Hey guys. Sorry it took me so long to update this story. It's been a busy couple of weeks and I wasn't entirely sure where I was taking the story. I think this chapter is pretty good, though, so I hope everyone enjoys it. Please review and let me know what you think. :)
As usual, I own nothing.
Jim walked in the following morning to see Pam on the phone at her desk with a client. He was slightly frustrated by this because he really needed to talk with her. He had decided the night before that he was going to ask her to dinner for that night using the excuse that he didn't want her to spend any more time around her apartment and Roy than she absolutely had to. While this was true, his main motive was just to spend time with the woman he was sure he wanted to spend the rest of his life with.
Then Pam glanced up at him and all of his frustration melted away as she smiled. He sat down at his desk and immediately started to instant message her.
Hey Pam. Just wanted to see if maybe you wanted to grab a bite to eat after work again.
Index finger hovering over the 'Enter' key, he suddenly decided to wait to ask her until after he had been there for awhile. After all, he didn't want to seem needy.
A little after noon, he walked up to her desk. "Hey, Pam. Haven't really had a chance to talk to you today. How's it going?"
"Eh, fine I guess. Phones have been going crazy, though."
"Well, I was just going to go grab something to eat from the break room. Care to join me?"
"Sure! Just let me set everything to voicemail."
She followed him to the break room, where only Kevin was sitting. A quick glance at the paper he was reading showed Jim that he was reading the personal ads. For a brief instant, he felt a stab of pity towards his friend. That was soon overshadowed by the almost giddy feeling he got when he saw Pam sitting across the table from him.
"So, how's your day been so far," she asked.
"Same old, same old. Mostly been messing with Dwight all day. Apparently, he missed the new Battlestar Galactica last night so I've been looking up summaries online and randomly dropping little bits into conversation."
She laughed at this and the sound made his heart flutter. "Oh man. What does he do?"
"Not much at first. I think he figured I was making stuff up or that the names I was using must be a coincidence. After about the third spoiler, though, he started to catch on to the fact that what I was saying was following the story line and he started getting mad. Finally he threatened to tell Michael that I was interfering with his productivity. I stopped shortly after that."
"You don't think Michael would do anything, do you?"
"No. The summaries weren't that long, though," he smirked.
They spent the rest of their break talking easily, neither mentioning the break-up or the previous night. By the time they had to go back to work, Jim was feeling incredibly anxious. He hadn't asked her to dinner yet. He didn't know why he was so nervous; he had a perfectly good reason to want to take her out and it wasn't like he was going to call it a date or anything. Still, it was her and he was still very self-conscious about what he did around her.
He waited until almost three o'clock before opening the IM window again. After staring at the blinking cursor for what felt like ten minutes, he finally decided to keep it simple, typing:
Want to go out to dinner again tonight?
With an incredible amount of self control, he kept himself from looking towards her desk to see her reaction. He desperately wanted to know if she would be happy or think that he was taking things too fast. Maybe she just wanted her space…
That would be awesome. Same deal as last night?
Her fast response lifted the weight from his chest and he could feel himself grinning and then breaking into a full smile despite the fact that he was trying to control his emotions.
It's up to you. We can do the same thing. Otherwise, I was thinking somewhere a little less fast foody than Burger King.
What's wrong with Burger King?
He couldn't help it. He needed to see if she was being serious and was actually upset by his remark or if she was merely playing him. When he looked in her direction, she was trying to look at him with a serious face, which was quickly replaced by a smile.
Well, nothing I guess. I just figured we could switch things up tonight.
Okay. I think we should still take separate cars, though. I'll follow you.
It's a deal.
That had been a close one. He had started typing "It's a date" and caught himself right before sending it.
They left in the same manner as they had the night before, with him leaving first with a quick "good night" and her following a few minutes later. The only difference was that when she arrived in the parking lot, he was waiting in his car. He had been fidgeting with his radio, waiting for her to come out. They exchanged a quick glance and she got into her car and started it. When he saw that she was ready, he pulled out of the lot, her following close behind. No one else had been in the parking lot at the time, so there was no danger of anyone suspecting anything. He led her to an Applebee's and waited for her to join him in the parking lot.
"What do you think," he asked her.
"It's good. They have great food here."
They went in and were immediately seated at a table towards the rear of the restaurant.
After they placed their orders, he started talking to avoid any awkward silences, "So, how was the rest of your day?"
"Pretty good, actually! People seem to be talking to me more, which is nice. Michael even tried to set me up with Ryan. At least, I think that's what he was doing. He asked me what I was doing tonight and then when I told him I didn't have plans, he walked straight to Ryan's desk and I heard him mutter something about "getting a chance to hit that" or something. It was actually kind of funny, Ryan avoided me the rest of the day after that."
Jim offered a slight chuckle at this, but in fact he was kind of upset. He didn't like the idea of Pam being with anyone else and he really wasn't happy that Michael was trying to set her up so soon after she had broken up with Roy. It was tacky. He was snapped out of his inner rantings when she continued.
"I also managed to make a Battlestar Galactica reference to Dwight. He came up to my desk to ask if I needed him to "take care of anything" for me, whatever that means. I kind of felt bad afterwards because I think he was actually trying to be nice but I just couldn't help it."
"I wouldn't worry about it too much if I were you," he said while laughing. "It's a safe bet that he's got it coming."
While they ate, their conversation stayed on superficial things. People at work, family and at one point, what they would each do if Dunder Mifflin closed down. Finally, Jim turned the conversation gently to her current situation.
"How was Roy last night?"
He saw her grin falter at the question but she answered right away, "He seemed okay. I didn't really see much of him. I kind of went to bed right when I got home."
"It couldn't have been much past seven!"
"Yeah, it wasn't. I just couldn't…I was just really tired. Needed a good night's sleep, you know?"
"Sure." He wasn't sure how to continue. He wanted to talk about this and knew that she should talk about this. It wasn't good for her to keep everything bottled up and he wanted her to know that she could come to him for anything, even stuff about another guy. That's why he was relieved when she continued.
"He's pretty much finalized things with his brother. He told me this morning. He's going to leave tomorrow night with some things and then come back Saturday for the rest."
"That's good. Hopefully then it will be easier for you to move on."
"Well, I actually think that won't be much of a problem. After all, I have what a lot of people in my situation don't have. I have you."
He had never been so happy to hear three words in his life. He couldn't believe that this was actually going to happen. Sure, they had talked about it a couple of times over the past week, but he had never been able to tell himself that it would all work out. Finally, he felt that he could start to believe that everything would work out.