“Hey, Cuppa Noodles,” Andy said with a smile as he strolled into the break room.

Kelly sighed.  He saw her eating a Cuppa Noodles one day and ever since then that’s all he’s called her.  It was kind of annoying, being named after food.  Especially cheap, processed noodles in a Styrofoam cup, but… whatever.  It was an Andy thing, and over the past few weeks she had found out that there were a lot of Andy things.  He found a reason to sing a song for just about any occasion.  One time when he was getting coffee she even heard him belting out, “The best part of waking up, is Folgers in your cup!”  It was moments like those when she seriously wondered why she was friends with him.  But then he would always give her that dorky smile, the one that let her know that he was excited to see her, and she would roll her eyes.  That smile always somehow managed to make the Andy things not quite as annoying as they should have been.

Kelly watched Andy get a bottled water from the soda machine, then he leaned against the counter, opened his bottle, and took a swig.  “Ahh, my thirst has now been properly quenched.”  He closed the bottle, set it on the counter beside him, then he crossed his arms.  He looked over at her and said, “So, did you catch The Paula Abdul Show last night?”

“Of course I did.  Oh my god, she was totally spazzing out about people saying that she was drunk.  But seriously, if I was her, I would want people to believe that.  Being a drunk is so much classier than being crazy.  You get to go away to this fancy rehab center and you sound totally badass because you’ve had this dark past that drove you to drink.  But being crazy?  No one forgives you for that.  Anne Heche anyone?”

“Yeah, tell me about it,” said Andy.  His voice sounded kind of bitter and he had this sorrowful look in his eyes.  Totally like the look that Matthew MacFadyen had on his face in Pride and Prejudice right after Keira Knightley refused his proposal.

“Oh my god, Andy, you know I wasn’t talking about you.”

Andy let out a bitter chuckle and said, “Yeah.”

“Look, so you punched a whole in the wall, big deal.  I mean, it was kind of psycho, like, completely scary kind of psycho, and the hole was really huge, and you still freak everyone out… but you know that you’re not crazy, and I know that you’re not crazy, and that’s all that really matters, right?”

Andy smiled.

“Plus, Anne Heche totally got her own show on ABC, so maybe being crazy isn’t so bad after all.”

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Kelly had this brutal way of saying exactly what was on her mind.  It was actually kind of annoying.  But then she would go and say something like that, and it made everything better.  It made him better.

As Kelly prattled on about the latest happenings with Brangelina or something like that, Andy’s mind drifted back to Hat Day.  It was to boost morale, Michael had said.  They were each supposed to wear a hat that represented something they were proud of.  So Andy of course chose his Cornell-colored “Frolf or Die” hat.  It was only the coolest hat ever.  It was basically a Frisbee with the center cut out of it, and in the center it was like a ball cap.  Totally awesome.  He called it his Frat.  Andy had been having an exceptionally good day, until Big Tuna, for no reason that Andy could think of, decided to steal his hat and toss it around the office.  Oh, everybody was just having a huge laugh, making him play monkey in the middle.  It was like he was ten years old all over again, jumping between Mickey and Johnny Malone, trying to grab his beloved “Fame” lunchbox that they had been throwing back and forth.  It was pretty freakin’ unfunny back then, and it was even worse this time around.  He seriously wanted to punch a wall again, and three months ago he would have, but instead he took a deep breath and went to the break room to calm down.  And that’s where he had spotted Kelly all alone, stooped over a Cuppa Noodles, looking completely lost.  For some reason it had made him forget about his Frat that was being manhandled in the other room, and he sat down in front of her.

“Hey,” he had said, kind of positive, but kind of hesitant, too.

She didn’t move, she just kept staring into the pool of noodles in her cup.

Andy cleared his throat, then he slowly reached a hand towards her and laid it on top of hers.  Her head snapped up and she sucked in a breath like she had just been burnt.  Andy gave her his best smile and said, “Hey.”

Again, she didn’t say anything, but she didn’t pull her hand from his either, so he took that as encouragement.  He turned on the old Bernard charm as he said, “A pretty woman such as yourself should never be eating alone.”

Her cheek had twitched as a small smile had snuck up on her lips, and ever since then they’d been lunch buddies.  And he had given her a totally cool nickname, too, by the way.  She so dug it.

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Kelly stared at the clock, desperately waiting for it to reach 5:00.  This was like, two of the slowest minutes of her entire life.  Her leg was uncontrollably bouncing up and down as she chewed on one of her nails.  Ew, biting her nails was like, one of her worst habits, she really needed to stop that.  But she was bursting with news about the Spice Girls tickets that would be going on sale in a week and Andy was still talking to somebody on the phone so she couldn’t call him and she couldn’t just walk over to him and tell him since he was busy.  And she couldn’t waste that kind of news on Pam because she totally didn’t appreciate how awesome the Spice Girls were.

Kelly glanced back over at Andy.  He had this goofy smile on his face, and he was doing that weird thing where he repeats whatever the other person says, she could tell by the tone of his voice.  “And I thank you, sir!  Business, with you, is always a pleasure.”

Kelly rolled her eyes.  She turned back to her computer and shut it down.  She grabbed her purse from the floor, and when she stood up she gasped as she turned around and found Andy right next to her with his sunglasses on.  “Oh my god, Andy, I have so much to tell you!”

Andy smiled and held out his arm the way they do in all those British movies where the guys are all gentlemanly.  Then he said, “May I have the honor of escorting this fine lady to her motor carriage?”

Kelly laughed and did a curtsey, then she grabbed his arm and walked with him.  Andy could be such a dork sometimes, and it scared her that his dorkiness rubbed off on her, but she had to admit, sometimes being dorky was kind of fun.

Kelly managed to tell him all about the Spice Girls news, and like she expected, he was totally psyched about it.  When they reached her car, he opened her door for her.  Just as she was about to get in, he took his glasses off and said, “Hey, Kelly?”

It was weird, hearing him say her actual name.  She had gotten so used to Cuppa Noodles.  “Yeah, Andy?” she asked with a curious smile.

“I was wondering…”  He looked down at his hands and cleared his throat.  “I thought maybe… well, you and me…”  He looked back up at her and she saw the nervousness in his eyes.  “We’ve… we’re friends right?”

“Oh yeah, totally.”

Andy smiled and he relaxed a little bit.  “Cool.  I totally knew that, I was just… just making sure that you knew that.”

Kelly rolled her eyes and moved to get in her car, but Andy stopped her again.  “Kelly, wait.  I—I wanted to ask you something else.”

“What, Andy?  Just spit it out already!”

“Do you want to go with me… to the Spice Girls concert?”

“Duh, of course I do.”

“No, I mean, go with me, like, on a date.  So… do you?”  His eyes were wide, and she could tell that he was holding his breath.

She should say no.  Andy Bernard was totally not the kind of guy that she dated.  He actually listened to her, and he did things for her, the kind of things that she would always do for Ryan.  And he always returned her calls.  And he understood that Pure Lilac was a totally different color than Lavender Bloom.  Andy wasn’t Ryan.