A/N: So this is my first play with fanfiction in like two years, so bear with me if its not great.

Disclaimer: I don't own the Office sadly.

Painted Strawberries

by BoarderKC


The first time Jim kissed her, she tasted like alcohol. Okay, so he didn't actually kiss her, she kissed him. She was drunk and giggling and in her adorable Pam-way, she stumbled into his arms and kissed him in front of everyone. He could still feel Angela's eyes on the back of her neck, practically burning heathen into his hair.

But she tasted of alcohol. His alcohol to be specific. His beer and the margaritas he had bought for her when her motor skills stopped functioning and she had fumbled with her purse zippers. It was chaste, tangy and so sweetly Pam. Even though it had killed a tiny part of him, he had fallen for her all over again.

The second time he had kissed her, she tasted like uncertainty. With his confession still fresh on his mind and his hope (fear) that he would never see her again, he lost control. But he didn't care. Didn't care that her fiancé could kill him with his bare hands. Didn't care that she would reject him. Just didn't care. Her hands were in his hair holding him, her lips were on his mouth and he was tasting her again.

Until that moment he didn't know what uncertainty tasted like, but as his tongue slipped inside her mouth, he tasted something dark. It was acidic, harsh against the sweet, alcohol taste of Pam he kept in his heart. It gave him chills that he could feel in his toes and it killed another part of him.

When he left for the other branch the next day, he bit his tongue until it bled, knowing that if he didn't leave then, he would have to kiss her again and try to replace the new Pam taste.

The third time he kissed her, she tasted of mixed berry yogurt. They were at work and she caught him in the stairwell at three til noon while Karen waited for him in the parking lot. They were supposed to be celebrating their four month anniversary, but Michael was making them work late and had settled on a nice lunch together and time alone at his apartment that evening.

She had pressed him against the wall and the hand railing dug into the small of his back, but he barely noticed as he tasted mixed berries and something else distractingly Pam and instantly he forgot all about the acid of their last kiss. His stomach burned when he pushed her away violently and he thought he might be sick as he felt another part of himself break.

When he lay in bed that night, his hands drifting over Karen's naked flesh and her lips against his, all he could taste was deceit.

The fourth time he kissed Pam, she tasted of paint and strawberries. He had been avoiding her for weeks, focusing on his doomed relationship with Karen instead and it was killing him worse than any of the kisses had before. She had been painting, trying to break away from safe, easy Pam and her safe, easy drawings when he had appeared on her new apartment doorstep, ten minutes after his amicable break up with Karen. He had swooped down on her mouth before she could say a word. And she had kissed back.

Their tongues danced and he felt lightheaded as the taste of paint fumes washed over his tongue and he kissed her harder trying to get more of the toxic taste that mixed with another flavor that was so distinctly Pam. Heat filled him as her hands touched his back, paint brush laced between her fingers and he could feel it brush softly against his back. Her lips tasted of strawberries and he forgot about the past; the alcohol, the uncertainty and her mixed berries; everything. Just lost himself in the taste of paint, strawberries and Pam.

For days after, he tasted painted strawberries on his tongue while his favorite sweatshirt held pale blue-green brush scars from her paintbrush. But he didn't care because he was whole again and kissing her.


A/N: Please please review!