completely speechless and looked around to make sure nobody had their eyes on them. Ensuring the coast was clear, he put his hand lightly on her waist and leaned in.

“You look absolutely beautiful,” he whispered right next to her ear. Leaning back a bit, he locked eyes with hers. “You really do,” he reiterated.

“Thank you,” she said softly through her smile.

They spent the night sharing glances and smiles at each other across the dark gymnasium, meeting occasionally at the refreshment table to talk. In the dimly lit room, Jim took it upon himself to briefly grab Pam’s hand behind the table and give it a quick squeeze.

She smiled up at him, then looked back to the spectacle in front of them that was Michael and Dwight conducting the crowning ceremony for homecoming king and queen. Jan was in the far corner with her hand over her face and the whites of Angela’s eyes could be seen from across the room with how much she was rolling them.

“You were probably Homecoming king, huh?” Pam questioned.

“Nah, no way.” He shrugged and smiled straight ahead. “I was prom king.”

She laughed and gave him a small punch in the arm. “I knew it.”

“Don’t worry, I didn’t let it go to my head.”

“Uh-huh…” she took a sip of her punch. “I was far too shy to be anything like that. Roy was probably the only reason people even knew who I was. A hotshot like you probably wouldn’t have even noticed me.”

He knew she was joking but his brow furrowed and he frowned. He turned toward her, making sure she looked at him.

“Hey,” he said softly. “I most definitely would have noticed someone like you. Are you kidding me? Pam,” he sighed. “I may have been on the basketball team, and on student council, and all that other stuff, but I was also a huge nerd who loved homework, and was friends with his teachers, and dressed up like Edgar Allan Poe for Halloween. I would have killed to have known you in high school. I kind of have a thing for the shy, artsy girl. Who happens to be strikingly beautiful as well.”

She looked up at him with a sweetness in her eyes that made his knees weak. If he wasn’t in a room full of teenagers that would mock him endlessly, he would grab her face and kiss her right there. But that would have to wait, because Dwight brought a chainsaw for their presentation on stage and it looked like something they wouldn’t want to miss.

Jan hurriedly ran up on stage and grabbed the microphone. “OKAY...students, I think that ends our night! Be safe, be on time for school tomorrow, and go Vikings!” She covered the microphone with her hand. “Michael!!” she spat through her teeth. “Dwight!! What did I SAY about power tools and school functions?! Meet me in my office in ten minutes!”

Pam and Jim looked at each other and broke out into laughter.

“Just a minute,” he told her. He ran up to the stage, making his way through all the students now leaving the building. He spoke to Jan and then walked back to Pam.

“What was that about?” she asked.

“Oh, uh...I just volunteered both of us to clean up the dance.”

She looked at him, confused. He shot a beaming white smile toward her.

“Trust me, Beesly.”

*******

All the students had left and were presumably finding other ways to entertain themselves elsewhere. Jim and Pam had already begun sweeping and picking up stray cups when Michael and Dwight came through the gym doors, tails between their legs, after what Jim assumed was a pretty good scolding from Jan.

Michael picked up his fog machine while Dwight grabbed the strobe lights and Michael waved at Jim and Pam. “Goodnight, guys. Sorry the boss lady made us stop the fun early.”

“Next time,” Jim said. “Have a good night, Michael.”

All the other chaperones had left and Jan had stopped by to thank them for cleaning up and to remind them to lock the doors on their way out. Finally, it was just the two of them alone.

Jim walked over to the stage and grabbed the crown that never made it to the homecoming queen’s head. He walked back to Pam and placed it delicately on her curled hair.

“There,” he said, stepping back to admire her. “The rightful queen.”

She curtsied and beamed back at him.

“You going to tell me why you so graciously volunteered us to clean up all by ourselves?” she questioned.

He stepped closer to her and straightened the crown. “Because,” he said, “we have been in a room filled with people all night and I selfishly wanted some time with just you, especially you in that dress, without a hundred teenage eyes on us.” He grabbed her hand. “Okay?”

She nodded, biting her lower lip in a smile.

Jim let go of her hand and ran over to the DJ station on the stage. He reached in his pocket and pulled out his iPod, plugged it in, and a slow melody started playing on the speakers. Jim jumped down from the stage and lightly jogged back to Pam.

He stuck out his hand. “May I have this dance, your highness?”

She grinned and took his hand. “I’m a terrible dancer.”

“Nonsense,” he said, pulling her closer and putting his hand on her waist. “All you really have to do is sway.”

“Swaying isn’t dancing.”

“Tonight, swaying is dancing,” he laughed against her hair.

So they swayed. Pam rested her head against Jim’s chest. He smiled and kissed the top of her head while the music filled the room.

For the love you bring won’t mean a thing
Unless you sing, sing, sing, sing

Pam lifted her head and looked longingly up at him, eyes sparkling under the white string lights lining the walls. Jim stopped their movement and took her face in his hands, leaning down to place a soft kiss on her lips. She pulled him closer into her and returned the kiss, an obvious smile on her lips. Jim felt as if might completely dissolve into her, wanting never to go back to a time where he didn’t know what Pam Beesly’s lips felt like against his own.

After several minutes, they broke apart and Jim put his forehead against hers. He couldn’t help but grin.

“You have no idea how long I’ve wanted to do that.”

She let out a small laugh and gave him another soft kiss.

“Me too.”

He kissed her one more time and then reluctantly, they cleaned up the rest of the dance, stealing kisses and laughs as they did.

Maybe chaperoning wasn’t as bad as Jim always thought it was.

It was the last class period of the day and Jim was in the middle of a discussion about Of Mice and Men. Noticing a sleeping student on the third row, he casually strolled over to the bookshelf next to him while continuing the discussion with the rest of his class.

“Okay, so let’s talk about the characters in the book.”

He grabbed a large dictionary from the shelf and continued.

“If you had to pick just one central character,” he turned around and walked toward the slumbering student’s desk, “do you think you would pick Lennie—“

WHAM! He dropped the dictionary directly next to the student’s head on the desk, causing him to jump and fall right out of his chair.

“—or would you pick George? Welcome back, Mr. Palmer.”

The class snickered and Jim made his way back to the front of the room.

“I want all of you to think about that and write me one page about what you decide. Due next time we meet.”

The bell rang to dismiss the class and Jim smiled to himself among the squeaking of chairs and the rustling of backpacks. The end of the school day meant the start of his day with Pam.

They had both agreed that, for many reasons, it was best to keep their budding relationship quiet from their coworkers and especially from their students. They had both been in high school before, so the reasoning behind that was pretty obvious.

After most of the students had cleared his classroom and he had resolved the questions of the last few who had lingered past the bell, he sat down at his desk and grabbed his phone, only to see a message from Pam.

Hey, want to go to the football game tonight? The quarterback is in my fourth period class and he somehow got me to promise that I would go because it’s the last game and I haven’t been to one all season.

Jim thought about it. He did love football, and in past years he made it a point to attend several games each season. But ever since he learned about Pam’s history with Roy, the coach, he hadn’t really felt like going. However, a night with Pam was better than a night without her, even if it meant looking at Roy stupid head all night. He started typing his reply.

Only if you buy the nachos.

Extra cheese? :)

He smiled.

“What’s her name?” a deep voice asked.

Jim lifted his head to see Darryl in the doorway.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, man,” Jim denied with a smile.

“Bull,” Darryl laughed. “Whatever, you don’t have to tell me. I just came to see if you had extra copies of the handout we made about argumentative essays.”

Jim opened his desk drawer and pulled out a stack of papers. “Sure, man. Here you go.”

Darryl walked over to him and took the papers. “Thanks.” He started out of the classroom. “Let me know if you ever want to tell me about your lady friend.” Jim could hear the smirk in his voice. He was sure Darryl noticed how much time he spent with Pam and how he ate lunch with her almost every day. Darryl had to know, so Jim was grateful his friend was claiming ignorance until he felt like he could tell him more.

He turned his attention back to his phone and typed a message.

Can I stop by your place and we can head over separately after that? I have something I want to give you.


***********

Jim got out of his car at Pam’s condo and briskly walked up to her door. He gave three knocks on her bright yellow door and smiled as he heard her run and swing it open.

“Hi.”

“Hey,” he beamed. He walked inside and she shut the door behind him.

“So, what did you want to give me?” she asked excitedly. She looked like a kid on Christmas morning.

He grabbed her around the waist and gave her a deep, lingering kiss. She melted into his arms and ran her fingers through the back of his hair with a slight sigh that sent a wave down his spine. Slowly, he backed her against the door and deepened his kiss further, cupping her face with his hands and running his fingers through her long curls. Finally, he pulled away from her lips and gave her a wry smile.

“That.”

“Well, then thank you,” she said with a heavy breath.

Jim reached into his bag at his hip. “Actually,” he said, “I really wanted to give you this.”

He handed her a fleece blanket with the ET Memorial logo on it, wrapped tight with a ribbon.

“I know it’s probably lame,” he started, “but the game might be cold and I thought it would be nice for you to have something to keep you warm, since, you know,” he shrugged. “I won’t be able to.”

She flashed him a smile. “It’s not lame, I love it. Thank you.”

He wrapped her in his arms.

“It’s hard enough for me to keep my hands off of you at work. Now I’ll have to sit on them all night in order to keep them off you at the game,” he said into her ear, then leaned back to look at her. “I mean, I know why we aren’t telling people. That’s the right thing to do. But I really like you, Beesly.”

She took his cheek in her hand and kissed him slowly. “I’ll make it up to you,” she whispered against his lips.

He closed his eyes as those words sank in. “Suddenly I hate football. You sure we have to go?” he whined.

She laughed and grabbed him by his ET Memorial jacket. “I’m sure. It will be fun! And I already promised you nachos.”

He laughed. “I forgot about that. Good point.”

He kissed her once more, smiled, and told her he would meet her at the game as he slipped out her door.

******

Jim arrived at the game about 10 minutes before Pam did and he did his best to spread out as wide as he could in the bleachers while he waited for her. He didn’t want to have to tell someone he was saving a seat for her but he needed to have room for Pam to sit when she got there and “casually ran into him”.

He spotted her walking up the metal stairs toward him, her new blanket in hand. She waved to him and made her way up to where he was sitting.

“Hello, Ms. Beesly.”

“Well, hello, Mr. Halpert. Can I sit here?” She winked at him.

Her nose and cheeks were already a little pink from the crisp autumn air and once again he was stuck by how beautiful she was. There was such a warmth about her and for a brief second he thought he may actually be in love. It was probably too soon to tell her that, though, so he shook off the thought.

“Just so you know,” Pam said. “You’re going to have to explain every last detail about football to me. Because I know nothing. Except touchdown.” She looked at him worriedly. “It’s called a touchdown, right?”

He laughed. “Yes, you are correct. I figured you would know the rules a little bit. What with—“ he couldn’t get himself to even say Roy’s name.

She shook her head. “No, he was always playing. I just came and pretended I knew what was going on.”

Jim tried to figure out what it was about Roy that made his fists involuntarily clench. He was harmless enough. Sure, he was pretty dense and thought that life begins and ends with football, but he’d never done or said anything directly to Jim that should cause him to dislike him so much. He just. didn’t. like the guy.

Maybe it was because Jim knew exactly what type of guy Roy was. He had been surrounded by guys like Roy for so much of his life while playing sports. They partied, they took nothing seriously, bragged about the girls they got, and thought they were king of every castle. Jim may have been the starting point guard in high school, but he had consciously made an effort not to make basketball his entire life. His parents always taught him that people were always more important than the points he scored and to not let any relationship suffer because he was good at something like basketball. There was always more.

But it wasn’t just that. Jim had gotten to know Pam very well over the last few months. She was incredible. She was kind and thoughtful. She was funny in the smartest of ways. And Jim just knew that Roy never would have fully appreciated that about her and it made him mad. She deserved so much more than to just be a girl on the quarterback’s arm.

But he wasn’t going to spend his night with Pam thinking about Roy.

“I believe I promised you some nachos,” Pam said under her breath.

He chuckled. “You really don’t have to.”

“No!” she insisted. “I do have to. And I want to get a hot chocolate for myself anyway.”

She stood up and headed toward the concession stand next to the bleachers. When she returned, there was an odd expression on her face.

“Everything...okay?”

She nodded and let out a little bit of a laugh. “Yeah. But Toby Flenderson, she school counselor? Just asked me out.”

Jim accidentally broke the chip in his hands. “Oh?”

Pam looked over at him. “Yeah…”

“What did you say?”

She took a sip of her hot chocolate. “I, uh, told him that now wasn’t really a good time to date due to things going on in my personal life.”

Jim’s eyebrows furrowed. “What things—“ Then suddenly understood what she meant. He looked around to see if any of the parents who were sitting next to them were paying attention to their conversation. He pointed to himself and mouthed Who, me?

She grinned. “Yes, you. I kind of felt bad turning him down. He looked so...sad. Like a puppy.”

“It’s the eyes. Gets you every time,” Jim nodded.

“Right?!”

They laughed and continued watching the game. They made sure to leave a little distance between them on the bench so as not to raise too many suspicions, but as the night went on they had inched closer and closer.

“So what does that mean?” Pam asked, now completely huddled in her new blanket.

“It means that someone on the other team crossed the line of scrimmage before the ball was hiked, so we get to move five yards closer to the end zone.”

“That’s good right?”

“Yeah,” he chuckled. “Definitely good.” He could tell she was trying so hard to understand and be a good student of the game and it was just so damn adorable. He didn’t care if she knew what holding meant or how many points a safety was worth. But he was more than happy to educate her if it meant he got to watch her concentrated face scrunch up and hear her little whoops and hollers when she knew something good happened.

The game ended with a victory for the ET Memorial Vikings and the crowd began shuffling out of the stands as the marching band played the school song.

“That was really fun, actually!” Pam admitted. “It was almost like being back in high school again, only this time I understood what was going on.”

They reached the bottom of the stairs and Jim quickly grabbed Pam’s hand and stealthily pulled her under the bleachers before anyone could see them. They were almost completely hidden from sight and Jim could only dimly see Pam’s face lit up by the small streams of light that were poking through the cracks in the bleachers. He smiled and put his lips firmly against hers. She wrapped her hands around his neck and met his kiss with a little more intensity. Her lips parted and he felt her tongue hot against his. It took everything in him not to let out a moan and give away their secret hiding spot. He snaked his arms around her waist and hugged her body tight against his. They broke apart.

“Now it really feels like high school,” she snickered quietly.

And there was the image of Roy again. Kissing her under the bleachers after a football game. He tried so hard not to think about it and enjoy the fact that he was now with that girl and she was most definitely kissing him under the bleachers. But he would have been lying to himself if he said it didn’t affect him a little bit.

Because it was so dark, Pam didn’t seem to notice Jim’s mental train derailing.

“Meet me back at my place?” she asked with a sly look.

He kissed her softly and smiled. “Absolutely.”

********

Jim definitely wasn’t a virgin.

But after what he and Pam just did (three times) after immediately getting back from the game, he may as well have been one before tonight. He had never felt anything more intense, more indescribable, than finally getting to be with Pam. They had waited longer than either of them probably would have liked because life was busy and demanding and there was always something that came up that prevented them from discovering every inch of each other. But not anymore. Now Jim felt like he had every curve, every part of her, memorized under his fingertips.

Now they sat together in her bathtub, Pam’s back against Jim’s chest. He kissed her dewy shoulder and wrapped his arms tighter around her. He wasn’t sure what time it was, but it was sometime in the hazy middle of being very late and very early. But they didn’t have to go to work tomorrow (today?) so he didn’t care.

“What’re you thinking about, Halpert?” she hummed lazily.

“You.”

She stroked his forearm with her fingertip as they sat there with no noise except the sound of small droplets falling back into the water they sat in. He kissed her temple.

He frowned slightly and lowered his voice. “And how jealous I am that Roy Anderson got to kiss you under the bleachers before I did.”

She let out an audible laugh. “I think these high schoolers are rubbing off on you.”

“What?” he laughed.

“I don’t know. It’s just kind of cute to see you so jealous. Especially of a guy who I dated a decade ago who means absolutely nothing to me now.”

She turned over so she could look at him.

“Jim. He means nothing to me. Just a high school boyfriend who still thinks he’s the big man on campus. Okay?” She sat up and wrapped her legs around him, grateful she opted for her oversized tub when buying the condo.

“Okay,” he said quietly with a smile.

“Roy never got to do this…” she murmured against the skin below his ear. “...in my tub…” She lightly nipped his ear with her teeth and he groaned. “...over and over…”

And with that, his fingers continued to commit more of her to their memory until the water ran cold and they finally retreated to her bed for the night.

Dwight stood at the door of one of the busses with his clipboard in hand.

“Barton, Andrew!”

A tall redheaded boy walked to the bus and climbed the stairs.

“Cutler, Sophia!”

Now a blonde girl followed suit.

It was time for the annual PTA sponsored senior trip to Washington DC for ET Memorial. Seniors who qualified (GPA above a 3.75 and at least 95% attendance record) were given the chance to spend three days and two nights in the nation’s capital, visiting museums and historical sites.

Jim and Pam had jumped at the opportunity to be chaperones together, even if they couldn’t let on to anyone that they were a couple. When the chance arrived to go, they decided they would try to trick themselves and call it their first trip together. It just happened to be a trip that included 50 teenagers as well. And Dwight. And Michael.

After all the students had been accounted for and boarded on busses, Jim and Pam hopped on one bus with Oscar and Jan, while Dwight, Angela, and Michael took the other. There were also six parent chaperones who dispersed between the two busses.

“Remind me again why Angela is coming?” questioned Pam.

“PTA president. PTA sponsored trip. And it’s just another reason for her to control a situation,” Jim smirked.

It was 6:00 in the morning and the early December air bit at them until the bus finally pulled away from the school and the heat began circling through the inside. Jim and Pam sat together on one of the front seats across the aisle from two of the parent volunteers and Jan and Oscar were in the back to make sure the students back there weren’t getting into any trouble.

It was only about 30 minutes into their 4 hour drive and nearly all of the students had fallen back asleep, as had the two moms next to them. Jim had spent the night at Pam’s house the night before and despite his many attempts at keeping her up, she had put her foot down and insisted they get a decent night sleep because they had to leave so early the next morning. She had said something about REM sleep? He wasn’t sure. So instead, he held her close and breathed her in, feeling her chest slowly rise and fall under his arms, until sleep overtook him as well.

Now he was (mostly) grateful for her insistence because he didn’t feel tired at all, even with the 5:00 wake up call. Pam had her ET Memorial blanket he had given her on her lap and she pulled out a book to read. It was a book he had suggested she read and something about seeing her with her nose in it made his lips turn up. He kept his eyes forward, but slowly crept his hand under the blanket and rested it on her inner thigh. Through the corner of his eye, he thought he saw her eyes widen and then a smile came to her lips as well.

“Mr. Halpert…” she playfully scolded with a whisper, eyes on her book.

He turned his head to her and lowered his voice. “Everyone’s sleeping.”

And truthfully, who cared anymore? Jim had grown tired of hiding their relationship from everyone. It had been exciting at first, being the only two people at the school who knew they were dating. But now he just wanted to be able to drape his arm over the back of her chair at faculty meetings, or hold her hand, or carpool together without questions. And as much as he liked Toby Flenderson, he could only watch him try to court Pam for so long before it got to him.

Pam smirked at him, turned back to her book, then slipped her hand under the blanket and placed it on top of his. He slid his fingers just a little higher and she jumped.

“Okay, I have to draw the line somewhere,” she chuckled. “There are children here, Jim!”

“Fine,” he droned sarcastically.

Her eyes quickly surveyed their immediate surroundings and then she quickly leaned in and kissed him on the cheek.

“How dare you?” he joked. But he caught her eye and his heart did that involuntarily swelling thing that happened so often when he was with her. He cupped the side of her face with his free hand and placed a loving kiss on her lips.

He pulled back and smiled at her, then quickly whipped around to make sure everyone around them was still sleeping.

“I think we’re safe,” he winked.

He had had the words “I love you” dancing around on the tip of his tongue for weeks. By this point, he was certain he meant them if they happened to slip out, but he wasn’t certain Pam was ready to hear them. Granted, she hadn’t done or said anything in particular to make him think that, but even still, he was nervous.

As the sun emerged from beneath the horizon, Jim reluctantly removed his hand from Pam’s leg in anticipation of people waking up around them. They spent the next few hours of the trip talking about everything from music, to family, to the best kinds of bread ranked from worst to best. He learned Pam was very passionate about her carbohydrates. Finally, they arrived at the hotel in DC and everyone stood and stretched. Jan walked to the front of the bus.

“Alright, students! Please stay seated while we unload your bags from under the bus. When we are done, you can come out, find you bags, then get your room keys from Mr. Schrute. Proceed to your rooms, drop your bags off, and meet us in the hotel lobby at 11:30. You have the phone numbers of all our parent chaperones, so call them if you need anything.”

Jim and Pam exited the bus to help with the unloading. Dwight was authoritatively standing watch, key cards in hand.

“You going to help, Dwight?” Jim asked.

“I was given one duty, and that was to administer the key cards to the students. That is what I will do.”

Jim rolled his eyes and grabbed another bag from the bus.

Pam eyed him. “You’re plotting a prank, aren’t you?”

“Pam,” he stood up and put his hands on his hips, slightly out of breath from hauling suitcases. “Give me some credit.” He smiled. “Of course I am.”

*********

Luckily, it was set to be an unseasonably warm weekend in Washington D.C., which made for perfect conditions to walk and explore with the group. The plan was to tour the Capitol and the Library of Congress the first day, see some museums the second day, and walk around the monuments at the National Mall before leaving Sunday.

There were perks to taking the ”good” students on trips like these. Most were very well-behaved, which made chaperoning a little less stressful. Jim had had some of them in his classes multiple years and had really grown to like them, and a few of his basketball players were there as well.

They walked the stairs to the Library of Congress around 3:00 that afternoon. Jim was in a heated debate with one of the students about the current NBA season, but he continually kept his eye on Pam. She was with a group of students about ten feet ahead of him and they were all laughing about something he couldn’t hear. He smiled to himself, feeling grateful she was bonding with the students. She had let on a few times that while she loved teaching, she always worried her students didn’t like her. He had told her that was impossible, but to see the physical proof that he was right was definitely rewarding.

As they entered through the doors, you could hear the “oohs” and “ahhs” from the students and teachers alike. It really was beautiful.

Their guided tour began and when the tour guide said there were over 38 million books housed there, he felt a student’s hand on his shoulder.

“Welcome home, Mr. H.” he whispered to Jim. “This is like your dream come true.”

Jim chuckled. “Think they’ll let me move in?”

Then he found his eyes on Pam again, as usual. She was staring at the ceilings and walls, wonder and awe on her face as she took it all in. She had told Jim that despite living just hours away from D.C., she hadn’t been here since she was in elementary school and hardly remembered it. He couldn’t help but smile while watching Adult Pam experience it. He made a mental note to tell her that they needed to take a real trip together soon, sans teens and teachers. He wanted to discover so many new things with her.

After their guided tour, Jim made his way next to Pam as they exited. They hung back from the group a bit, watching the students joking with each other, Michael joining in with them, and Jan glaring at Michael while unsuccessfully trying to get him to stop.

“Have I told you the theory that a bunch of us have? That Jan and Michael are secretly doing it?” Jim asked.

“What?!” Pam whipped her head to him. “No! How? Why?!”

“Oh man. The sexual tension is palpable. Gross and weird, but palpable.”

Pam looked revolted. “Really?! How have I not noticed this?”

“Give it time, Beesly. You’ll see what I mean soon enough. Oscar, Darryl, and I all have a bet on how long it takes Michael to crack and tell everyone they slept together.”

Pam visibly shuddered. He chuckled and fought every urge to wrap his arms around her or grab her hand. He had never felt this way about anyone and it almost physically pained him to refrain. But if Michael Gary Scott could keep from the entire school that he was banging the principal (because, c’mon...he’s totally banging the principal) he could keep his hands in his pockets too.

******

The time came to have all the kids return to their rooms for the night. The teachers had gotten together and painstakingly arranged which students would be in which rooms together so they could cut down on any potential problems. Each of the teachers and chaperones were assigned two rooms to be in charge of, making sure they knew the rules and the expectations for the night.

Jim knocked on his first door. It opened and gratefully, he saw it was four boys who he knew to be straight-laced. No problems here. He gave them the run-down, then closed the door. He pulled out a piece of tape and put it on the crease of the door. This was their solution to avoid any sneaking around among the students after curfew. Any tape broken in the morning meant those students would be confined to their room the rest of the trip with Mr. Schrute as their chaperone. None of the students wanted that and Jim didn’t blame them.

He went to the next room. This one was filled with two kids on the basketball team and two other boys he had together in his AP Language class. They were good kids, but they reminded him of himself as a teenager. Clowns, sure, but hopefully they wouldn’t pose too much of an issue for him.

“You going to tell us a bedtime story, Coach?” one of them joked.

“Uh, here’s one. Once upon a time, don’t try to pull anything stupid tonight because we’ll know about it and you’ll have to spend two whole days with your German teacher while the rest of us do cool things...the end.”

The boys rolled their eyes but smiled. “Fine.”

Jim pointed to the TV screen. “And you better be rooting for the Sixers or I’m docking your grade.”

One of them clutched his chest in mock pain. “Halpert, you wound me. Who else would we root for?”

“Dang straight. Now keep the noise at a reasonable level, stay in your rooms, and wait until we knock on your door in the morning before you come out. Deal?”

The boys mumbled in agreement. Jim waved at them and taped their door as well. He felt his phone buzz in his pocket.

My rooms are all locked up. Want to join me for some hot cocoa in the lobby? :)

He smiled to himself and replied.

Absolutely I do.

He exited the elevator on the ground floor and saw Pam sitting in a chair by the fireplace in the hotel lobby, legs crossed with her book laying on top of them. He stuck his hands in his pockets and walked over to her.

“This seat taken?” he asked, motioning to the chair next to her.

She raised a finger to him without looking up from her book. “Shh…”

He frowned. “Oh, are you at the part where…”

“Shh!!”

He put his hands up and sat down, resting his chin on his fist, staring at her intently.

A few minutes passed as he watched her face her go though a myriad of facial expressions while she read. She looked up at him.

“What?! THAT’S how it ends?!”

He laughed. “Yup.”

“Why would you make me read that?! It’s so sad!”

“But you loved it.”

She scrunched her eyebrows. “I really did.”

Again he laughed and felt the extreme pull to have her next him, feel her touch. “What do you say we take a brisk winter walk and talk about it. Do you have your coat?”

She patted it next to her and her knitted eyebrows relaxed as she smiled at him. They grabbed two cups of complimentary hot cocoa and walked through the doors of the hotel.

Once outside, he pulled her off to the side of the entrance and put his lips to hers. She smelled like lavender and tasted like chocolate and his shoulders relaxed as they melted into each other, careful not to spill their hot cocoa. He pulled away and smiled, losing himself in those green eyes. She beamed back at him and took him by the hand.

It was cold, but not cold enough to deter them from taking the 20 minute walk from their hotel to the Washington Monument. Jim hadn’t really planned to end up there, but as it came into view, lit up in the winter night sky, they decided to stop there.

Sitting down on the nearby bench, Pam nestled herself under Jim’s arm, resting her head on his shoulders. He turned and kissed the top of her head as they both looked silently at the glowing obelisk towering beside them. Suddenly, feeling the familiar swelling in his chest, he couldn’t help it any longer.

“I love you, Pam,” he whispered against her hair.

She sat up and looked at him, grinning. She pressed her lips firmly against his and ran her fingers through his hair. Her lips and her nose were cold against his face and his head swam with intense adoration and love for her. Finally she pulled back and put her head on his, their breath visible in the winter air between them.

“I love you, too. So much.”

He couldn’t tame the smile spreading on his face and he didn’t want to. He kissed her again. And again. And again, until she admitted she couldn’t feel her toes anymore and they walked back to the hotel together, grins still ever-present.

They got back to the hotel and Jim walked Pam back to her room. Luckily, they had opted to let all the teachers and chaperones have rooms to themselves instead of sharing. Jim was grateful because once he had to share a hotel room on a field trip with Dwight and he was still trying to block it from his memory.

They turned toward the hallway where her room was, but Pam suddenly pulled him back around the corner, covering his mouth with her hand. She poked her head around the corner and then looked back at Jim, eyes wide.

“Michael,” she whispered, “is going into Jan’s room!!”

Jim’s eyes widened equally as wide and he grabbed Pam’s wrist to uncover his mouth.

“What?!” He peered around the corner himself just in time to see Michael go inside a hotel room and shut the door behind him. Jim looked back to Pam.

“How do we know that’s Jan’s room?”

Pam was still whispering. “I had to grab my roll of tape from her before checking on the kids tonight. That is 100% Jan’s room.”

“Wow,” Jim marveled. He shrugged. “Administrator meeting?”

Pam looked at him flatly. “At 11:30 at night?”

“True. Holy crap, we were right! I was mostly joking when I said I thought they were sleeping together but...I gotta call Darryl.”

Pam’s brow furrowed slightly. “Maybe we shouldn’t. I know it’s Michael and he’s...well, Michael. But…what if it was us who was caught sneaking around, like, you know...we’re doing right now?”

Jim thought about it for a second. “You’re right. I guess.” He pointed a finger at her. “But I can’t keep it to myself forever.”

“Fair enough,” she smiled and kissed him.

They walked to her room, and Jim sarcastically plugged his ears as they passed Jan’s room.

“Just in case,” he whispered.

They stood outside room 304, where Pam was staying and he pulled her closer by her waist. He kissed her gently.

“I love you,” he whispered against her lips.

“I love you too,” she smiled back. “I would invite you in, but I’m so exhausted. They don’t tell you how draining extended field trips are in school. Rain check?” she said apologetically.

He kissed her again lightly. “Rain check. Get some rest, Ms. Beesly. Long day tomorrow.”

She hugged him and entered her room. Jim took the stairs to the next floor up where his room was. He closed his hotel room door and put his back up against it, grinning like an idiot.

Not a bad day.

Day two of the field trip went pretty seamlessly. They let the students decide which of the Smithsonian museums they wanted to see most and then split them into groups. Jim, Michael, and Dwight had a group of about 25 students who were interested in seeing the Air and Space museum. Oscar and Jan took their group to the Museum of Natural History, while Pam and Angela took a group to the National Portrait Gallery.

Besides not seeing Pam for much of the day, needing to babysit Michael, and just having to physically be around Dwight, it was a pretty fun day. He had always had an interest in space and even thought he wanted to be an astronaut for a while until he learned how much math they had to know. So the museum was interesting and very enjoyable for him.

Evening came and the group met back for dinner at the hotel, since the school had offered to cater one meal in the hotel ballroom. Pam found Jim and apologetically explained that she had promised some girls from her museum group that she would eat with them, so she wouldn’t be sitting with him for dinner. He understood, happy once again that she seemed to have made an impression on some of the students.

Later that night, after having ensured his students were in their rooms for the night, Jim heard a tiny knock on his door. He had informed Pam he needed to fill her in on his latest prank and to stop by when she was done with her students rooms.

“Darn, I thought you were room service,” he said jokingly as he opened the door.

She rolled her eyes playfully, checked both sides of the hallway, and stepped inside his room. She held up a pink box. “Better than room service.”

“Those better be—” he lifted up the lid. “They are! Georgetown Cupcakes. Oh, if I didn’t already love you.” He liked being able to use that word and use it so casually, as if he’d been saying it for years. “History is cool and all, but these are always the best part of D.C. trips, if you ask me,” he said, half of a red velvet cupcake already in his mouth.

She was grinning. “I convinced our bus driver to go grab some for me while we were all at the museums. I just had to promise her I would sketch a picture of her yorkie.”

Jim shoved the rest of the cupcake in his mouth. “Seems fair,” he mumbled through the frosting and cake in his mouth.

Smiling, she rubbed a spot of frosting off his cheek with her finger and licked it off. She set the box down on the desk next to them and wrapped her arms around his neck. “I missed you today, Halpert.”

He swallowed the remains of his cupcake and kissed her. “I missed you too. How was your day?”

He listened as she told him about the visit to the portrait gallery and how she could have spent four more hours there and how she bonded with a group of three girls that were with her.

“They’re pretty fond of you, Mr. Halpert,” she said slyly.

He raised his eyebrows and put his finger to his chest as if to say, Who, me?

“Oh yes,” she continued, pushing him backwards until the back of his knees hit the bed and he sat down. “They think you’re ‘soooooo cute’ and ‘soooo funny’ and your hair is ‘soooooo perfect’...”

She straddled him, her knees touching the bed on either side of him. She ran a hand through one side of his hair. “And ‘oh my GOSH’,” she exclaimed, mimicking a teenage girl, “‘when he wears that argyle sweater!’”

He felt his mind going hazy as he ran his hands up her thighs, finding her hips. “It’s a good sweater,” he said against her collar bone, kissing it softly as his hands snaked around her waist. “And it was on sale.”

She let out a low chuckle. “You really know how to talk dirty to me, Halpert.”

He brought his lips up to that spot under her ear. “50 percent off, baby,” he whispered against her skin, then kissed her. She let out a small, contented hum, and brought her lips to his as she pushed him to lay down on the bed. They scooted up toward the pillows, lips never parting, and he ran both his hands up the back of her shirt, feeling her warm skin against his hands, silently thanking Jan for insisting they all have private rooms this trip.

Pam sat up and crossed her arms in front of her, grabbed the hem of her shirt, and pulled it over her head. Jim looked up at her, convinced he would never tire of the sight in front of him. He quickly flipped her over onto her back and trailed his way down her jaw and neck with his lips as she sighed with contentment each time his lips met her skin. Then he propped himself up on his elbows and hovered inches from her face, looking into her eyes.

“I’m so in love with you,” he breathed softly. “You are absolutely perfect.”

Her lips crashed into his fiercely. From there it became a race as to who could remove articles of clothing the fastest. Hands and lips explored, as they desperately tried to prove their love, eventually reaching a synchronous high, names escaping each other’s lips with gasping breaths.

Jim sunk into the pillow next to her, his legs and limbs weak but still intertwined with hers and he kissed her forehead and threaded his fingers through hers.

She sighed happily and planted a kiss on his bare chest. “Is it weird to thank someone for sex?” Pam hummed against him. “Because I definitely feel like I should thank you for that.”

He let out a chuckle and stroked her curls with his fingers. “I think I should be thanking you.”

She smiled and hugged him closer to her. Within a matter of minutes, they both fell asleep comfortably in each other’s arms.

*******

They startled awake at the sound of knocking on Jim’s hotel room door. Jim rubbed his eyes and looked at the clock to see it was 8:00 in the morning, thirty minutes before they were supposed to go get the students from their rooms.

“Jim!” Michael called from the hallway. “I need your help!”

Jim and Pam looked at each other, eyes wide. He grabbed his t-shirt from beside the bed, handed it to Pam and pointed to the closet. Understanding, she threw it over her head, kicked her clothes from last night under the bed, and shut herself in the closet quietly.

“Just a minute!” Jim called back, trying to hide the nervousness in his tone.

He slipped on his pants, rifled for another shirt in his duffel bag, and pulled it over his head. He cracked the door just enough to see out into the hallway.

“What’s up, Michael?”

Michael held up two t-shirts, each displaying “Washington D.C.” on the front in big, colorful letters.

“Which one of these says, ‘I know you said it was just a casual thing that we shouldn’t ever talk about, but I still might be in love with you?’”

Jim fought extremely hard to suppress a smirk. He cleared his throat and pointed to the one on the left. “That one. Definitely that one.”

“I knew it,” Michael said confidently. “Dwight’s an idiot.”

Jim nodded. “Can’t argue with you there. Need anything else?”

“Nope! Thanks Jimbo!” Michael called from the hallway as he walked away. “See you in thirty minutes!”

Jim shut the door and let out a giant sigh of relief as Pam stepped out of the closet.

“Jim, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to fall asleep and spend the whole night in your room! I was going to go back to mine. That could have been—“

Jim stopped her by pressing his lips against hers.

“What was that for?” she asked with a smile as she pulled away.

“Nothing,” he said, brushing a loose curl from her face. “You just look really hot in nothing but my t-shirt,” he smirked. “But you should probably hurry back to your room. We have work to do today.”

She agreed and quickly got dressed. Before she opened the door, she turned and faced Jim.

“Wait. Did Michael just ask you for advice on what souvenir to buy Jan who is on the trip with him?”

“Precisely,” Jim nodded.

She shook her head slightly. “Incredible,” she whispered, then inconspicuously slid out into the hallway and back down to her room.


*******

“It’s done,” Pam whispered in Jim’s ear as the group stopped outside the White House. She had faked a fall while walking behind Dwight and successfully grabbed his cell phone off his belt when she ran into him. Once he had continued walking, she pulled it out, changed his contact list, then returned it to him, claiming it must have fallen out when she tripped over him.

Now it was Jim’s turn. He needed to make his presence known so Dwight would suspect him less.

“Hey, Dwight.” Jim squinted in the sun toward the White House. “I’m thinking of starting a band, but only using air instruments. I’m looking for someone who does primarily air guitar, maybe some air bass guitar...are you interested?”

Dwight scoffed at him, refusing to answer Jim’s question.

“I’ll take that as a maybe,” Jim said, patting Dwight on the shoulder. “Thanks, buddy.” Then he slipped away out of ear shot and dialed Dwight’s number.

Jim grinned as he saw Dwight’s brow furrow when he read “CLASSIFIED NUMBER” pop up on his cell phone screen.

“Hello?” Dwight said tentatively.

Jim disguised his voice. “Is this Dwight Kurt Schrute?”

“Yes, who is this?”

“This is the secret service. We have word that you are approaching the premises.”

Dwight spun in a slow circle, looking around cautiously.

“How do you have my number?”

“We’re the secret service, sir. We know everything.” Jim covered his mouth to stifle a laugh. “Listen, sir. We have it on good authority that you may pose a threat to the President.”

Dwight brought his fingers to his forehead. “Is this about the homemade bazooka? Because my cousin Mose—“

“No,” Jim interrupted. “I can’t disclose the information we have, but I need you to do one thing for me.”

“Okay…”

“I need you to lift up your shirt to show us you aren’t wearing a wire.”

Dwight looked around again and lifted his shirt up halfway before pulling it down.

“Higher, sir.”

Dwight lifted the shirt up to his chin.

Jim didn’t know how much longer he could keep going before giving himself away. “Okay, now turn around. Twice.”

Dwight spun in two circles as groups of students and passers by looked at him quizzically, laughing under their hands.

“Thank you, sir. You’re cleared. Have a nice day.”

Dwight closed his phone, tucked his shirt back in, and glanced each direction as if nothing was out of the ordinary. Jim walked back over to the group and stood next to Pam, whose face was red from suppressing laughter.

“You’re really good at this, Halpert,” she muttered under her breath, looking straight ahead.

He looked over at her and flashed her one of his famous smirks and shrugged.

“It’s a gift.”

One more hour. One more hour and then school would be out and winter break would begin. One more hour and he and Pam would have two entire weeks to be together without sneaking around or holding anything back.

To say he was excited was an understatement, but he also felt a twinge of nervousness. For the past five years, his family had spent three days over Christmas at their family cabin in the Poconos. This year, he desperately wanted to invite Pam but he wasn’t sure how or when to do that and if she would be against spending three days with his family. Even though the Halperts lived just outside of Scranton, Pam still hadn’t met them. Most of Jim and Pam’s time away from school was spent making up for the time they couldn’t be together during the week and if he was being selfishly honest, he wasn’t quite ready to share Pam with anyone else yet, even his family.

But his mom and sister had been pestering him ever since he told them both about Pam, and they were dying to meet her. He was certain they would love her, because how could they not? He just wanted to make sure the timing was right.

The bell rang and his final class of the day practically sprinted out of his classroom to start their winter break. He rushed himself to clean and pack up his things to leave, the idea of spending days on end uninterrupted with Pam as his propelling force. Sometime during his last class period he had made the definitive decision to ask Pam that night if she would like to spend Christmas with his family.

He put his coat on and slung his bag over his head and onto his shoulder, then walked across the hall to the art room. Pam had her back turned to him as she washed paint brushes at the sink. He leaned his head against the doorframe and took a moment to simply watch her. It amazed him how much he loved her. How something as simple as her mannerisms and movements sent a warmth through him.

“I’m heading out, Beesly,” he said, trying not to startle her.

She jumped anyway. It was something he found so endearing, how she always got so lost in her own thoughts that she became such an easy scare. He chuckled as she picked up the paintbrushes she just dropped in the sink.

“Okay. I’ll, uh, see you later?’ she asked him with a smile.

“Definitely. Have a good break,” he said with an extremely overexaggerated wink that was met with a smile and an eye roll.

But he really did hope it would be a good break.


******

Around 5:30 that night, Jim heard a knock on his door, followed by the familiar creak of the hinges opening. He loved that she felt comfortable enough to just walk into his apartment instead of waiting for him to answer it. He met her in the entryway and gave her a tight hug and soft kiss. She had a brown paper bag in her hand.

“What’s that?” he asked, pointing to it.

She held it close to her chest and raised her eyebrows. “You’ll find out later.”

“Rude.”

“You won’t be saying that once you know what it is,” she called over her shoulder as she walked past him into the living room.

He joined her on the couch and she shimmied her way under his arm to rest her head on his shoulder. “Where’s Mark?” she asked.

Mark was Jim’s roommate that he had gone to college with. They were in the same teaching program and ended up getting hired in the same school district after graduation. Mark taught history at the Jr. High near their apartment, so it worked perfectly to room together and split the rent.

“Oh, he already went home to Chicago for the break. Left like an hour ago.”

She turned her face up and buried it in his neck. “Oh, did he, now?” she murmured against the stubble on lower jaw, throwing her leg over his lap. He laughed and kissed her forehead.

“There’s plenty of time for that later, Beesly. I actually wanted to ask you something, though.”

Pam sat up, and crossed her legs up underneath her on the couch. She pushed her hair behind her ears and looked at him. “Yeah?”

“So...my family has a cabin in the Poconos. For the past few years we have spent a few days over Christmas there…”

“Please tell me you want me to come,” she interjected.

He laughed, taken aback. “Well, I mean, if you want--”

“I want to,” she grinned.

Still a little shocked, he smiled. “Okay, then. We usually head up on the 23rd. Does that work?”

She kissed him. “Sounds perfect. My parents are actually going to Europe over Christmas and Penny is spending the holiday with her fiance’s family. I was going to ask you tonight if you would keep me company this year, and the Poconos sound much better than my condo.”

He couldn’t stop smiling. That was a much simpler conversation than he had planned, but now that he knew she was coming to the cabin, he wondered why he ever thought she wouldn’t. She fit so perfectly in every other aspect of his life, so why would this be any different?

They ordered Chinese and turned on It’s a Wonderful Life. Pam mindlessly stole the cashews from his meal, as usual, and he took her broccoli. They finished eating and both kicked their feet up onto the coffee table as Pam rested her head on his chest in familiar fashion. Jim glanced out the living room window to see that the snow they were expecting this weekend had gently begun to fall and he smiled, rubbing small circles on Pam’s shoulder. Simply put, it felt magical. Christmas had always been his favorite time, but this year was sure to be the best one yet.

The movie ended and Jim began cleaning up the takeout boxes and dishes from the coffee table. As he placed their wine glasses in the sink, he felt Pam’s arms tightly wrap around him from behind. He twisted around and placed his hands on either side of her face, stroking her cheek with his thumb.

“Thank you,” she whispered.

“For what?”

She closed her eyes and let out a contented sigh. “For making me so happy.”

He leaned down and grazed his lips against hers. “My pleasure,” he whispered against them with a smile before kissing her gently. She briefly sank into the kiss, but then pushed against his chest and looked up at him.

“I want to show you what’s in the bag I brought but you need to wait five minutes before you come upstairs.”

He pouted. “Fine, I’ll try.”

She scurried off to the entryway, grabbed the bag, and ran up to Jim’s bedroom. Four minutes later (he tried his best) he cracked the door and his mouth dropped open.

On his bed was Pam, dressed in nothing but his argyle sweater. It fell just above her upper thighs and the v-neck dipped halfway down her chest. She eyed him seductively.

“I may have stolen something out of your closet.”

Words, his specialty, were failing him. He couldn't seem to muster anything coherent.

He walked over to the bed and silently crawled over top of her as she laid back against his pillows, her curls perfectly spreading across them.

Searching her eyes, then glancing down, he smiled. “This looks much better on you,” he said, his voice low and husky.

She ran one of her legs up his thigh and wrapped it around him. “This isn’t what was in the bag,” she whispered against his ear. She grabbed his hand and ran it under the sweater until his fingers felt something lacy and a groan escaped from deep in his throat.

“You know,” he breathed, “I have a feeling this would actually look much better off of you.” He ran his other hand underneath the wool fabric.

The sweater hit his bedroom floor.

He was right.

**********

The moonlight peeked through the curtains, glowing softly off the snow outside. Jim stirred as he felt Pam’s arms wrap around his middle and she pressed her lips between his shoulder blades. He rolled over and put his hand on her waist and his forehead against hers, barely able to open his sleepy eyes.

“Hey,” he muttered drowsily. “What are you thinking about?”

She stroked his hair. “I want to tell people about us.”

He opened his eyes wider and searched hers for a second before responding.

“Okay.”

“Okay?”

He rubbed his eyes quickly and nodded. “Yeah. We can tell Jan when we get back from break. And then we can tell Kelly Kapoor to ensure everyone finds out the same day,” he smirked.

She chuckled and then her face turned serious again.

“Are you sure?”

He ran his finger along her furrowed brow and kissed her softly. “I am the luckiest person to have you and it’s about time I shouted that from the proverbial rooftops.”

Her face lit up and she pulled him closer. “Just the proverbial ones?”

He shrugged. “Well, it just snowed. Probably kind of slippery up there.”

She let out a small laugh and brought her lips to his again. “Okay, I’ll settle for proverbial.” She stroked his cheek with her hand. “I love you, James Halpert.”

“I love you too.” He dropped his brow in mock confusion. “Wait, what was your name again? P...Patrica? Penelope? I have to know so I can shout it from the rooftops.”

She playfully smacked him and captured his smiling lips with hers and they settled back into each other.

“You know I’m never going to be able to wear that sweater to school anymore, right?” he said, running his fingers through her hair. “Not with the mental picture of you in it.”

She kissed his chest. “Worth it,” she hummed.

“Definitely worth it.”

She squeezed his hand across the center console as he drove to the cabin.

“Okay, just so you remember,” he said. “My brothers are morons. Their wives are great, but Pete and Tom are idiots.”

Pam chuckled.

“What?” Jim demanded. “They are! One time they froze every single pair of my underwear in the freezer overnight.”

“Aww,” she frowned. “Poor tiny Jim.”

He raised his eyebrows indignantly. “Pam, I was 15! Tom was in freaking college.”

Now she was really laughing. He pulled his hand away, repressing a smile. Her laughter, especially when she tried to talk through it and her voice shot up an octave, was in his top fave very favorite things about her. She scrambled to try and grab it back.

“No, you don’t deserve this hand,” he joked. She exaggerated a pout which made him give in and immediately extend it back out to her. “You’re lucky you’re cute, you know.”

She grinned. “I know.”

“Okay,” he continued. “And then there’s Larissa. I think you two will get along great. Then my parents. My mom is the sweetest person on the planet, but she also raised three boys so she doesn’t take crap from anyone and can crack the whip if she needs to. My dad is super laid back as long as you don’t mention the Cowboys.”

“You mean like, John Wayne?”

“No, the football te--” he started, but caught her eye and realized she was messing with him. She ran her hand up his forearm.

“Relax, Jim. I’m excited to meet them. I think you’re probably more nervous than I am!”

Truthfully, he was nervous. Not nervous that they wouldn’t like her, because that seemed impossible. But he had never brought a girl home. Ever. He just wanted her to be comfortable and for everyone to get along the way he expected them to. He kissed the back of her hand. “No, it will be great.”

They pulled up to the cabin and a smile came to Jim’s face as he looked up at it through the windshield. His grandpa built it 50 years ago and Jim had a million and a half memories from inside the walls. It wasn’t like one of the newer cabins that had been popping up around it in recent years--the ones that had theater rooms, and sport courts, and commercial-sized kitchens. No, it was rustic, and worn, and lived-in, and it was Jim’s favorite place on earth.

Jim walked around the car to open Pam’s door, hearing the snow crunch under his feet and echo through towering pine trees surrounding them.

“This place is amazing,” Pam marveled as she exited the car. “You said your grandpa built it?”

Jim nodded and grabbed their bags from the trunk. “You ready?” he asked.

She grabbed her bag from him and replaced it with her hand. “Definitely.”

“Good, because my mom is going to come running out the door in three...two…one…”

“Hey, you two!!” Betsy Halpert called from the porch.

Jim grinned at Pam. They walked up to greet Betsy, who instantly wrapped Pam in her arms.

“It’s so great to finally meet you, Pam!” Betsy gushed, then moved to hug Jim. “Come inside, I have lunch ready.”

They made their way into the kitchen, where Betsy had prepared a lunch much bigger than anyone could probably eat, but that was pretty common. Raising three boys had made her habitually make much more food than one would think necessary.

“Jim! Hey!”

A woman with golden hair stood up from the barstool and gave Jim a hug. She pulled back and Jim gestured toward Pam.

“Marcie, this is Pam. Pam, this is Marcie, Tom’s wife and very much his better half.”

They all exchanged pleasantries and made their way into the main room, where Jim’s brothers and his dad were watching a football game. Jim’s dad saw them enter the room, muted the tv, and stood to greet them.

“Dad! C’mon!” Pete whined.

Gerald lightly smacked Pete on the back of his head, then smiled a big Halpert smile at the two of them. He took Jim into a hug and patted his back solidly a few times. “Hey, son.”

“Hey, Pops. This is Pam.”

Gerald grinned and took Pam’s hand in his. “So glad you could join us for Christmas! Jim has told us so much about you and we are looking forward to getting to know you better. Want to join us for the game?”

“Dad--”

Pam interrupted him. “I’d love to! Jim’s been a good teacher when it comes to football and I think I’m actually starting to like it,” she smiled up at Jim.

“Okay, then,” Jim said, shrugging. “Pete, Tom, this is Pam.”

Pete stuck his hand out to shake Pam’s. “I can already tell you’re too good for this punk here. Welcome to the cabin!” he smiled.

Jim rolled his eyes and followed Pam onto the couch next to Tom, who also shook Pam’s hand before turning back toward the TV that Gerald had just unmuted.

“Where’s ‘Ris?” Jim asked his dad.

“She said she’d be here by dinnertime. Had a delay on her flight into Scranton.”

Truthfully, Jim liked his brothers, even with their jokes and insults, but he was really looking forward to seeing his sister. She had been away at school and he hadn’t seen her since August. The two of them had always been extremely close and made a great team against their older brothers. He trusted her more than anyone else in his life and he desperately wanted her to meet Pam.

Just as they sat down on the couch, a little blonde blur came hurling toward them.

“Jimmy!!”

“Hey, Bug!!” Jim leaned over and picked up the 3-year-old girl. He wrapped his long arms all the way around her and squeezed her tight. “Vanessa, this is my friend, Pam. Can you say hi?”

Vanessa plugged her mouth with her right thumb and waved meekly at Pam with the other hand.

“Pam, this is my niece Vanessa. We’re best friends, right, Bug?”

She grinned over her thumb and nodded excitedly.

“It’s so nice to meet you, Vanessa!” Pam said, waving. “You have a pretty cool uncle, huh?” She met Jim’s eyes and smiled.

The little girl nodded again and nestled down comfortably in Jim’s lap. Jim threw his arm around Pam’s shoulder and they all watched the game together as Vanessa twirled her hair and sucked her thumb contentedly.

The football game ended and Jim finally took their bags up to their room.

“Are we...staying in the same room, then?” Pam questioned hesitantly.

Jim sat on the bed. “Believe it or not, my mom suggested it. Something about the extra bedroom being ‘drafty’,” he said with air quotes.

“I like her,” Pam smirked as she took a seat next to Jim.

Jim wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed her, her hands running through his hair as the kiss deepened.

“Get a room, big brother.”

They broke apart quickly and Jim looked to the doorway to see Larissa smirking back at him, arms folded against her chest as she leaned against the doorframe.

“Hey, Smalls!” Jim stood up quickly and wrapped his baby sister in a tight hug. “Oh man, it’s good to see you!” He turned around quickly and gestured for Pam to come join him. “‘Ris, this is Pam.”

Larissa basically lunged toward Pam and hugged her almost as tightly as she had Jim.

“Hi!” Pam said. She gestured back toward the bed. “Sorry you had to see--”

Larissa waved the rest of Pam’s thought away with her hand. “Don’t be sorry! I wouldn’t be doing my job as ‘Little Sister’ if I didn’t give this guy a hard time.” She jabbed Jim in the chest with her pointer finger.

Just then, Betsy called them down for dinner.

“I’m just going to use the bathroom really quickly and I’ll be down,” Pam said.

Jim threw his arm around Larissa’s shoulder as they headed down the stairs and hugged her closer to his side.

“She’s cute,” Larissa whispered.

“And don’t I know it,” Jim replied happily.

Dinner was filled with laughter and stories of childhood and Vanessa making silly faces at everyone the whole time. Larissa filled everyone in on her semester in Michigan and the Halpert men got in a heated debate about NFL quarterbacks. Jim was pleasantly surprised with how seamlessly Pam fit in with his family. She even threw sarcasm right back at his brothers whenever they dished it out, which Jim knew would make them both like her even more.

After dinner, Jim and Pam offered to help Betsy clean up dinner.

“Pam, he better keep you around. I don’t think he’s ever willingly offered to do the dishes for me,” Betsy winked.

Pam chuckled and headed into the kitchen. Betsy grabbed Jim’s arm before he followed behind. “But really, son,” she said under her breath. “She’s a keeper.” She squeezed his arm. “Don’t screw it up.”

Jim joined Pam at the sink and playfully bumped her with his hip. She responded by dipping her hand into the sink and flicking the bubbles in his face. Jim scoffed, but still leaned in to kiss her, stealthily dropping his own hand into the bubbles. Before their lips touched he smiled and spread a line of suds all the way down her cheek. Pam squealed at the betrayal and picked up the bottle of soap and pointed it straight at him. Jim’s hand shot up.

“Truce!!” he said through his laughter.

She put the bottle down, raised her own hands, and kissed him, laughter still fresh on her lips.

The dishes took twice as long to get done as they should have, but in that time, Jim resolved to make his mother happy and never let Pam get away.

********

“Merry Christmas Eve, sleepy head,” Pam whispered in Jim’s ear as he stirred in bed the next morning. The family had stayed up until nearly 1:00 in the morning talking last night and Jim had Pam had fallen asleep nearly the instant their heads hit their pillows.

“Mmm,” he mumbled as he turned over and wrapped her in his arms. He hoped the excitement of waking up next to her never went away.

She kissed him quickly and rolled out of bed. Grabbing her duffel bag, she rifled around until she found what she was looking for, and put it on.

“So,” she said, turning around. “You should know I really like Christmas.”

Jim’s eyes widened as he took in the sight in front of him. Pam was wearing a green and red sweater that had tiny little cats with Santa hats all over it. He snickered and pulled her back to the bed. “You have another one for tomorrow, don’t you?” he laughed in her ear.

“Of course I do!”



They both finished getting dressed and went downstairs. Larissa was sitting at the kitchen table, wearing an equally outrageous Christmas sweater. She looked up as they came in the room and Larissa’s eyes lit up with excitement.

“I knew I liked you!” she said to Pam as she stood up to compare their sweaters.

The rest of the day was filled with wrapping presents, making cookies, sledding on the little hill by the cabin, drinking enough hot cocoa to fill a small swimming pool, and countless board games. Vanessa had really taken a liking to Pam and hadn’t left her side since lunchtime. At dinner, she requested to sit by Pam and later Jim watched as Vanessa carefully snuck half of her snowman sugar cookie onto Pam’s plate as they all sat by the fire that night.

“Alright, sugar bear,” Marcie said, picking Vanessa up off the couch. “You need to go to bed, or Santa won’t come!”

Vanessa let out a cute little gasp and turned to Pam, wide-eyed. She threw her little arms around Pam’s neck and planted a slobbery kiss on her cheek.

“I gotta go night-night, Pam! Santa gonna come!”

“Better hurry, then!” Pam warned playfully. “Tell uncle Jim goodnight!”

Vanessa snuggled her face into Jim’s chest. “Night-night, Unca Jimmy!”

Jim kissed the top of her head and gave her a quick tickle. “Goodnight, Bug!”

Vanessa scrambled out of Jim’s lap and took the stairs as fast as her little legs could carry her, the promise of Santa at her heels.

Betsy yawned. “I’m probably going to go to bed too. We all know that little girl will be waking us all up at the crack of dawn tomorrow,” she smiled. She kissed Gerald on the cheek and went upstairs herself. One by one, each of Jim’s siblings retired for the night until it was just Jim, Pam, and Gerald sitting by the glow of the Christmas tree.

“Jim,” Gerald said. “Could you go out to the shed and grab a couple more logs for the fire?”

Jim agreed and started out the door before he realized he forgot the key to the shed and turned back to ask his dad where it was. But as he approached the living room, he heard his dad talking to Pam. He slowly approached the door to listen in.

“I’m really so happy you could spend Christmas with us, Pam.”

He could hear the smile in Pam’s voice. “Me too. You have such a wonderful family.”

“Thank you. They definitely have made us very proud. But I’m going to let you in on a little secret.” He lowered his voice a bit. “Jim’s my favorite.”

“Gerald!” Pam laughed. “You can’t say that.”

“I just did! Mean, of course I love them all, very much, but Jim is...well, he’s special. He’s always been the easiest to love—you’ll understand what I mean when you’re blessed with your own kids. Sometimes it takes everything in you to love the little gremlins,” he chuckled. “Jim’s heart is just so big and boy, does he love with all of it.”

“He really does,” he heard Pam say fondly.

“I guess I just want you to know that you don’t have to worry about him. He’s fiercely loyal. When he wants something, he puts his whole heart and soul into it. And from the way he looks at you, I know he’s all in,” Gerald smiled. ”And I think you’re a wonderful fit for him, Pam. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him this happy.”

A lump started forming in Jim’s throat so he cleared it and walked into the room.

“Hey, uh, I just realized I don’t have the key, Pops.” Jim turned and flashed a quick wink at Pam, wondering if his glossy eyes could be seen by the glow of the tree lights.

He retrieved the key from his dad, got the firewood from the shed, and came back into the cabin, dusting the freshly fallen snowflakes off his shoulders. When he went back into the living room it was just Pam sitting by the fire, her golden hair shining by the light of the fire and the tree. She looked so content, a small smile resting on her cheeks as she played with a loose curl by her shoulder.

“My dad go to bed?” Jim asked and Pam turned to look at him.

“Yeah, he said you could just leave the wood by the fireplace and we’ll use it in the morning.”

Jim did that and then took a seat next to Pam. She rested her head on his shoulder and sighed happily. “I love your family,” she said.

“They’re alright,” he joked, rubbing circles on her knee with his finger. “They seem to love you. Especially Vanessa,” he chuckled.

“I think I love her the most,” Pam smiled. She turned her attention to the piano in the corner and pointed to it. “Who plays?”

Jim scratched the back of his head. “Uh...that would be me.”

She shot up straight in her seat and looked at him. “JAMES HALPERT.”

He chuckled. “What?”

“We have been dating for what, four months, and you never told me you play the piano?!”

“Has it only been four months? Feels like longer.” He tried to bring his lips to her ear but she pulled back.

“Don’t deflect, Halpert,” she glared. She stood up and pulled him off the couch and toward the piano, pushing him down onto the bench. She sat down next to him and gestured toward the keys. “Play, Maestro.”

Jim started plunking out Twinkle Twinkle Little Star with one finger with a smirk.

“Oh, c’mon.”

He let out a small laugh and rolled up his sleeves to his elbow. “Fine. I have one.” He delicately placed his fingers on the piano keys and began playing a melody. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Pam smile.

“Ben Folds,” she whispered.

Jim knew his singing voice wasn’t great, but he did his best to sing her the lyrics as he played.

I don’t get many things right the first time,
In fact, I am told that a lot.

Pam wrapped her arms around his waist and rested her head on his shoulder while he sang softly.

Now I know all the wrong turns
And stumbles and falls brought me here.

And where was I before the day,
That I first saw your lovely face,
Now I see it every day.

He looked at Pam and smiled as he continued.

And I know,
That I am,
I am,
I am,

The luckiest.

He played and sung and as he neared the end of the song, he heard Pam give a small sniffle and looked over to see a tear roll down her face. Suddenly, he felt his own throat tighten which made it harder to sing, but he did his best to finish the song.

When he was done, he lifted his fingers off the keys as Pam wiped her cheeks with her sleeve and looked at him with a chuckle and a sniff. He cupped her face with his hand and rested his head on her forehead, feeling like he might burst from how fully she filled him to the brim with happiness.

“I love you,” they said in unison, grinning ear to ear.

Their bedroom was directly next to Larissa’s and Jim knew the walls were thin, but he did his best to quietly let Pam just how much he loved her as they returned to her room that night.

Afterward, he hugged her tight. “Merry Christmas,” he hummed against her bare shoulder as he laid pressed against her back, stroking her upper arm with his fingertips. “I really am the luckiest, you know.”

She turned around to face him. “Jim,” she whispered.

“Hmm…”

She searched his eyes and lifted a corner of her mouth into a slight smile. “I want you to know I’m all in. Your dad told me he can tell you’re all in too, and I need you to know that I don’t want anything or anyone else but you and I never want you to doubt it. I know it’s cliche to say or whatever, but I’ve never felt this way about anyone before. You’re kind of ‘it’ for me.”

He kissed her softly. “I love you.”

“I love you too,” she whispered.

Jim scrunched his eyebrows together. “I’m also a little worried Santa isn’t going to come tonight, because I’m pretty sure what we just did was very naughty.”

She rolled on top of him with a laugh. “Well, if he’s already skipping over us, might as well make it worth it.”

And as quietly as possible, Pam gave Jim a little extra Christmas cheer.


***********


“Unca Jimmy!! It’s CHRISTMAS!”

Vanessa hurled her little body onto the bed and straight onto Jim’s stomach.

“Ooof, Bug,” Jim groaned with a laugh, grateful both he and Pam had the right minds to get dressed after their night together. Vanessa scrambled over to Pam’s side of the bed and threw her arms around her.

“Pam! Santa comed!”

Pam glanced over to Jim with a smirk. “Close call,” she whispered, hugging Vanessa. “I thought for sure we scared him away.”

The family went downstairs and gathered around the Christmas tree to begin exchanging gifts. Larissa opened her present from Jim, which was a new sleeve for her laptop.

“Thanks, Jimbo! I love it. I also would have loved if it was noise cancelling headphones after last night,” she said under her breath with a smirk.

Pam’s face went bright red and Jim looked to the floor rubbing the back of his head. “Sorry, Smalls,” he said bashfully, but Larissa broke into laughter and assured them it was no big deal. Her dorm room at school had thin walls too, so she was used to it.

After most of the presents were opened and people were distracted by their new stuff, Jim and Pam finally exchanged their gifts. Jim stepped over Vanessa who was making snow angels in the wrapping paper on the floor while clutching the stuffed koala Jim gave her, and he grabbed a gift from under the tree. He handed it to Pam, who carefully unwrapped it.

“Jim!” she exclaimed. It was a set of watercolors that Pam had only told him about one time, two months ago. She had told him she wanted it but couldn’t justify buying them when the ones she had were just fine. “I can’t believe you remembered!” she said, throwing her arms around his neck. “Thank you.”

She knelt on the cushions and reached behind the couch, then held a box out to Jim. “It’s nothing much,” she prefaced as he unwrapped it.

Jim let out a laugh.

“I felt bad you couldn’t wear your old one to work anymore,” she winked, as Jim held up a new argyle sweater. As he lifted it up, however, he saw what was under it. He held up the small framed painting.

“Pam...did you do this?” he marveled.

She bit her bottom lip and nodded.

He looked down at the painting again. It was a picture of the Washington Monument at night, with two small figures sitting on a bench in front of it. In script below it were the words, “‘I love you, and that is the beginning and the end of everything.’ -F. Scott Fitzgerald”

“I love it so much, Pam. This is amazing.” He hugged her tightly.

Then they sat back and took in the Christmas scene before them. Paper everywhere, Christmas songs in the background, a fire going, and snow gently falling outside. Vanessa was frantically running from toy to toy while Tom and Marcie began dozing off periodically on the couch opposite. Betsy was nestled next to Gerald as he tried to figure out the new iPod the kids had gotten for him.

And Jim relished in just how happy he felt. Looking at Pam next to him, who was fitting perfectly into this crazy Christmas scene like she was the missing puzzle piece, he realized he never wanted to spend a Christmas without her.

Jim scratched his head. “Well, that was…”

“Uneventful?” Pam shrugged.

“Yeah...” Jim marveled. “I thought for sure Michael would have cracked some joke about us doing it in the cafeteria or something.”

It had been one month since they had returned from winter break and the two of them decided it was finally time for them to tell people they were together. They had wanted to do it sooner, but Jim was quickly thrown back into coaching the basketball team and Pam had been commissioned by the school to paint a small mural on one wall of the gym. Every day, Jim had to try extremely hard to focus on zone defense and Pick and Roll plays with her in the gym, her hair tied up in that messy way he loved, covered in paint splatters, and completely immersed in what she was doing.

They met with both Michael and Jan in Jan’s office after school one day, and let them know they were dating. Jan had simply thanked them for letting her know and Michael somehow managed to keep his cool and not say anything to make anyone cringe (though he did tear up a little bit and insist Jim give him a hug). They passed by Phyllis on the way out, who gave them a coy smile. Jim swore he heard her mutter, “I knew it,” under her breath as they walked out the door.

As word spread, people were either completely unsurprised or really didn’t seem to care. Daryll was happy for him and even happier that Oscar owed him twenty bucks. Toby tried his hardest to put on a smile and congratulate them and Angela simply gave them an eye roll.

They still tried to refrain from showing too much affection while they were at school, but Jim felt like he could finally breathe without constantly being worried someone would catch him if he involuntarily placed his palm on her lower back or if his hand lingered a second too long on her knee, especially since they hadn’t been able to see each other much during the week. The basketball team was in a major playoff push with one game left in the season that they had to win in order to qualify and go to the state championships. It would be the first year in ET Memorial history that the team would make the playoffs and Jim felt the pressure of that. He was offering two-a-day practices for any players who wanted them and spent many nights drawing up plays and reworking the lineups.

Pam had been working hard on her mural, often staying at the school until close to midnight and Jim saw the way creating it made her happy and he loved to see her do something that made her shoulders straighten with pride. But truthfully, he missed her. He longed for the cabin in the Poconos and the nights where she would come over and scratch away in her sketchbook, her legs draped over his lap while he read a book. Suddenly life felt so busy.

One particular Friday night, Jim was sitting at his desk at home researching the team they were playing on Monday when he glanced up and saw the picture Pam had painted for him for Christmas. He felt a tug in his chest and picked up his phone.

Hey, Picasso. How’s the mural coming?

About 15 minutes later his phone lit up.

It’s almost done! Just a few more retouches and coats of paint in a few places. How is your night? I just realized it’s been almost a whole week since we have gotten to see each other outside of the school and now I’m sad. :’(

The pang in his chest deepened.

I know, I miss you. So does my bed.

Tell the pillows I say hello. ;)

He put his phone down, then quickly picked it right back up along with his coat and keys and headed out the door.

—————

As he walked down the dark hallway of the school, he could hear Pam’s voice coming from the gym. She was singing—loudly—to “Bye Bye Bye” and a giant grin came to his lips. Once he reached the gym, he double checked that she wasn’t on a high surface that she could fall from when he inevitably scared the crap out of her. Luckily, she was just on the gym floor refilling paint.

“I’m more of a Backstreet Boys kind of guy, myself,” he pronounced and she nearly collapsed from the shock of his voice. She picked up a paintbrush and hurled it in his direction, smiling.

“What are you doing here?!” she laughed, walking toward him.

He lifted up the two bags in his hands and shrugged. “Sustenance.”

She gasped excitedly and grabbed a bag from his hand and gave him a quick kiss. “Jack’s?! Thank you! I haven’t eaten since…” she checked her watch. “Holy crap, is it really 10:30? I totally forgot to eat dinner!”

He chuckled. “I figured. You tend to do that when you paint,” he said with a wink. “Got you the bacon cheeseburger.”

“No tomato?”

“Naturally.” He pulled her closer and kissed her more solidly this time. “I know you, Beesly. Now eat.”

They sat on one of the bleacher benches in the gym, laughing and talking as they ate. Jim gestured to the giant painting on the wall.

“This looks amazing by the way.”

She grinned. “Thank you. It’s been a lot of work but I think I’m finally happy with it.”

“You should be! So does that mean you’re done?” he asked hopefully, running his hand up her thigh.

“Almost,” she said with a slight wince. “Just a few last things. Do you want to hang out and wait for me?”

He gave an exaggerated sigh. “I guess,” he said with mock disappointment followed by a smile. He walked across the court and found a stray basketball that one of his players must have left behind. He dribbled it a few times and shot it, the net making a satisfying whoosh as it passed through.

“And the crowd goes wild!” Pam yelled from the bleachers. Jim chuckled and ran over to the ball to continue shooting. The two things in his life he had always been sure about were books and the feel of a basketball in his hands. As he looked up at Pam, who had now turned around to finish up her mural, he realized he could now add her to that list. He loved her with a confidence and surety that he had never felt before.

After about 30 minutes, Pam joined him on the court. He let off a jump shot and her hands wrapped around him from behind as he landed. The ball swished and he twisted around in her arms to face her and put his own arms around her. He leaned down and kissed her quickly, then they both turned their heads to look at the mural, Pam’s head on his chest.

“Nice work, Beesly.”

“You think so?” she asked timidly.

“What? Of course! It looks so good. And now it’s done. Which means I don’t have to resort to coming to the school on a Friday night to see my girlfriend.”

She leaned back to look at him and rolled her eyes. “Okay, Coach. Pretending like you haven’t been busy too,” she smirked. He smiled and brought his lips to hers again.

“I missed you this week,” he whispered against her lips.

“Me too,” she whispered back.

They pulled apart and Pam picked up the basketball. “So, when are you going to teach me to shoot the outside J?”

He laughed. “You learned that from High School Musical, didn’t you?” Then self realization set in. “Wow, I am so sad that I know that.”

She walked a little closer to the hoop and tried her best to make a basket. It stopped about a foot short from even hitting the rim and fell to the court.

“Maybe I should stick to painting,” she giggled.

Jim retrieved the ball and dribbled it back to her. “Here,” he said, positioning himself behind her. “Put one hand here and one hand here. Good. Now, you’re going to mainly use this hand to shoot and this one to aim and steady the ball.” He placed his hands on top of hers over the ball and his head next to hers, the smell of her favorite conditioner now fogging up his brain. He put his lips to her neck.

She smiled. “Is that part of the tutorial?”

“No,” he hummed against her skin. “You just smell really good.”

She shimmied him away playfully, serious about wanting to learn to shoot. “Now what?”

“Okay,” he said. “You’re going to jump straight and extend your arm that’s under the ball, then snap your wrist at the top.” He stepped back to let her try. She did what he told her and the ball sailed up, bounced on the rim a couple times, and fell through the net. She threw her arms up and cheered, then turned around and threw them around Jim’s neck.

“You’re a good coach, you know,” she said, kissing him. “We’re totally going to win state.” Her eyebrows furrowed. “That’s what we’re trying to do, right?”

He chuckled and nodded. He loved how she used the word “we” instead of “you”. He didn’t ever want to push the game on her like he knew Roy had always done with football, so it was nice to feel like she was inserting herself into that part of his life on her own. She willingly came to every game, knew the schedule of who they were playing next, and once he even looked up and caught her intensely booing the refs during one of their games, which to him was adorable and made him love her even more.

He grabbed her hand. “Here, come show me your mural.”

They climbed to the top of the bleachers where she still had all her paints set out. She showed him each part of the mural, her inspirations behind it, how long it took to perfect it, and at the end admitted she was really proud of herself. Pam didn’t always have the easiest time admitting her own strengths. It was something Jim was trying to help her do more of, so to hear her boldly say she was proud of what she had done made Jim’s chest swell with love for her.

“Is this part still wet?” he asked in a low voice, pointing to the wall next to them.

“No, I painted that part yesterday.”

“Good.”

He turned her and pushed her against the wall then pressed his body flush up against hers. He kissed her intensely, parting her lips with his tongue. Running his fingers through her messy curls, he began kissing down the base of her jawline, stopping right under her ear. He snaked his hand under the side of her paint-covered sweatshirt while nipping and kissing her neck and ear, the small breaths and moans escaping her sending a hot current straight through him.

He felt her hands grab at the hem of his t-shirt so he stood back briefly and lifted his arms so she could pull it off of him in one impressive motion. She looked at him with heavy-lidded eyes and a devilish smile before he crashed right back into her, feeling her hands run their way up his back, still dewy from playing basketball and the heat rising to his skin from simply touching her, kissing her.

Now she flipped him around and pushed him to sit down on the bench below them. She straddled his lap, the feel of her through his thin basketball shorts driving him mad. Her kisses were hard and wanting against his lips, her tongue hot against his. Not sure he could take it much longer, he stood her up. Her sweatpants fell to her ankles at the same time as his basketball shorts and she slid herself back over him. Moans, names, and four-letter-words were now echoing through the walls of the empty gymnasium.

She rested her head on his shoulder after both of them had recovered, breath heavy, and she chuckled softly against his skin.

“You really like my mural.”

He pressed a soft kiss on her shoulder with a smile. “I really do.”

They giggled together and Pam reached for her pants on the bench but stopped abruptly. “Uh...when did this happen?” She lifted up her fingers, which were covered in blue paint.

Jim looked next to him on the bench as he pulled on his shorts. There was a palette of paint to his right, the blue paint now smeared all over it.

“Oh...my…” Pam’s mouth gaped open and pointed behind Jim. He flipped around to see a fresh blue smear of paint on the wall. “How the hell did I not notice that?!” Pam exclaimed.

“Well, I am pretty good…” Jim joked, admiring the blue paint smeared all over his chest and neck, and pulled his t-shirt back on. He stood back to look at the mural.

“It’s not that bad! You can’t even really tell it’s a handprint.” He laughed to himself and smirked. “Or that it got there while I was fu--”

She smacked his chest. “Shut it. You really can’t tell it’s not supposed to be there?”

He put his arm around her waist. “Honestly, I can’t. It’s right next to all those other firework-looking thingies. I bet if you just took some red paint and made it look like the others, nobody would know the difference.”

She cocked her head and squinted one eye toward the mural. “You know...you might be right, Halpert.” She grabbed a brush and some red paint and ran them in smooth strokes on the wall. When she was done, she stepped down the steps to look at it, grinning. She looked at Jim who kissed the tips of his fingers like an italian chef.

“They’ll never know.”

----------------------

It was the fourth quarter, 13 seconds left in the game. ET Memorial was down two points, and a win would send them to the playoffs. Porter Reed, Jim’s starting point guard, had the ball and was dribbling it down the court.

“Cover him!” Jim yelled. “Beckett, screen!”

Another player ran forward to set a screen as the point guard broke to the left of the court.

5…
4…
3…
2…

“SHOOT!”

Reed set up behind the three-point line, the ball left his hands, the buzzer sounded, and…

SWISH

The players shot off the bench as the crowd erupted in cheers. Fans and students alike rushed onto the court, lifting players up, jumping and celebrating. Jim, elated, ran to his starting point guard and locked his arm around his neck, ruffling his hair. The team came together in one giant group huddle, Jim at the center. Amidst the chaos, he still searched out one set of green eyes in the crowd. He found them and she hurriedly made her way through the sea of people and wrapped her arms tight around him. Not caring who saw and who was surrounding them, he planted a kiss firmly on her lips.

Suddenly, they were both covered in ice cold water. Jim whipped around to see his players running away with the water cooler shouting, “Sorry, Ms. B!!”

They looked at each other in shock and then burst into laughter. He hugged her again and looked up toward her mural on the wall and squeezed her a little tighter, happy that he didn’t have to hide it anymore. Then his eyes fixed on one splotchy little firework at the bottom.

At least there was still one secret to still keep.

The fact that Jim had coached the first team to have ever made it to the state playoffs made him pretty popular in the hallways of ET Memorial. The day after their big win, he was met with more high fives and back slaps than he’d ever had before. If he was being honest, he didn’t hate it. He was proud of his team and the work they had put in and he was competitive by nature, so winning always gave him a little serotonin boost. He knew they still had to get through the playoffs, but for now he was basking in this one accomplishment.

The bell rang to begin the first period of school. His students filed into their desks, pulling out their books to begin their 15 minutes of free-reading time. Out of habit, he wandered to the back door and looked across the hall to Pam’s classroom. She briefly met his eye and gave a slight smile as she began addressing her own class.

A voice sang quietly from the back row from arguably one of his favorite students.

“Halpert and Beesly, sittin’ in a tree…”

“Hey Jordan,” he chided. “More reading, less heckling your English teacher.”

Jim knew by kissing Pam after a packed basketball game, students were going to see him. He knew they would tease him. He was ready for that and frankly he didn’t mind. He had a good relationship with most of his students and knew it was all in good fun.

But he wasn’t prepared for what came next.

“Yeah,” a kid in the corner muttered to his friend. “What’s it like taking Coach Anderson’s leftovers, Halpert?”

The student had said it under his breath. But Jim definitely heard him. And Jim definitely did not like it.

“Jackson.” He said it firmly, gritting his teeth. He was trying with everything he had to stay level-headed despite the anger now coursing through his veins. “See me after class.”

Inside Jim was seething. Pam was nobody’s “leftovers”. She wasn’t the Chinese food you couldn’t finish that sat in the back of your fridge, forgotten. She wasn’t something that could just be discarded when you were done. No, she was beautiful and smart. She was kind, and warm, and talented. She wasn’t leftovers and she sure as hell wasn’t Roy Anderson’s anything.

All of that aside, now he also knew Roy was sharing personal details with students that frankly should not be shared. Students knowing Jim was dating another teacher was one thing, but this was completely different. This was unacceptable.

He did his best to get through the rest of his morning before lunch. He warned the boy from his first period class that if he heard another word out of him of that nature that he would have to get the principal involved. But that didn’t stop the churning in his stomach and the disdain he felt for Roy. The problem was that Jim was very non-confrontational. He didn’t want to approach Roy about it and he didn’t actually want to get Jan or Michael involved. But boy, did he wish he could pop Roy square in the jaw and not lose his job.

Pam had to stay in her classroom over the lunch period to help a student with her art project, so Jim walked to the faculty lounge by himself. He rounded the corner to the lounge and saw Roy sitting alone at the nearest table, a turkey sandwich in his hands. Jim skidded to a stop, threw his hands up, and turned around to leave, muttering a small “Great…” under his breath. He couldn’t look at Roy right now and stay civil.

“Nice win yesterday, Halpert.” The sarcasm was dripping from Roy’s lips. “Bet Reed wasn’t the only one who scored last night, though.”

Oh, hell no.

Jim whipped back around. “Listen, man, I wasn’t going to get into this with you, but now…”

Roy feigned a look of surprise and lifted his hands up. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Jim rolled his eyes. “Whatever, Anderson. Quit talking to your players about things that are absolutely none of their business. Frankly it’s not even your business. Jackson Allen referred to Pam as your ‘leftovers’ to me, during my class today. That’s completely inappropriate, dude.”

A snide smile came across Roy’s lips and Jim felt his fists clench.

“Well, he ain’t wrong,” Roy muttered.

Now Jim was seeing red. “Excuse me?!”

“You heard me, Halpert. She was screaming my name before she ever said yours.”

Jim shook his head and laughed in disbelief, grateful they were the only two in the room. But he wasn’t about to get in a pissing contest with Roy Anderson in the faculty lounge.

“I feel really sorry for you, man,” Jim said, beginning to calm himself. He stuck his hands in his pockets. “It must really suck to work at a high school when you’re still stuck in your own high school insecurities.”

Roy scoffed at him.

“But, you know?” Jim continued. “Mostly I pity you because you let an amazing girl like Pam Beesly slip through your fingers. Twice. And that’s gotta hurt.”

The slightest flicker of regret flashed on Roy’s face before he attempted to cover it with a look of indifference. Jim stepped closer and lowered his voice to almost a whisper.

“And from what I understand, there wasn’t much for her to scream about anyway.” He shrugged toward Roy with raised eyebrows and turned to leave, but stopped before he hit the hallway. “Oh,” he said, turning back around. “And if you don’t stop talking to your students about my personal life I’m going to have to involve Jan.”

He exited the room and let out a breath he didn’t realize he had been holding and smile crept into his face.

—————

“You said that to him?!” Pam gawked, a mouthful of ice cream.

“Yep. Part of me is not super proud of it, but a bigger part of me wished I could have snapped a picture of his face after I said it,” Jim laughed.

They were sitting on Pam’s couch that night after Pam called Jim saying she had an emergency. That “emergency” was that she bought a bunch of frozen food at the store and her tiny freezer couldn’t fit it all unless they finished off the three cartons of half-finished ice cream she had in there.

She placed the now-empty carton of Rocky Road on the coffee table and dropped her spoon down with a clink!. She leaned back against the cushions and placed her hands on her stomach with a groan.

“I’m not sure this was such a great idea.”

Jim lifted a heaping spoonful of Cookies and Cream into his mouth. “I think this was a great idea,” he muffled past the ice cream.

She gave a half-hearted chuckle and Jim saw her face fall, just slightly. She brought her knees up to her chest.

“Hey,” he said softly, setting his carton next to hers on the coffee table and scooting closer to her on the couch. He dipped his head so he could meet her eyes. He had sensed something from her when he first told her what Roy had said. A twinge of hurt, which made him wish he actually had clocked Roy in the face back at the school like he wanted to.

“You, Pamela Beesly, are nobody’s leftovers.”

She looked at him and shrugged one shoulder. “I know.”

“He’s an ass.”

“I know,” she smiled weakly at him and kissed him softly. Her lips were still cold and sweet from the ice cream. “I’m just upset that I’m letting something he said get to me. Doesn’t feel great to be talked about like that, I guess. And to a student, no less.”

He nodded and looked down. “Think we need to tell Jan?”

She shook her head. “No, there’s no point in making this bigger than it needs to be. I’m just glad you were there to stick up for me. My knight in shining armor,” she cooed.

He chuckled and ran a hand down the back of her hair. “There are a lot of things I don’t love about Roy Anderson, but I’m pretty grateful he was too dense to see what he had right in front of him. Makes it possible to be here right now gorging myself on ice cream with you. And I never plan to let you go, ever. You’re stuck with me, Beesly.”

“Thank you,” she smiled and ran a hand down his cheek. “But you should know I’m never eating ice cream, ever again.”

“More for me then” he laughed against her lips.

He kissed her gently for a few minutes, hoping she understood just how much he meant what he had said. With every kiss he needed her to know she was wanted. More than that, he wanted her to know she was needed.

When they finally broke apart he searched her eyes.

“You okay?” he asked tenderly.

She smiled, eyes gleaming. “More than okay.”

That night as he laid next to her in bed, he watched her take deep, sleep-filled breaths. He would do anything for this woman. She could ask him to rob a bank and he would be pulling a ski mask over his face before she could even finish her thought. They had only been together about six months but he could hardly remember life before her or entertain any thought of a future without her.

He wrapped an arm around her and locked his fingers through hers as she slept, like sea otters do in order to keep from drifting away from each other. She was it. The beginning and the end. And there was no way he would ever let her get away.

Pam said not to get her a Valentine’s Day gift.

So of course Jim got her a Valentine’s Day gift.

He used to hate the holiday, if he was being honest. He never understood the hype. And since he had started teaching, it was always made worse by hormonal teenagers. Without fail, he always had a girl with tear-stained cheeks in every class period and had to awkwardly break up at least twice as many hallway make-out sessions than on a regular day.

But everything was different with Pam in the picture. The woman even made Mondays enjoyable. Suddenly he felt like the love-sick teenager trying to find the perfect gift for the perfect girl for Valentine’s Day. Lucky for him, she had already checked the “yes” box on the note he jokingly wrote and passed to her yesterday during his prep period that said:

“Will you go out with me? Check one:

Yes [ ]
No [ ]
Maybe [ ]

Love, Jim”

So at least he didn’t have to worry about that.


He walked through the school doors and down the empty hallways that the students had covered in paper hearts. He knew he was here before Pam because she had texted him saying she accidentally slept in and would be cutting it close to the opening bell, so he took the opportunity to sneak into her classroom and leave her present on her desk. Someday she would learn to lock her door.

Slipping through the door quickly, he dropped the gift on her desk and then slid back out into the hallway. He walked over to his classroom door and went to unlock it, only to find that his key was not on his keyring. He jiggled the handle and realized it wasn’t even locked. Confused, he slowly went inside and was met with a loud gasp.

“Jim!”

“Pam?” he laughed.

Her shoulders sank in defeat and she pouted. “I was supposed to get here before you.”

“Did you steal my key?!”

“Maybe.”

He laughed. “You renegade. Wait,” he pointed to his desk. “You stole my key and came here early to surprise me with a gift that we agreed we wouldn’t be getting each other?”

“Maybe.”

He cocked his head and chuckled as he walked toward her, wrapping her in a hug. “Happy Valentine’s Day.”

“Happy Valentine’s Day,” she muffled into his shirt, obviously still disgruntled about getting caught. She pulled back. “I know we said no gifts, but…”

“You couldn’t help it?”

She nodded with a grimace. “Sorry.”

He smiled at her and motioned with his head to the hallway. “I get it. Go look on your desk, Beesly.”

Her eyes lit up and she skipped past him to her classroom to see what he had left for her and he followed behind, hands in his pockets.

She excitedly threw the tissue paper behind her back, confirming to Jim that getting her a gift was the right call. She reached in and lifted up a white t-shirt with “Washington D.C.” written in bold, colorful letters on the front. First, she threw her head back with laughter and then she hugged it to her chest. She looked at him lovingly.

“You got me a t-shirt from a trip…”

“...that you were on with me,” he winked. “There’s more.”

She let out a small gasp and reached back into the bag, pulling out a teal colored teapot. A wide smile spread on her face. “This is the one we saw in the antique shop that one weekend in Philly, isn’t it?”

“The very one.”

“Jim, I love it.”

He gestured toward it. “Open it up. There are bonus gifts.”

Pam lifted the lid off the teapot and began pulling the items out, one by one.

“Aww the ticket stub from the football game we went to.”

Jim leaned against her desk. “Uh huh…”

She continued while grinning ear to ear. “A brochure from the Washington Monument…and is this…” She held up a small container of blue paint.

“The same paint as on the wall of the gym? Yep,” he said slyly.

She blushed with a smile, then continued pulling out more items, all representing something the two of them had shared together. Reminders of the Poconos, and of the many misheard lyrics of songs she was known for. There was a picture of Dwight they had discovered in the yearbook from two years before Jim started teaching that made a tipsy Pam laugh so hard she fell off her chair. He had found a way to fit almost the entirety of their relationship in the small teapot and the result was exactly what he hoped for, as she flung her arms around his neck.

“Thank you, Jim. It’s perfect,” she whispered in his ear then looked at him. “I guess you need to open yours, but I’m not sure how to follow that.”

He took her hand as they walked across the hallway. “Oh, come on. Whatever it is will be perfect.”

They reached his desk and he carefully unwrapped the package on his desk, revealing a small booklet. He flipped it over to see the cover.

“How to Kill a Mockingbird. No...did you make this?!” He ran his fingers over the front and then flipped through it, eyes beaming with delight. Pam had written, illustrated, and constructed a little book based on the terrible essay Jim’s student had written at the beginning of the year. He shook his head in amazement as he looked at the colorful illustrations. “Oh, that poor mockingbird,” he laughed.

Pam crossed her arms over her chest and bit her bottom lip. “You like it?”

“Pam,” he exclaimed. “It’s...I…”

“Words, Halpert.”

He hugged her tightly. “It’s absolutely amazing.”

She sighed with relief and squeezed him back. “Happy Valentine’s Day, Teach.”

He kissed her and smiled. “Back at ya, Ms. Beesly.”

From there, Jim spent every class break at the “Heart-o-Gram” table the student council had set up for students, sending ridiculous poems to Pam and delighting in seeing her receive them during her lessons, hearing all her students collectively say, “OoooOOoo…” as she blushed. Finally, the final bell rang and Jim sat down to finish some last minute grading before he could go home and get ready for Pam to come over.

“Roses are red, Violets are blue,”

Pam meandered over to his desk, Heart-o-gram in hand.

“Your face is real pretty, And I like your shampoo.” She held it up and smirked at him.

“Yeah, I failed my poetry class in college.”

She chuckled and kissed him quickly. “You know you gave my students a reason to tease me endlessly, right?”

“You liked it,” he grinned.

She laughed. “I kinda did. I never got one of these in high school.”

“Roy didn’t send you any?” he frowned.

“What do you think?”

“Yeah,” he said, cringing. “As soon as I said it I knew the answer. I’m sorry.”

She smiled sweetly at him. “Don’t be. I got enough today to make up for it.”

“Good.”

“Good,” she smiled. “See you at 5?”

“Definitely.”


———————

After clearing their plates of Jim’s famous fettuccine alfredo and garlic bread, the two of them had made their way to the living room with a bottle of expensive wine Jim bought for the occasion. Pam sat between Jim’s legs with her back resting against his chest, both of their legs up on the couch. She twirled her hair mindlessly, her eyes closed.

“You know,” she hummed. “I jus’ really like you. And not just because you have a cute butt.”

His chest rumbled with deep laughter. “How much wine did you have, Beesly?”

She squinted one eye and pinched her finger and thumb together in front of her face. “Juuuuust a little. Mmmkay, a lot. But it was really tasty. Like you. You’re tasty, Jim.”

“I think you’re just a lightweight,” he laughed. “But thank you?”

She sat up and turned around to face him. “No, really. And I don’t just mean that literally,” she said, stumbling over the last word. “You’re so sweet. Sweet to me, to your students. To dogs.”

His eyes widened with amusement. “To dogs?”

“Yes,” she brushed him off with a floppy wave of her hand. “All I’m saying is that I’m super duper lucky to have you, okay? Like 300% lucky.”

“300, huh?” He chuckled softly and stroked her cheek with the back of his fingers. “You have no idea, Beesly, what you mean to me. Drunk or not.”

“I’m not drunk.”

“You’re drunk.”

“Yeah, I’m drunk.”

Jim smiled and gave her a soft, lingering kiss. “I love you so much.”

“I love you too,” she whispered, then turned back around, nestling back into his chest. She closed her eyes again. “You really are nice to dogs. We should get a dog someday,” she mumbled, apparently unconcerned about the coherency of her words. “Kids like dogs. I think our kids would like a dog.”

And just like that she was asleep. But Jim was awake as ever. His mind was trying to grasp hold of what she had just said. Our kids? A smile crept up his cheeks as he pictured little curly-haired Halperts. Pam was planning on a future—their future. His thoughts began snowballing and gaining speed, picturing a chapel, and a house, and pee-wee football games.

And suddenly he realized—none of it scared him. He wanted all of it. And he wanted it with her.

Never did he think he could feel this way in such a short amount of time, but...here he was. And maybe she was just drunk and didn’t mean it. But even if that were the case, he knew he would wait a thousand lifetimes until she was ready.

He carefully maneuvered his way out from under her and carried her back to his bedroom. He laid her down gently and pulled the covers over her as she slept, grateful she had worn her “pajama” dress, as she called it (“It’s comfy, cute, AND it has pockets!”). And sure, maybe he had hoped to end up in his bed a different way tonight, but with the visual of their future life together still fresh in his mind, he couldn’t deny this was a pretty good ending to a holiday he once thought was useless.

He slipped into a pair of sweats and a t-shirt, brushed his teeth, and slid under the covers next to her, wrapping his arms tightly around her waist. She stirred and let out a contented sigh.

“I meant what I said about the kids,” she mumbled quietly. “I’m not that drunk.”

He watched her breath slow as she fell back into a deep sleep. He smiled and pulled her impossibly tighter, and his breath began to match hers as he started drifting off to sleep himself.

But whatever dreams he had tonight, there was no doubt they would pale in comparison to his reality.

Jim grabbed his sandwich from his desk and walked across the hallway to meet Pam for lunch. He poked his head in her doorway.

“Hey, Beesly. You ready?”

She startled and looked at him. “Sorry,” she shook her head briefly. “Guess I zoned out.” She shifted on her feet and fiddled with her fingers. “Actually,” she said, “I asked Phyllis to teach my last two class periods. I was going to head home. Not feeling well,” she shrugged.

He frowned and walked over to her. “Really?” He put the back of his hand on her forehead. “I’m sorry, Bees. Can I do anything for you?”

“No, I think I just need to rest,” she said quietly, not quite meeting his eyes. “Probably just a migraine coming on.”

“Okay…” he hugged her. “You sure you’re alright?”

She nodded meekly and turned to grab her purse. “See you tomorrow?”

“I can come over later if you want. Bring you some dinner or something?”

She gave him a half smile. “It’s really okay. I’ll probably just be sleeping and I never have much of an appetite when I get migraines anyway.”

He furrowed his brow. “If you’re sure. Let me know if you change your mind, okay?”

“Okay.” She stood on her tiptoes to kiss him lightly on the cheek and walked out the door as Jim followed her with his eyes, a feeling of confusion creeping in. Something about that interaction definitely felt disconnected. He slowly exited her classroom with knitted brows and decided just to eat lunch in his classroom.

Between each bite, he replayed the last few times they had been together, trying to remember if he had said or done something that would have caused her to be upset with him, because it felt like she might be. But every memory was filled with jokes and kisses and whispered affections. They had disagreements in the past, mostly when either one of them was low on sleep, but the last few weeks had actually felt pretty blissful. She hadn’t mentioned anything more about her visions of their future together, but she seemed pretty clear on Valentine’s Day that she was serious about being in it for the long haul, picket fence and all. He picked up his phone.

Hey. I love you.

Love you too.

He didn’t feel any better.

The end of the day came, even though it felt like it dragged on for days. He sat down at his desk and rested his chin on the palm of his hand, staring at the picture of them sitting next to each other at the piano on Christmas Eve that Larissa had candidly snapped of them at the cabin. Sometimes the love he felt for Pam made him physically ache, like his chest couldn’t contain the sensation and was threatening to burst. She made the gray and mundane come to life, just like one of her paintings. Once a blank canvas, now his life was swirling with color.

He suddenly decided he needed to see her today. Maybe it was just a migraine, but the last time she had one, she had begged him to stay, claiming he gave her endorphins and that it helped her feel better. Still, he googled as many migraine remedies he could find and headed to the store. For the first time he felt grateful his basketball team had gotten slaughtered in the first game of the playoffs so he didn’t have to wait until after practice to see her.

He roamed through the aisles of the store, unable to really concentrate on anything. Pulling out the list he had scribbled down back at school, he made sure he picked up everything she might need to feel better, but still felt like he needed something more. There was a small pit in his stomach as he continued to fester over her deflated demeanor back in her classroom and he wanted desperately to see her smile--to reassure him that things were okay.

He made his way to the peanut butter aisle and smiled to himself when he saw the jar of “Goober Grape”, which was peanut butter and jelly in the same jar. He recalled one particular trip to the store with Pam, where she ranted the whole way home after seeing it on the shelf. (“And what a horrible name for a product you’re supposed to consume! Also, who’s lazy enough that they need them in the SAME jar. Seriously, Jim, do you not even care about this atrocity?!”) He knew it might not help her migraine, but he picked up a jar anyway, hoping that it would at least lift her spirits remembering that night.

“Okay,” he muttered to himself out loud in the car outside her condo. “We have various forms of caffeine, we have medication, we have peppermint oil, ice packs…can’t even pronounce that herb...should be good.”

He took a deep breath and walked to her door. She had given him a key but he wasn’t sure if he should use it right now. He felt so disjointed, for the first time since they had started dating, all based on one small interaction back at the school. But he knew Pam, and he knew something was off. He knocked softly a few times.

He heard the deadbolt unlock and Pam slowly cracked the door.

“Hey,” Jim started, “I brought some stuff...didn’t know if you’d be--Pam?”

Her eyes were puffy and red and she was holding a wad of tissues in her right hand. She sniffed and quickly tried to hide the fact that she had so obviously been crying.

“Jim, sorry...I thought you were the delivery guy…”

“Pam,” his shoulders sank and he looked at her intently. “What’s going on?” He reached out his hand to stroke her cheek that was so obviously streaked with tears.

She tried to fake a smile for him but ended up taking in a big, shuddering breath as she shrugged feebly. “I’m fine.”

Jim pulled her into a hug. “That’s obviously not true, Beesly. You going to tell me what’s wrong?”

She let out a little sob into his chest, gripping his shirt with her fists.

“I’m late.”

It took about three seconds to register what she meant but then instantly his stomach was in his throat.

“Oh.”

That was all he could think to say. She started crying harder into his shirt and he kicked himself for being such an idiot.

“Hey…hey.” He squeezed her tighter and then pulled away to look her in the eyes. “Let’s go sit down, okay?”

She nodded and he took her hand to lead her to the couch. They sat down and Pam wiped her eyes with her sleeves.

“Are you...sure?” Jim asked carefully.

Pam nodded and looked at their hands, fingers still intertwined. “Yeah, I realized it today during my first class. I should have started my period four days ago, at least. Jim…” She started crying again. “I’m so sorry.”

“No, no, no...Pam,” he scooted closer to her and put his hands on the sides of her face. “This isn’t your fault. I am very much an equal part of this equation, okay?”

“I mean, we’re always careful…”

“I know,” he whispered.

She stared up at him, eyes still brimming with tears that he wished he could simply kiss away and make it all better. “What are we going to do?” she uttered quietly.

The question bounced off the walls of Jim’s brain. As far as he was concerned, Pam was his future. A family with her was his future. He hadn’t planned on it this soon. But…

“It’s going to be okay,” he said against her hair as he kissed the top of her head. “Have you taken a test?”

She shook her head quickly. “No, I bought one but I couldn’t get myself to take it.”

Jim stroked her cheek. “Pam...you know you could have told me, right? I would have been over here as soon as you realized. Angela, or even Michael could have stepped in for me.”

She sat silent for a minute. “I thought you would be mad,” she whispered.

“Mad? Pam, I’m...I’m not mad. This may not be our ideal timing but...I’m not mad. At all. I kills me to think you were here alone dealing with this.”

She sniffed and wiped her face with her sleeve again. “I know...it’s just…”

He frowned. “What is it?”

She sighed and finally made eye contact with him again. “In high school, Roy and I...well, he didn’t like using protection every time. I knew it was dumb, but I also didn’t want to ask my mom if I could get on the pill, so I just went with it.”

Jim felt a small surge of anger as he continued to listen.

“And we had a little scare. It turned out to be nothing, but Roy,” she shook her head. “He was so mad. He blamed me, even though he was the one who couldn’t be bothered with a condom. It was the end of senior year and kind of the thing that made me call everything off.”

He looked at her, his expression softening. “I’m not Roy. We’ve established this.”

“I know,” she cried softly.

He kissed her forehead. “I love you, Pam. Whatever happens, that is one thing that will never change.” He ran his fingers through her curls and ran his eyes over her face, astounded she could still look this beautiful after so much crying. “But we should have you take that test, okay?”

She nodded in agreement and stood up, rifling in her purse for the small cardboard box. “It says it takes three minutes.”

“I’ll be right out here,” he assured her.

Pam walked back to the bathroom and Jim put his hands in his face and let out a huge breath. It’s true, this wasn’t their ideal timing. He wanted to find a way to spend summers traveling with Pam and possibly get his master’s. She had just started teaching and he knew she wanted to get a few more years under her belt before having kids. They weren’t married, or even engaged. And maybe it wasn’t a valid concern, but what would the faculty and students think?

But then again…

He pictured Pam, belly so big she couldn’t see her feet. He pictured resting his hand on top of it and feeling tiny limbs kicking and moving around. He thought of a miniature Phillies onesie, and Pam singing lullabies in a dimly lit nursery, and ten little fingers and toes. He thought of two perfect little green eyes staring back up at him that so closely resembled those of the woman he loved so deeply it hurt. And he knew. He knew everything would be okay.

Pam walked out of the bathroom, test in hand. She took a deep breath and sat down next to him, tightly gripping his hand. “Here we go.”

She flipped over the test.

“Negative,” Jim breathed.

Pam let out a small noise and he couldn’t tell if it was a cry or a laugh. She leaned over and hugged him. “Negative,” she repeated in his ear.

They broke apart and JIm picked the test up from the coffee table and stared at it, unsure of how to feel. He leaned back and Pam rested her head on his chest.

“Okay,” he said. “That’s good, right?”

“Yeah...good.” She didn’t sound so convinced either.

They sat on the couch together as seconds turned to minutes. Jim traced circles on her arm while they sat in silence, both fixated on the white stick in front of them.

Finally Pam broke the silence.

“I’m a little sad,” she whispered, barely audible.

Jim closed his eyes and let out a tiny laugh.

“Me too.” He squeezed her tighter. “But we’ll have our chance, Beesly. Mark my words.”

“Just not now.”

“Yeah,” he kissed her head. “Not now.”

She turned her face up to look at him. “You know I love you.”

He kissed her softly. “I love you too. So. Damn. Much.”

She smiled at him. “I’m going to go blow my nose.”

“Good idea,” Jim chuckled.

Pam stood up and walked back into the bathroom as Jim grabbed his phone. He held down the home button and lifted the phone to his mouth, hoping Pam was out of ear shot.

“Remind me tomorrow at 7pm to call William Beesly.”

Jim mindlessly rubbed the fabric of some costumes between his fingers on the stage of the school auditorium.

“I thought Beauty and the Beast was a movie.”

Pam looked up from the backdrop she was painting. “It’s both! I am actually very excited Andy chose it for the school musical because it’s for sure my favorite Disney movie,” she said, turning back to painting.

Andy had asked if Pam would help him paint the sets for their production of Beauty and the Beast, since he was so busy directing and choreographing everyone. She agreed, not fully understanding how much work would need to go into the project, so Jim often joined her in the auditorium after school. He did his best not to distract her but sometimes he couldn’t help but discreetly pull her away from what she was doing and pin her up against the back of the bookshelf props. She didn’t seem to mind.

Ever since they had the pregnancy scare the week earlier, things shifted for them but in the very best way. Suddenly, though he didn’t know how it was possible, they became so much closer. The love between them settled deeper as life became richer. It was now extremely apparent that they wanted to spend their lives together and that realization meant that Jim had a permanent seat on Cloud 9.

He had called Pam’s dad last week to let him know how much he loved her. How to him, she was perfect. How a life without her in it was not one he was interested in living. Jim picked up on the emotion in William’s voice as he extended his blessing, and now all that was left to do was make it official. And that was where he was stuck.

He thought about taking her back to D.C. or spending a weekend in the cabin in the Poconos and asking her there. Those were good ideas but he wanted to take her by surprise and he knew if he suggested they go to those places she would know what was coming immediately. Even though the ring he had picked out was burning a hole in the desk drawer in his classroom, he decided to table the idea for the time being--maybe until school was out. But not before he had a little fun with it.

He put his hands in his pockets and walked over to her on the stage, where she was standing on a step ladder painting a forest scene.

“Pam,” he said tenderly, and she looked down at him. “I want you to know that in this moment, I really look up to you.”

He grabbed her hand as she smirked at his bad pun, then surprise came to her eyes. “Wait…”

“...and it would mean so much to me…”

“WAIT.” She looked around. “Now? Jim, I’m standing on a step stool covered in paint…”

“...if you could take the next step…”

“Really? Andy’s right there. Jim.”

“...because I’m really worried your arm is going to get tired if you keep painting from the step you’re standing on.”

She rolled her eyes.

“What?!” Jim scoffed. “I’m just worried about...ohhhh….did you think I was going to…?”

She attempted to hide her smile, refusing to look at him. “You’re so dumb.”

“You love me.”

“I do,” she smirked. “Now go make yourself useful or something.”

He saluted. “Aye aye, Captain.”

Jim found Andy to ask what he could help with while he waited for Pam to finish painting the props she had planned for today.

“Tuna!”

When Andy first started, he overheard Jim and Oscar talking about Moby Dick and started calling Jim “Tuna” and Oscar “Rainbow Trout”. Jim didn’t have the heart to tell him Moby Dick didn’t involve either of those fish, so now the nickname would haunt him forever.

“Hey Andy. Just here to help out, if you need it. Anything I can do?”

Andy held out his fist. “Awesome, bro-ski. Uh, yeah. Could you move all the costumes from stage right to stage left for me? Doin’ the ol’ switch-a-rooni for dress rehearsals this week.”

“Sure thing,” Jim replied. He especially didn’t mind because the costumes were currently right next to where Pam was painting.

Jim reached the rack of costumes and pointed to the giant Beast costume. “Hey look! It’s Roy.”

Pam chuckled and lightly smacked his arm. “That’s mean.” She looked back to her painting. “Besides, Roy is obviously Gaston.”

Jim laughed. “No, you’re totally right. You’re Belle. And I’m obviously the prince after the Beast transforms.”

Pam was silent.

“Pam. C’mon. I’m the prince!”

She shrugged. “I don’t know...you kind of give me more...Maurice vibes.”

Jim’s mouth flopped open. “Crazy old Maurice?!”

Now Pam’s shoulders were shaking with laughter. “He’s endearing! And sweet. And creative.”

“And old!” He glared at her in mock offense and began pushing the rack of costumes past her, sure to run his hand up her thigh as he did. “I’ll show you crazy old Maurice…”

As the evening went on, the cast and crew of the musical began trickling out, and even Andy mentioned something about needing to rest his vocal chords for a least a few hours. Jim kindly reminded him that he’s not actually in the play, to which Andy replied, “Who knows if I will need to be an understudy the day of the play?! I’m a Cornell-trained vocalist, Tuna. Need I remind you about Here Comes Treble?” No, he definitely did not.

Pam had decided she was going to stay so she could finish painting the backdrop of the stained glass rose. “It’s iconic,” she had told Jim. “It needs to be perfect.” So, he decided to go grab her dinner and keep her company until she finished. He smirked, remembering a scenario much like this very one a month prior.

When he returned, he stopped barely off stage, just to watch her. He loved the way she scrunched her nose when she painted fine lines and how she tilted her head to get a better look at her work. There was a swipe of green paint on her left check which to him, was insanely cute and made him adore her that much more. He smiled. He wanted to see the scrunched noses and the head tilts and the misplaced paint for the rest of his life.

“Here you go, m’lady. A caesar salad bigger than my head,” he said, handing her a bag. “And also this.” He pulled a single rose out from behind his back and gave it to her. “For inspiration.”

She grinned and took it from it, bringing it to her nose to take in the smell. “Thank you! Where did you get this?”

He frowned. “Didn’t I tell you that Michael has been teaching me magic? I conjured that.”

“Oooo, can you conjure a bunny?”

“We haven’t gotten to that lesson yet,” he winked and kissed her quickly.

They sat next to each other against the back wall of the stage to eat their dinner and Pam looked up at Jim slyly.

“Hey. Remember the last time you brought me food while I painted something at this school?”

Jim squinted up at the ceiling. “Hmm…nope…” He ran his hand to her inner thigh. “Don’t remember that at all.”

“That mind blowing, huh?” she winked.

He laughed. “I mean, you’re not wrong.”

She rested her head on his shoulder and sighed happily. “I would say let’s remind you, but Andy said he might come back later to work on a couple costumes. And he doesn’t need to see my Beauty or your Beast, if you know what I mean…”

Jim chortled. “Fair enough.” He took the salad from Pam’s hands and set it down next to them and twisted his body so he was facing her and scooted closer. He put his fingers under her chin and tilted her face toward his. “Doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy your beauty anyway...the non-innuendo kind,” he smiled. “Pam, you are so pretty.”

She closed her eyes with a blissful smile and kissed him gently at first, but suddenly her hands were in his hair and her tongue in his mouth. He groaned into her before reluctantly pulling away, breathless.

“Easy there, Beesly. We’re, uh, awakening the beast.”

She bit her bottom lip. “Sorry. Sort of.” She brought her lips to his again, this time with a little more attempted restraint.

After a while they broke apart and Jim put his head against Pam’s. His hand rested on the side of her face and he stroked her cheek with his thumb. Her green eyes sparkled under the colored stage lights and he nearly lost himself in them.

“I’m going to marry you, Pamela Beesly.”

“Oh yeah?” She said softly. “Was that the proposal?”

He chuckled softly. “No. That would be rather lame. But it’s coming” He raised his eyebrows. “Hope you’re ready.”

She sat back to smile back at him, her expression filled with nothing but love for him. “Been ready for a long time, Halpert.”

He grinned and kissed her again. “Now can you please finish up so we can explore this ‘Beauty and the Beast’ idea somewhere a little less...stagey?”

She laughed, walked over to the painting, and applied one tiny dot of paint to it. “Look at that! Done.”

“Perfect!” He came up from behind her and wrapped his arms around her. “Belle was always my favorite you know…”

She laughed. “I think I have something yellow at home…”

“Mmmmhmmm…” he mumbled against the skin right under her ear.

“It’s a little more...revealing...than Belle’s dress, though…”

“MmmHMMM…”

“It’s less like a dress and more like...something you wear under a dress…”

“And we’re going!” Jim proclaimed quickly, grabbing her hand.

They walked out together and he looked down at her. “I’m serious about that proposal, Beesly.”

“Okay…” she said sarcastically.

“You’ve got to stay sharp!”

She chuckled. “I’ve been warned.”

But the thing was, Jim was definitely serious.

“Hey,” he said quickly. “I have to grab that stack of essays from my desk in my classroom. Can I meet you at your place?”

“Sure!” She leaned up and kissed him. “I mean, you have a key,” she said happily and made her way to the parking lot.

Jim walked into his classroom, grabbed the stack of papers from his desk, and put them in his bag. His eyes lingered on the handle of the desk drawer for several seconds. Finally, he threw it open and picked up the velvet ring box, putting it in his pocket.

Probably not tonight.

But just in case.

She looked at herself in the bathroom mirror before leaving for work. A lot had happened in the last year. She started her first year teaching, which she loved more than she imagined she ever would. She got to do so much of what she had always loved, painting, drawing, and creating. She had never felt more comfortable in her own skin than she did now.

But Jim. He was far and away the greatest part of her year. He’s the one that helped her feel comfortable in her own skin and who always relit the fire for teaching whenever it started to dim. He was encouraging without being pushy and through every facet of her life, he had remained constant, steady. Every time she imagined a future with him in it, warmth washed over her.

After arriving at school and sitting down at her desk, she noticed the drying rose laying next to her computer that Jim had given her while she was painting the set for Beauty and the Beast. It was no secret she was sentimental and Jim definitely gave her reason to be.

He had been peppering in fake proposals over the last week, all which made her laugh, of course, but if she was being honest, every time it happened she felt a twinge of sadness that it wasn’t “it”. She had known, probably since Christmas, that she didn’t want anyone else, ever. Every box was checked. Every question answered. It was Jim.

She picked up her phone and sent a message to him.

Don’t forget to send me a picture of you smiling with half your face numb. I need the laugh. Love you!

Jim had a dentist appointment that morning and said he’d probably be out until at least until his afternoon classes. Something about not wanting to teach classes full of ruthless teenagers when he couldn’t feel his tongue. She was sure she would still instinctively look across the hallway while he was gone, even though she knew she would just see Ryan there, the school’s resident substitute teacher.

The bell sounded to signal the beginning of the school day and she stood up to welcome her students who would begin filing in shortly.

First to come in was one of her favorite students, Sasha.

“Here, Miss Beesly,” she said with a massive grin, and handed her a white rose.

Pam smiled, taken aback. “Thank you, Sasha! How sweet!”

She smelled the rose and and when she looked up, two more girls, Melissa and Abby, both came over to her. They handed her two more roses and walked to their seats, giggling to each other.

“Guys…” Pam questioned. “What’s going on…?”

One by one, students came with roses, handing them to her with smiles on their faces. Pam felt her heart beginning to beat faster, suspecting Jim might not have been at the dentist after all.

The second bell rang to begin the class period and she looked at her students at their desks. They were giddy and staring at her with anticipation.

“Seriously! I’m going to dock your grade if someone doesn’t tell me what you’re up to,” she joked. Suddenly all of their heads turned to the doorway, the girls gasping quietly amongst each other.

Pam turned and immediately she felt her throat tighten in that way it did right before she knew she was going to start crying. There was Jim, standing in the doorway of her classroom, wearing her favorite suit and a skinny black tie, looking at her with a smirk and eyebrows raised. He was holding a large poster in his hands that she couldn’t quite read.

“Pam…” he said walking to her slowly. “I have a question.”

Her breath caught and she brought a hand up to her lips as she watched Jim drop to one knee. He help up the sign that read:

Pam—

Will you go to prom with me?

-Jim


Oh.

It wasn’t what she was expecting but she hoped he didn’t see the flash of disappointment on her face. She really did love these elaborate gestures he did and they had been joking for weeks about all these ridiculous “promposals” their students had been doing. It was endearing and kind of hilarious, even though it wasn’t what she thought was happening initially. So she smiled at him, ready to answer, when he looked down at the sign, concerned.

“Wait…” he said. “This is the wrong sign…”

He flipped it around.

Beesly—

Will you marry me?

—Halpert


She watched him reach into the inside pocket of his suit coat and pull out a small velvet box. Now tears really were forming and not just in her eyes. She could see the rims of Jim’s eyes begin to glisten and he stood up, opening the box. She covered her mouth with her hands and began smiling and laughing into them, unable to speak. He dropped the sign and grabbed her left hand in his.

“So?” he asked with a grin, his breath catching.

She nodded wildly and wrapped her arms around his neck.

“Absolutely I will,” she whispered in his ear excitedly.

He laughed and pulled back, grabbing her face to kiss her, neither of them unable to stop smiling. There were whoops and hollers all around them from the students but Pam didn’t even notice them. All she could focus on was Jim’s lips on hers and the euphoric feeling of knowing he was really hers forever. He pulled her into another tight embrace.

“Well, give her the ring, Halpert!”

“Oh!” he exclaimed, fumbling with the box. He carefully pulled out the ring and slid it on the finger on her left hand. She lifted it up to her eyes to look at it closer. It was absolutely perfect—exactly what she would have picked out herself but she wasn’t surprised. Jim knew her better than anyone.

“I love it,” she said softly to him.

“I love you.”

She kissed him again until the students in her class began making exaggerated gagging sounds and Jim laughed, saying he should let her get back to teaching even though she had no idea how she would be able to focus on anything now. She told her kids to begin their warm-up sketching while she said goodbye to him.

“I’ll see you tonight?” he said before leaving.

“Not lunch?” she frowned.

He walked backwards and shrugged at her with a wink. “Dentist appointment.”

———————

She was right. It was incredibly difficult to focus on anything with the ring on her finger. Every time it caught her eye, her stomach flipped and she couldn’t help but smile. Somehow she made it to the end of the day but she still had faculty meetings until early evening. After they had finally finished, she packed up and drove home, trying to call Jim but catching his voicemail. He hadn’t returned for his afternoon classes either, so she was hoping he was feeling alright because she definitely needed to see him.

As she pulled up to her house, she saw his car parked on the street out front and a giant smile spread on her face. She quickly parked and ran inside to find that Jim was standing in the doorway as she entered. He flashed her his famous half-smile.

“Hey.”

“Hi.”

She jumped into his arms and he hugged her tightly, one hand grasping at the back of her hair as he turned his head against hers and whispered, “I can’t wait to marry you, Beesly”. Then he took her hand, moving the ring around with his thumb, and led her into her living room.

She audibly gasped as she saw what he had done. Seemingly every blanket and pillow in her house had been strategically piled on the floor and there were candles and a bottle of champagne. Her gas fireplace was burning bright and faintly in the background she could hear “The Luckiest” playing.

He slid down to the floor with his back against the couch and pulled her down to sit in front of him with her back against his chest. She leaned back, sighing happily as his hands ran down the length of her arms and he placed a delicate kiss on top of her shoulder.

“I thought we could celebrate a little,” he said softly.

She closed her eyes as his lips moved to the side of her neck. “Mmm...celebrate what?”

“No cavities,” he hummed against her skin.

She chuckled and reached up behind her to run a hand through his hair. Then Jim leaned over and grabbed the champagne and flutes next to them, handing one to Pam. He popped the top and poured a glass for both of them and then raised his slightly.

“To no cavities.”

“To no cavities,” she smiled.

He shifted so he could see her eyes. “And to making me the absolute happiest idiot this world has ever seen. I love you so much, Pam.”

She kissed him gently with a smile. “I love you too.”

They clinked their glasses and took a sip simultaneously and Pam leaned back against him, watching the fire give the room a soft glow that mimicked how she had been feeling inside all day. The rest of the night was spent in their own little word, sharing their very favorite parts of their relationship with one another, whether they included clothing or not.

But soon morning came. And unfortunately for them, it was still a school day. Jim stirred as Pam’s alarm clock chimed and he pulled her closer to him. He kissed her between her shoulder blades and she could feel his smile against her skin.

“Good morning, my beautiful fianc�e.”

She closed her eyes and beamed. She wouldn’t have been surprised if she had a stupid grin on her face the entire night, even in her sleep. Somehow it all felt surreal but also like this is how it was always meant to be, written in gold ink in the books of time.

Life had to continue that day as normal, as much as she would have loved to stay suspended in the clouds of engagement bliss. There were projects to grade and lessons to plan, as always. But now she did those things with a ring in her finger.

She would catch herself staring at the ring as she typed or sketched, marveling at how it perfectly caught the sunlight streaming through her classroom window and cascaded tiny spots all over her desk. It was a reminder of the man across the hall who, all those months ago, had welcomed her to this little school of theirs. Who pranked her and gave her books. Who danced with her and stuck up for her. Who made her realize her ability and gave her confidence.

This particular time as she caught sight of her ring, she glanced across the hallway where she saw him standing in the back of his classroom, book in his hand, intently discussing it with his students. He must have felt her gaze because he looked up at her briefly and smiled mid-sentence, her knees going weak.

The thing about Jim is that he had a habit of spewing off random quotes from his favorite authors when they were together or when he came across them the book he was reading. For the most part, they never stayed with her. But one quote in particular had seemed to stick and it ran through her brain on a loop every time she saw his green eyes meet hers.

“To get the full value of a joy you must have somebody to divide it with.” Mark Twain

In her life, she had always assumed she was happy. That was, until a tall, handsome English teacher walked out of the faculty lounge and into her life and she now realized she had never known true joy until she had found him. And she wanted nothing more than to divide that joy with him forever.

The two of them had spent the first weeks of summer at a beach house in Emerald Isle, North Carolina. They had decided to drive there, enjoying each other’s company and filling the time with stories of teaching and childhood and their dreams of the future. One night as they stood with their feet in the sand, overlooking the moon reflecting in the ocean waves, they decided they’d rather not wait much longer to begin that future.

So, the ceremony happened two months later—small and intimate. They filled the main room of the cabin in the Poconos with white roses, family, and promises to cherish and challenge one another until the very end. He held her close as they danced on the makeshift dance floor in the backyard, and filled her ears with promises he fully intended to keep for the rest of his days.

They spent that first night as husband and wife in a small bed and breakfast near Lake Valhalla. Though they already knew every inch of each other, he would never forget how being her husband made the stars shine brighter and every sensation sharper. A complete feeling of serenity washed over him as they lay together, now intertwined both physically and otherwise.

They spent a few days in Washington D.C. for their honeymoon, visiting the bench in front of the Washington Memorial each night. He would pull her close and recall how he was sure he couldn’t possibly love her any more than he did the last time they sat there and first expressed his feelings for her. Now he knew there was no ceiling when it came to his capacity to love her.

They returned to school two weeks later, where everything was mostly the same. Same classrooms, same desks. But even so, nothing was the same. Jim looked through the hallway the morning of their first day of school and saw his wife, his wife, sketching at her desk and emotion began welling up in his throat. He loved her.

The bell rang and his class shuffled into their seats. After getting them started on a writing prompt, he sat at his desk, staring at the couch next to his desk where they had sat almost exactly a year ago, before they were them. He smiled to himself, remembering their last year, remembering Raphael, and homecoming. Chaperoning trips and making fireworks, both literal and figurative. They had grown into each other, blurring the lines of where he ended and she began.

He twisted the gold band on his finger and chuckled softly to himself, realizing the premonition he had at the beginning of last fall had been correct. He had felt like it would be his best year yet and he had definitely been right about that. But it was the funny, kind, and painfully beautiful art teacher across the hall who had made it that way.

From across the hall he heard her voice and looked up.

“Good morning class, I’m your art teacher, Mrs. Halpert.”

He watched as she bit her bottom lip and smiled as the words came out of her mouth. He had read countless books by countless authors, but those nine words, in that order, made up the most beautiful sentence he had ever heard.