Author's note: Hey kiddos! Sorry I haven't been on here for awhile. Anyway, here's another ball of fluff for ya. Aw, the almost beginning of their relationship (: Be on the lookout for the next chapter. It'll be pretty intense! I hope. Hahah. And thanks for the super reviews! Love you guys.

"Sorry," she whispered, after a long silence had consumed the room. He shook his head, a small grin playing with his mouth. She had nothing to be sorry about. A few minutes later, she took a deep breath and continued. "It's just… I called off my wedding for him, but he wasn't around to see it. I shouldn't… He told me he loved me, Ryan. He loved me. And I didn't say it back. Not at the time, anyway. If he would have stayed a little longer, I could have… I just… don't know what to do. I'm such a wreck." Ryan simply pulled her into his arms again. He had been doing that a lot tonight.

"Well," he whispered, but knew she heard him. "What do you want to do?"

She snuggled into him closer. He didn't know that was possible, with how tightly he was holding her, but she managed to do it. "I told you. I don't know what to do."

His hand absently ran through her hair. "I know that. But what do you want to do?"

"I," she sighed into his chest. "…I just want to move on. To forget he ever existed. Is that pathetic?"

"No you don't," he ignored her question. She pulled away to look into his eyes, obviously put off by his statement. He lowered his voice until it could barely sift through the office air. "You know that forgetting him would be the biggest mistake of your life." She squeezed her eyes shut, probably to stop another onslaught of tears from springing forth.

"I just don't want to feel this way anymore," she muttered so quietly that Ryan had done a double take to make sure the words were actually coming from her. Luckily, her next words weren't so silent. "What is WRONG with me!? I'm not that girl, Ryan! I've NEVER been that girl! But I just… I can't believe I pushed him away. It's my fault he left."

"Stop saying that," Ryan countered with an eye roll. "You know it's not true." She merely scoffed in response. He hated using that word to describe something she did. It sounded so… masculine, and she was obviously very, very much a woman, but that's what she did. There was no other word to describe it. He looked into her eyes to find her smiling back at him.

Surprise?

Tear tracks were still apparent on her cheeks, but if he had to look at a few wet marks on her face every time he wanted to see her smile, he'd take it in a heartbeat. "Ryan Howard, did you just roll your eyes at me?" She held up a slender index finger and began to shake it from side to side, smirking at him in the process. "That's very rude, you know. This is a serious topic of conversation."

"Yes, I know," he smirked right back. "You've been complaining about it for the last three hours." Her mouth dropped open as her hand reached out and shoved him away.

"Well, if you didn't want to listen to me ramble on for three hours, then maybe you shouldn't have asked." She sarcastically held up her fingers to put air quotes around the words "three hours." He couldn't help but grin wildly at her response. Perhaps there was a little more of the "old Pam" than he thought.

"I wasn't really asking, actually. It was kind of just a formality, you know. I couldn't care less about your little problems."

"Right," she giggled with him. After their laughter had died down, she looked at him with a small smile. "Thanks for listening, though. Even if you didn't really ask."

The corner of his mouth turned up as his gaze shifted to her hand tangled up in his. He gave her gentle fingers a squeeze before responding. She sighed and leaned into him. "I lied before. I really did ask."