The Office | Jim and Pam Oneshots

Street Light

Set shortly after S3: The Job.
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They're standing in the parking lot of a P.F. Chang's shortly after their first date. He's holding her hand as she's walking to her car and everything feels so easy. Everything feels so normal again.

They're halfway across the lot when she turns around to face him. He has to blink, he has to adjust to the sight in front of him.

To the sight of her pale skin, the hair that is no longer tied up or in a barrette. He has to adjust to her warmth, because it has been so long since he's been able to feel her like this.

He has to adjust because he can so easily just reach out and touch her, touch her just like he's always dreamt of.

When their eyes lock he wonders if she's secretly a time machine, because suddenly he is back in May. Suddenly she is denying him as he pours his heart out to her. She brings him to the past and he doesn't  want to be here. He wants to be anywhere but here because if he stays for too long he will get rejected again.

But then her hands bring him back to the present. Because she is touching him and she is grabbing his hand and he's so desperate that if she touched him like this, and only like this, for the rest of his life he would die a happy man.

She says, "I had fun tonight."

"Me too."

He wants to promise her everything. He wants to get on his hands and knees and tell her that he will treat her right, that he will love her for the rest of his life, that he is going to love her for the rest of his life.

But he doesn't. He keeps his mouth shut because he doesn't have the best track record with Pam and parking lots. "You don't have to leave." He's still gripping her hand, he's afraid of letting go.

"Okay." She says it in that soothing voice that almost makes him pass out. In that voice that she only uses when he's around.

They decide to walk around Downtown Scranton. And her voice is so quiet he almost can't hear her. She's talking as if someone else might hear them, like the things she is telling him are secrets that only he gets to know.

"He was dressed in black."

"Right."

"And his reflection showed in the mirror, but when I turned around he wasn't there."

"Mhm." He listens, even though he hates ghost stories because he thinks they're complete bullshit. He stays engaged. "Maybe the ghost possessed you into going on a date with me tonight."

She giggles, even if the joke was stupid, she giggles anyways. That's all that matters.

He wishes he could stop time and just hear her laugh like this. Because he's the one making her laugh like this and her smile still gives him butterflies even after years of knowing her.

They stop at a crosswalk, waiting for the white lights to pop up and motion for them to cross the street.

And they stand under this ugly rusty street lamp with dents where the copper is slowly chipping away.  The light from the lamp makes her skin shine a reddish brown color.

This is where she kisses him. Where she's so close to him he can smell the strawberry fragrance of her shampoo. This is where his heart beats faster and faster with every second as she kisses him like he's the only other man in the planet.

Under this street light he is not a paper salesman. Under this lamp he did not abandon his girlfriend in New York. He did not just miss out on an amazing job opportunity.

Because under this street lamp they are in love. Under the shine of the light he finally has everything he's ever worked for.

Under this lamp he has her.