Dallas, Texas

"I don't understand you Pam, I always got the impression Bobby's brother was a jerk, but Jack, he's charming…" listening to Kathy as they stood in the bathroom reapplying their lipstick, Pam smirked, it appeared she was not the only one smitten with a Ewing man. From what she could tell, Jack was quite the charmer, she wasn't attracted to him, she had her eye on Bobby, but she could see Jack's appeal. What she couldn't see was his cousin's appeal, she barely knew JR but the experience she had had with him had been far from positive, so it wasn't surprising people assumed she thought he was a jerk. "Jack is Bobby's cousin, JR is his brother and JR is the one who was rude to me. There must be something loveable about him, his wife seems enamoured, but I can't say I found him very friendly at all. You can make up your own mind about him if you ever meet him, he was probably intentionally rude to me because of who my daddy is, he didn't actually say that though, he was just unpleasant toward me even when I tried to be friendly".

"Cousin, different man, that explains it then", pausing after she spoke, Kathy nodded slowly as if processing the information she'd been told, before turning toward Pam, "you wouldn't mind if I acted on my interest in Jack would you? You can have Bobby, and JR I'll stay away from, married or not that jerk doesn't sound worthy of my attention, I can't say the same about Jack though, like I said, I think he's charming, handsome too". Turning toward her friend, Pam smiled and shook her head, "no, I don't mind, you do whatever you want, I don't own Jack, I don't own Bobby either, but that's not my point. Jack has nothing to do with me, if you want to dance with him, accept the drinks he buys you, and potentially leave with him, I'm not going to stop you. You might want to get in quick though, if he's half as charming as you think he is the you might just have some competition". She had no problem encouraging her friend to pursue Jack, like Connie had told her earlier in the evening, it wasn't like they were getting married, there was no need to plan ahead of just having fun, they often did just that, it just so happened this weekend they'd both set their sights on Ewing men. "Sounds like we'd better get back out there then, hadn't we?" grinning as she spoke, Kathy waved toward the door, she was not shy about going after what she wanted, and if she wanted Jack now, she wouldn't hesitate to make that clear.

Returning to their table, Pam smiled to herself as she noticed Bobby talking animatedly with Brenda and a couple of the other girls at the table; he was a personable guy and she liked that her friends were beginning to see that, she wanted them to like him not just put up with him because she liked him. Bobby wasn't her boyfriend, not yet, in fact she didn't really even know what stage their relationship was in considering the rocky start and reset they'd gone through, but whatever they were, it brought comfort to her that if things continued as she expected them to, she wouldn't have any problem combining her two social lives. She couldn't say the same thing for Cliff and her daddy, she still hadn't broken the news to them that she was seeing Bobby, she didn't plan to for a while either, she was enjoying the peace they had found with each other after their initial conflict.

"Pammy", noticing her as she appeared next to him at the table, Bobby reached his hand out to bring her toward him with intention to squeeze her in comfortably close to him, a move that she appreciated greatly. She liked his gentle possessiveness, it was just enough to tell everyone they were together, but not too much that she felt smothered by him. It didn't escape her notice either that she'd acquired a nickname where he was concerned; he had probably called her Pam once or twice, but generally he seemed to stick to Pamela when they were together, she didn't know why but she didn't mind either. She liked Pammy too though, she was Pammy to her brother and daddy at times, a couple of exes too, but coming from Bobby it had a special tone to it, it sounded affectionate, at least to her ears it did.

Taking her seat next to him, she enjoyed the way he gently caressed her hand while continuing to listen to a story Connie and Brenda seemed to be telling, he was friendly, polite and seemed to genuinely be that way, he wasn't just acting that way to impress people and that meant a lot to her. She had to keep reminding herself that it was still early days for them, they had barely even established what they had together and it was far too soon to start elevating his position in her mind; even knowing that though, she still did it, she still filed her thoughts and memories into categories. Very quickly Bobby was outgrowing the box she'd put him in when she'd first started seeing him, he was more than just a nice guy she could see herself having fun with, she liked dating him and she wanted to put a more permanent label on him. She knew she could enjoy Bobby's company without planning ten steps ahead and there was no need to rush toward anything serious before either of them was ready, she had been telling herself exactly that all evening, it didn't stop her from occasionally thinking about it though. Boyfriend, she liked the word and she liked the mental picture she got when she thought the word to herself, maybe by the end of the night it wouldn't be just a mental picture for her; she felt ready. From the way Bobby had been acting toward her all evening she felt confident that he felt the same way too, tonight was the night things would progress to that next step for them.

To be continued…