Pam had never been one to play games, especially not petty childish ones, but petty childish games were the only ones Katy knew how to play. Originally she was just going to let it go. If Katy had to lie just to get another shot at Jim then she was a sad person. But the next time Pam was at work and Katy came in with that smug look on her face she couldn’t forgive and forget. The way Katy condescendingly asked how their date was just started a fire inside of Pam.
Nope, she wasn’t going to be a pushover, not this time.
“It was really nice. He did everything so perfectly. We never made it to the restaurant though, but the trip to his bed was amazing. I have to know, how did you ever let him slip through your fingers?”
Katy turned on her heel and walked out. None of this made Pam feel better about the situation, but Jim wasn’t Katy’s anymore and if lying to Katy about that night made her a sad person too then she was okay with that, because she had Jim and Katy didn’t.
After work she headed up to Jim’s. She had been staying there more often after their fight. She loved waking up next to Jim. Smelling his skin in the morning and feeling his body next to hers. Sure sleeping in a twin bed was often uncomfortable, but sleeping on Kelly’s couch wasn’t any more comfortable.
It was a Friday afternoon and they had both gone to their classes and come back in a hurry to see each other. She headed off to the shower after they were done. She lazily wrapped a towel around her and Jim stared at her from the bed. She didn’t see Michael walking around the corner as she walked into the shower.
It wasn’t until later when Jim and Pam headed downstairs to get some lunch that they found out that Michael knew they had sex this afternoon.
“You guys are really enjoying living together,” Michael said.
Phyllis looked up at the three.
“What?” Jim asked.
“I bet you guys have tons of sex every night.”
“There’s this line of appropriateness and you passed that probably 10 words ago.” Jim said coolly.
“So you are?” Michael obviously not getting the hint.
Pam shook her head at Michael and Phyllis cleared her throat.
“Pam?”
“Yeah?”
“Did I hear Michael right? Are you living with Jim?”
“No, I’ve just been staying over every once in a while.”
“How much is every once in a while?”
“I dunno, a couple days here, a few days there. It’s just until I get a room, I promise.”
“You’re going to have to vacate the room, or I’ll be forced to report this to Jan.”
“Come on Phyllis! Lots of kids have people sleep over every night.”
“Yes Jim, but you’re the RA. You’re supposed to set an example not show them all how to break the rules. No more of this. You know you’re only allowed to have a guest 7 nights out of a month, so I suggest you choose your nights wisely.”
“Someone’s in a bad mood.” Michael said as he inconspicuously pointed at Phyllis but it didn’t matter because she was still in ear shot and she heard him.
“Thanks Michael, we owe you one.”
Karma was working its magic though. No less than an hour later was word spreading about Jan being fired. Apparently someone had seen Jan leaving the building last week, but not before kissing Michael. Then it eventually came out that Michael and Jan had been dating for at least two years.
Jim was surprised that Michael could keep anything a secret that long. To think that Michael and Jan were sleeping together when he was a freshman was surprising. He did feel bad for him though. He knew what it was like when you couldn’t be near the person you loved and Jan was definitely not allowed in the building anymore.
Pam adjusted to living on Kelly’s couch. She gave up on the idea of living in Dunder Hall this year. It was sort of hopeless after the first week. She gave Kelly a hundred bucks a month and she bought half of the food. It was actually a really good deal, but she would have rather paid for room and board in Dunder Hall.
Staying somewhere else did make seeing Jim on those rare occasions, through out the week and if she was lucky through out the day, that much better.
*******************************************************************
The year had really flown by. The semester was half over and she turned 21 today and tonight she would go out with Jim and their friends.
Her hand shook when she handed her ID to the bouncer. It was like she was sneaking into a bar and any minute she would be caught and kicked out.
“Happy Birthday,” the bouncer said as he handed her back the ID.
“Thanks.”
Jim followed her in and led her to a table with a hand on the small of her back. Everyone was there. Even Angela. Most likely Andy made her come, and maybe she came partly to see Dwight too.
The first shot was on the house, and so were the second and the third. The bartender was relentlessly flirting with Pam. Jim casually slid his hand over Pam’s and wrapped his fingers around her hand. She smiled a goofy smile and her thumb ran over his pinky. The bartender backed away from Pam. Jim looked up at him and his mouth flinched into a quick smile at the bartender letting him know that she was taken.
“Hey, let’s go back to the table. You’ll never guess who just showed up.”
“The Dalai Lama?”
“It’s actually more shocking than that and probably 30 times more uncomfortable than you could imagine.”
As the crowd parted she saw that brown haired lady sitting next to Michael. Jan.
Pam pulled on Jim’s arm.
“Jan? Your boss, Jan, is here?”
“Ex-boss and technically she was your boss too.”
They walked slowly the rest of the way to the table and Pam wasn’t sure if she should say hi. It wasn’t like they talked on a normal basis. She knew Pam’s name and knew she worked in the office, but she was her boss and bosses don’t interact with lowly office workers, that’s why they had Phyllis.
“Jan, this is the birthday girl, Pam.” Michael dramatically motioned between the two.
She was glad that Michael had reintroduced her. It may have been the only time Michael had taken an uncomfortable situation and made it less uncomfortable.
She wasn’t sure what it was about the alcohol that just made Jim seem so damn irresistible. It probably wasn’t even the alcohol. She only had a few drinks, maybe more, she lost track two hours ago. But she waited till Jim went to the bathroom and she followed him. She waited patiently outside of the door and when he walked out of the bathroom looking down wiping his hands together she caught a belt loop on his jeans and pulled him. He hadn’t seen her there. Honestly, he wasn’t even sure how she got there by herself. She had been leaning more and more with every drink and he had been holding her up. He was about to cut her off when he got back to the table, but apparently that wasn’t necessary now.
“Hey,” she said biting her bottom lip.
“What are you doing here? Did you need to go to the bathroom? Meredith can take you.”
She grabbed a fistful of his shirt and pulled him closer.
“Do you think they’ll notice if we leave?”
“Are you tired?”
She shook her head no, not understanding how he didn’t know that she just wanted him so bad right now.
“Do you want to go to a different bar?”
She huffed and pulled him closer again and kissing his neck.
“Oh, I get it. You want to take me home and take advantage of me in your drunken state.” He laughed unable to continue the charade of pretending not to know what she wanted.
“Uh-huh,” she mumbled against his chin as she worked her way closer to his mouth.
“I think I can arrange that.”
It wasn’t that hard convincing people that Pam was pretty plastered, the only hard part was convincing people that she didn’t need to throw up before she left. They acted as if it was some sort of ritual. Drink until you can’t drink no more and then throw up until you can’t throw up any more. He didn’t doubt that Pam would feel like shit in the morning.
When they got back into Dunder Hall Jim picked her up and carried her down the hallway because she had conceded to sort of squatting in the corner of the elevator, unable to stand any more.
He put her pajamas on her and pulled back the covers and let her get in. As soon as he pulled the covers up she was out. He watched TV for a bit before lying down.
Just before midnight he turned the TV off and shuffled over to the bed climbing in next to her. He scooted up behind her and wrapped a hand around her waist while the other hand combed through the curls fanned out across her back.
“Happy Birthday,” he whispered.
“Thanks.”
“I thought you were sleeping.”
“I was,” she said sleepily.
“I have something for you.”
“You’re going to give it to me now,” she said sitting up.
“Yeah.” He crawled out of bed.
He opened the top draw of his desk and searched with the moonlight for the gift. She laughed because it was sitting next to her all night before they went out and not once had she seen it. He walked back over and kneeled on the bed.
“Here,” he said handing her a tiny box. “But before you open it and think to yourself ‘great jewelry, how original’ I just want to say that it’s not.”
She slowly pulled the single ribbon off. Truthfully she didn’t care if it was just jewelry. It was from Jim and really that’s all that mattered. She lifted the lid off and there was a ring inside.
She picked up the ring between her fingers and tried to see it in the little light in the room. “Can you turn on a light?”
“Yeah.” He reached behind them and turned on a lamp.
Finally in the light she could see it. It was just a simple silver band, no stones. But as she really looked at it she could see that it was different, unique. It was squared and there were grooves cut into it.
“Wow. It’s beautiful. I love it.” She slid it on her finger.
“Don’t laugh, but it was designed by an architect. That’s why I got it, not because an architect made it, but because it’s as close as I can get to putting a ring that means something to me on your finger.”
“Wow, just when I think you can’t get any better you say something so utterly amazing.”
“I would have given it to you before, but drunk people tend to lose stuff.”
“Who are you calling drunk?” She pushed against his chest.
He lifted her hand and kissed her finger with the ring on it. “Certainly not you.”
She pulled him on top of her, finally getting what she wanted all night. “I love you,” she whispered into his neck.
The next day she would go home and listen to Kelly scream when she saw the little teal box she was carrying.
“Jim got you a ring from Tiffany’s!”
“Yeah,” she said sheepishly spinning the ring on her finger.
And she would wear that ring all the time, she would never take it off, that is until that night when their relationship came crashing in around them 8 months later.
Here's the ring, it's real. Frank Gehry, architect extraordinaire, created jewelry for Tiffany's.
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2006-1/1139117/frankgehrytiff.jpg
