“Dunder Mifflin, this is Pam.”
Jim poked his head out from the conference room. He wondered who could have been calling around 11 PM to a paper company.
“Oh hey Roy…no my cell is fine why?” he watched her pull her cell phone from her pocket and place it on her desk. “Oh damn I hadn’t realized it had died, sorry I didn’t even notice. Jim and I have been so swamped with papers and clients.”
He watched her twirl the phone cord in her hands and forced himself to go back into the conference room and not eavesdrop on the entire conversation. He tried convincing himself that placing Gloria Kittleson into a pile was way more interesting.
~*~*~*~
After ten minutes, Pam wasn’t back in the conference room yet and Gloria Kittleson and every name he’d done after that was starting to lose his interest; not that he had a lot to begin with. He placed the last of the K’s in the white paper pile and headed out to her desk. She was just getting off the phone when he leaned on the counter and he tapped the candy dispenser against his hand. She never had anything but jelly beans and as he popped a few in his mouth he wondered if she did it just for him.
“Roy?” he asked, his tongue tasting a mixture of cherry and lemon.
She nodded. “He’s going up to the lake on Thursday with his brother. Won’t be back till Monday.”
Jim nodded. “Should be fun.”
“I guess, I’m not going.”
Jim’s face scrunched up in confusion. “What? Why?”
She sighed taking his hand for a moment to take some jelly beans from him. He tried to ignore the fact she chose to touch his hand and get them that way instead of reaching into the dispenser. “Roy needs a little break I guess, from us, from work, everything.”
Jim almost laughed. Roy needed a break from Pam? That’s like saying Dwight needed a break from Michael and ass kissing. He wondered if she knew how much bullshit that was and was about to tell her so.
But she said it herself. “It’s bullshit.”
She’d already admitted it so why not agree right along with her. “Yeah, only a lot Pam.” She shouldn’t have to put up with it, with him. “Did you tell Roy what you thought?”
“I didn’t want bother him or anything.” She shrugged, deep down she knew Roy wouldn’t have really heard her any way.
Right, because bothering him with her thoughts and feelings would be unheard of. It’s not like they were supposed to be married or anything. Jim felt his teeth clench down on his tongue and bottom lip to prevent him from sputtering that.
Jim shook his head and tried to move away from the topic before his tongue started bleeding or his mouth said things he’d regret later. “Hey you don’t mind if I borrow some of those drawings and pastels do you? I’ve talked about your drawings to Mark before and those would be the perfect ones to show him.”
He hoped he had sounded somewhat convincing, and it’s not like he was lying all the way. He really did want to show Mark her work, but then again he wanted to show everyone. She nodded and took her portfolio out from under her desk and handed it to Jim.
“Just give them back when you’re done.”
“Damn really? I was going to add them to my shrine in my basement.” Jim smirked putting the brown portfolio on his desk.
“You have a shrine?” Pam’s eyes widened just as big as her smile.
“Yes, candles and all. Come on I know you have one too.” He leaned on the counter again and she brought her hands close to her face and rested her elbows on the counter. It was then he realized her hands were close enough to hold.
“Actually I do to…but it’s for Elvis.”
He nodded. “Well that’s understandable.”
“You don’t have a cult do you?”
“Yes, it’s called The Pam Cult.” He shrugged. “Obviously.”
She giggled and he could feel her breath on his hands. She rose from her desk and his hands were freezing all of a sudden.
“We should get those names finished.”
He nodded and grabbed a few jelly beans and followed her into the conference room. He glanced on his desk at the portfolio as she closed the door. He shook his head; no he didn’t have a shrine but he did have a picture of her by his bed.
~*~*~
It was Wednesday when Jim thought of the jelly beans again and rose to approach Pam’s desk to grab a few.
“Hey, how are you?”
Pam shrugged. “Ok, I guess.” She wasn’t ok, she practically watched Roy pack up his bags and head off to the lake this morning. She felt like he was leaving for good; packing up his life right in front of her. He was only going to lake for six days but it felt like he wasn’t coming back. And the thing that upset her most is that she didn’t know how she felt about it. She should have been distraught, her soon to be husband leaving her for a break of six days. The only six day break should have breaking her. But it wasn’t and she knew something was wrong.
“Hey, I’m sure things will be alright.” Jim said wanting to choke on his words.
She shrugged again. “I guess.” She didn’t know whether she actually wanted things to be okay, to be fixed.
He wondered if she could only say the words ‘I guess’ now. He decided to try his luck. “I was wondering, I got tickets to this art gallery an hour out of Scranton. And since I’m art illiterate, do you wanna go?”
She looked up suddenly and a small smile tugged the sides of her mouth. “Are you sure you wouldn’t want to take…”
He could tell she had no one to suggest and was just trying to be polite. “Who? Oh you mean Kevin? Sadly, no he has golf and basketball to watch.”
She giggled. “No I mean like, are you sure you wouldn’t want to take a….date instead?”
It was funny really. Except the kind of funny someone finds peculiar instead of hilarious. Jim was asking her to be his date. But she’d never pick up something like that, or if she did she’d ignore it. “No, I’d rather take you.”
Pam looked down and hesitated, trying to find words that resembled yes or no.
Jim shifted from foot to foot trying to decide he should jump in before she said no. “I mean, as I said before if I went by myself I’d be wondering around like lost toddler, I know nothing about art. I mean if you don’t want to go…”
“I’d love to go Jim.”
He smiled as she looked up and gave him her brightest smile. He walked back to his desk and smiled again, receiving an IM from her.
PBeesly: You’re a great friend Jim. :)
Jim looked at the screen for a moment. Yeah he was a great friend; one that was trying too hard to be a hell of a lot more.
~*~*~*
Jim struggled to fix his black tie. The gallery he was taking Pam to required something a little dressier than his work clothes. He knocked on Pam’s door and suddenly felt a knot grip his stomach. He felt like Roy was suddenly going to swing open the door and pummel him. He kept feeling like he was slipping; falling more deeply in love with her. But stopping himself was like trying to stop a freight train with greased brakes. And when she opened the door and she was dressed in a gold glittered gown; he decided he really didn’t care anymore.
“You look…” he faltered.
“Nice?” she smiled.
He nodded, his mouth was suddenly dry. “Right nice, that’s the—that’s the word I was looking for.”
Pam stepped out of the doorway and fixed his collar and ran her hand down his tie. “You clean up nicely Halpert.” She grinned.
“Well I try, took a shower and everything.” He smiled feeling her hand through his layers of clothes.
Pam held open the door for him and he stood there for a moment. It felt wrong going into her home without Roy being there. He hated to feel like he was intruding when he really wasn’t. Nonetheless he walked through the door and waited for her to grab her purse.
She did so and he followed her right back out. She turned to look at him when they boarded the elevator and her eyes were shining. It was even brighter than the light reflected of the glittery gold on her dress.
~*~*~*
“Do you know this one?” Jim asked approaching a painting. He watched as she looked at it for a moment and read the artist statement next to the art. She’d been doing this for two hours now. He’d point out a painting that he liked the color or texture of and she’d take a look at it and tell him something interesting about the artist or the piece. She took his simple observation and turned it into something beautiful and interesting. He wondered how she did that; took something no matter what it was she touched or looked at and made it into something stunning.
“Yeah, Henri Matisse. Aren’t his brush strokes beautiful?”
“Yeah, really beautiful.” He responded but he wasn’t looking at the painting when he said it. He was looking at her.
She pointed along the canvas careful not to let her finger graze along the piece titled, “Purple Robe.” “He makes so much texture with such little paint sometimes. I’ve always wanted to do something liked that.”
She was even more beautiful when she talked about something she loved.
“Well I bet you could, seeing you’re other paintings I mean.” He blushed. Looking at her other paintings he was sure she could do anything.
She smiled. “Well I need to start taking up some more art classes. After that I’m hoping to make a series of paintings and put them in a gallery. But knowing I couldn’t even get the ones I had in one, I have forever to go.”
Jim shrugged his shoulders and grabbed her hand for a moment taking her around a bend. “You’d be surprised how short forever is sometimes.”
She smiled and enjoyed the warm feeling in her stomach. “Where are we going?”
“It’s late. The gallery closes in an hour, there’s an exhibit that I need you to see.” He answered pulling her through the maze of people.
Jim pulled her past a few paintings Pam wished she could stop and look at but she knew Jim wanted her to see something important so she let him drag her every which way until she nearly bumped into him when he stopped.
He turned blocking her view from the art. “Ok, read the artist statement and then tell me about the art.”
She nodded and looked for the statement, which was across from the art. She gasped and turned to look at Jim, who was standing behind her, hands in his pockets and beaming.
“Jim, it says my name on the artist statement.”
He nodded. “I know. Looks like that’s you’re art too.”
She hadn’t even looked at the wall with her art on it. But then there it was all of the paintings and pastels and drawings she’d had in that portfolio.
“Jim how did you…” She was speechless and all she could do was look at her art against the wall, under the small strobe lights on the ceiling. She could feel tears fill up against her eyelids, but for once they were happy. And she knew if she looked at Jim, they’d fall and she’d be extremely embarrassed. Leave it to her to be over emotional.
“I heard about the new exhibits they were putting up. My cousin works here and she gives me pamphlets all the time. They needed new art, I showed my cousin your stuff and she said she’d put it up. It’ll be up for three weeks.”
Pam turned suddenly and hugged him as hard as humanly possible. She didn’t care if it was embarrassing to her or to any other person walking around looking at art. They were looking at her art too. Her art. Jim seemed surprised but didn’t wait another moment before slipping his arms around her waist to squeeze her tightly as she was doing with the arms around his neck.
“Jim thank you so much, you have no idea how much this means to me.”
Well, actually he did. Which is why he did it and after all she had no idea how much she meant to him. He just nodded and didn’t want to let go of her.
As she pulled back slowly her arms stayed around his neck and he did the same with his arms. Their noses started to touch, because even though their bodies were pulling away slightly didn’t mean their heads weren’t inching foreword. She grazed her lips against his and he felt his heartbeat thump erratically in his chest. All this because he’d put her art up?
He smiled somewhat awkwardly. “All this because—”
His question was short lived, she was kissing him again. What was it with Pam Beesely and jumping people with kisses? Did she do this with everyone? Jim moved his lips along with hers and deepened the kiss. Maybe he was only so lucky.
Chapter End Notes:
i'm not getting alot of comments so i'm guessing i did something wrong with the story? i hope people are enjoying it!
