Thank you all SO much to those of you that reviewed the last chapter. You have no idea how happy it made me! :D This chapter is pretty short and for that I apologize. I just thought it was a good place for a break and you will be happy to know (I hope) that the next chapter is currently in the process of being written. Enjoy!
"Hey Beesly." Though he tried to keep his tone light, she could tell that he was confused. She couldn't really blame him. She was kind of confused herself. "What's up?"
"Well, I remembered you mentioning going to the mall today and I was thinking that I need new shoes and since you're going to the mall and I need to go to the mall, maybe we could go together." The words came out much faster than she intended. She couldn't help it, though. She had practiced the script so many times in her head the night before, the words seemed to just fall out of her mouth. Luckily, he didn't seem to notice.
"Sure. The more the merrier, right?" He was trying to sound cool about the whole thing, but he was, in fact, thrilled at this turn of events.
"You're sure I'm not butting in? You weren't planning on going with Mark or anything, were you?"
"Actually, Mark just bailed on me to hang out with some friends of his from work. I thought you were going to the lake with Roy today?" The thing about Mark was true. What Jim didn't tell Pam was that he never really had any intention of going to the mall at all. His plans for the day had included hanging around the house in sweats and maybe balancing his checkbook. For this, though, the sweats could wait.
"Roy decided to go with his brother instead. I guess he's going through kind of a rough time right now and Roy wanted to cheer him up." Pam wasn't entirely lying. Kenny always seemed to be going through a rough patch. She just hoped Jim didn't ask what was wrong because there was nothing specific this time and she had already exhausted her creativity for the day.
"Well, his loss is my gain. Now I don't have to be one of those losers seen wandering the mall by themselves, right?. What time were you thinking?"
"Ummm…I don't know. How about one-ish?"
"Perfect. I'll meet you outside the food court at one."
She agreed, they said their good-byes and hung up. Pam couldn't believe it. Her meager plan had actually worked. Now the only problem would be waiting until one. She looked at the clock: 11:07. How was she possibly supposed to wait two hours when she was, well, so many things. Nervous, proud of herself, guilty at lying to Roy but most of all: excited. More so than she had thought possible. She was going to spend at least a few hours alone with the person she had been infatuated with since she had met him. She checked the clock again: 11:10. This was going to be a long couple of hours…
Back at his place, Jim was feeling much the same as Pam. He had daydreamed of spending a day with her for as long as he could remember. It had actually become quite distracting at times. Now she had called him and it was just all so…hard to believe. In fact, he had actually pinched himself after hanging up the phone to make sure it hadn't been a dream. Then he had set to work picking out something to wear. He was more than a little happy that Mark wasn't around to see him as he rifled through his closet, looking for something that was both nice-looking and casual; something that looked like he had just grabbed it and put it on. He laughed at himself then; he was being ridiculous. Little did he know that across town, Pam was doing the same thing.
Again, reviews are more than welcome! I hope to have the next chapter written and posted by the end of the week.
