During the football game Jim made sure to sit on the other side of Andy and Michael. He wanted to make it clear to Karen that he was definitely not attempting to flirt with her. But as the game progressed he thought that maybe he had taken her comments the wrong way. She seemed like a smart ass with everyone else and maybe she was making smart ass comments the night before and he was just too uptight to realize it. Later that week when she asked him to go eat dinner with her he was less hesitant about accepting than he would have been before the football game. He was still trying to limit the time he was spending with her though because the longer they were in the same place the more likely it was that she would make an awkward comment. It would be small things like she would mess up his hair and say “you look cute when the hair is out of your face.” Normally he would just give her an annoyed look, but it didn’t seem to bother her one bit. Just as long as she was keeping things relatively friendly they were fine. They had a similar sense of humor so it was easy to hang out with her. No matter how many times Jim told himself the he was just being conceited in thinking that Karen was interested in him he just couldn’t shake the feeling.
Karen was sitting in her room down the hall from Jim. His door wasn’t open, but she knew he was there. She saw him walk by earlier. She had gotten up six times and made it half way down the hallway before turning around each time. She thought this over for a whole week; it wasn’t until yesterday that she decided that she was going to tell him how she felt. She was normally a very logical person. She didn’t act on feelings if it wasn’t clear that both parties reciprocated the feelings. But Jim made her act like someone else. She was never this forward with anyone. If he didn’t know that she liked him then he had to be the densest person on the planet.
She once again attempted walking over to his room. She didn’t make it out of her door when she saw his door open. He was on the phone, laughing. He walked over to the water fountain, took a sip, and walked back into his room. He didn’t close the door. She could her him talking. She couldn’t make out what he was saying, but she heard when he stopped talking. She waited and when he hadn’t said anything in more than a minute she assumed that he got off of the phone. She was going to do it now.
She walked down the hall and knocked on his open door. He was in a remarkably good mood; just smiling for no reason.
“Hey Karen!”
“Hey, can we talk?”
He nodded. She entered the room and closed the door behind her. He let out a sigh. He couldn’t even imagine what would warrant closing the door to talk.
She stood by the door rocking on the heels of her feet. “Did you want to sit?”
“No,” she had built up this momentum and sitting might bring it to a halt. “Wow, this is harder than I thought.”
He was standing in front of his desk and she moved closer to him until she was standing so close that they’re chest were almost touching. He stayed silent. He would have moved back if he had room to.
“I, um... I really like you.” She said the last part really fast and she wasn’t even sure if it sounded like words. He looked stunned. She grabbed his face with her hand and kissed him on the mouth.
He pushed her back, not hard, but with just enough force that made her stop. “Oh, no.”
“Was that not okay?”
“That was definitely not okay.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Well for one, I have a girlfriend. Pam is my girlfriend.”
Karen finally took a few steps back and stared at the surprised look still on Jim’s face. "You guys are dating?"
“Oh my god. I have to tell Pam.”
“No, don’t tell Pam. She’ll hate me. If I would have known I would have never kissed you. I just thought she was your best friend.”
“We probably shouldn’t hang out together anymore.”
Karen had now backed all the way up to the door. She had never felt like a bigger idiot in her whole life. She didn’t say anything as she left.
Of all the things Jim thought Karen would say he never thought that she would say that, let alone follow it up with a kiss. He got on his computer and sent Pam an email.
Call me as soon as you get this. It’s important. I have to tell you something.
Jim.
They had just gotten off the phone so he knew that she would still be up. He sat silently thinking about ways he could have stopped this before it had happened. He wondered if he had made Karen think that this was okay.
His body jumped when his phone rang.
“What did you forget?”
“I don’t know how to say this.”
She thought he just wanted to say I miss you or something. She didn’t think that he actually needed to tell her something important.
“Karen just kissed me.”
She laughed and he wasn’t sure why.
“I’m not sure why you’re laughing, but trust me nothing about that was funny.”
“I’m an idiot.” She seemed way too calm about this situation.
“No, I’m pretty sure I’m the idiot.”
“I basically told her to kiss you.”
“I’m sorry, what?”
“She kept writing me about this guy that she liked. I never asked who it was, but I never thought it was you. I told her to go for it. I told Karen Fillipelli in a round about way to kiss you.” She laughed again.
“I’m glad that you find this funny.” He wasn’t sure why, but he was a little mad that she wasn’t upset about this.
“Are you mad?” She wasn’t laughing anymore.
“Honestly? Yeah, I am. Some other girl, your friend, just kissed me and you’re laughing it off.”
“I’m not mad because I trust you. I think I know you well enough that I know you wouldn’t cheat on me. I mean, you told me to call you right after it happened. If this is you cheating on me then you suck at it.”
He grunted in agreement, still a little too mad to form words.
“So who’s the better kisser?” She joked.
“That’s not funny.”
“We have two options here. We can be mad about this situation and dwell on it until the end of time, or we can make light of the situation and forget about it in a few days.”
“You are.”
“What?”
“You’re the better kisser. Karen might be, but I didn’t kiss her back, so by default you win.”
“See, doesn’t that make you feel better?”
“Only a little.”
“Did she really not know that we were dating, or is she secretly just a huge bitch?”
“I think that she really didn’t know.”
“How did she miss that memo?”
“I didn’t really come back announcing that we were dating. I figured everyone thought we were dating last year, so it seemed a little repetitive to just confirm what everyone already thought they knew.”
“Jeez Jim, don’t you ever talk about me? I talk about you all the time and my roommate now hates the sound of your name.”
“Do you really want me to be that guy? ‘Cause talking about you comes effortlessly to me.”
She smiled. “No, don’t be that guy.”
There was a long silence.
“I’m gonna go to bed. Don’t kiss anymore girls.”
“I’ll try not too, but I’m having to beat these girls off with a stick, nay, one of Dwight’s samurai swords.”
“So you’re killing people now?”
“Maiming sounds cooler.”
“Uh huh. Okay.”
“Night Pam. I—goodnight.”
“Night.”
He hung up the phone. That wasn’t the first time he had almost said “I love you” on the phone. He wanted to wait until she came back though. He wanted to see her reaction when he said it. He wanted to follow it up with a kiss.
Author's Chapter Notes:
Karen makes her move.
Chapter End Notes:
Next Chapter is Jimbo's birthday. Sorry that took forever to post.
