“Now don’t forget our plans for tonight, Ryan,” Kelly said as she was packing her stuff up to leave.

Ryan paused in the process of putting on his jacket, then he said, “Plans?  What plans?”

Grr!!!  Ryan was always doing that!  She had been reminding him all day that they were supposed to go see Hairspray that night.  This just proved that he never listened to her.  “Oh my god, how could you forget?  I’ve been telling you for weeks that I want to see Hairspray and you promised me that we would.  I told you to pick a day, and you picked today.  I can’t believe you forgot!”

He sighed and did that stupid eye rolling thing that she used to think was totally cute but now she totally despised it.  “I’m sorry if Hairspray isn’t at the top of my list of priorities.”

“Well it should be!”  It so should be.  God, Amanda Bynes and Troy Bolton from High School Musical in the same movie?  How could that not be the most important thing in anybody’s life?

“Look, we’ll do it some other time, okay, Kel?  I’ve had a long day and I just want to go home, get in my sweats, grab a bag of cheetos, and watch the ballgame.”

Now it was Kelly’s turn to sigh and roll her eyes.  “That’s all you ever want to do.”

“And all you ever want to do is watch crappy movies.”

Kelly gasped and said, “Excuse me?  Hairspray is not crap!  It’s got John Travolta in drag!”

Ryan smiled smugly and said, “My point exactly.”

“Urgh!”  Kelly grabbed her purse and turned her back on Ryan.  He was being impossible!

“So does this mean you’re not sleeping over tonight?” he asked, and she tried to ignore the happiness in his tone.

She stayed silent.

“Great!  I’ll take a cab home, see you tomorrow.”  She heard his footsteps quickly walking away.  Jerk.  He wasn’t really supposed to leave.

Kelly let out a defeated sigh and turned around.  There was this little niggling hope that he would still be there, but he wasn’t.

“’Cause one day we’ll find it,” Kelly faintly heard a high voice sing, “the ainbowray onnectioncay…”  She followed the sound and found that Andy guy from Stamford serenading Pam.  “…the lovers, the dreamers, and me...”

A smile snuck onto Kelly’s lips, and she felt this weird pang of jealousy.  It was such a romantic gesture.  True, the song was totally dorky, and Andy looked like a total dweeb with that banjo, but she almost wished it was her being sung to instead of Pam.  And Pam was totally ignoring him.  She just kept looking over at Jim and smiling.

When Andy finished his song, he got this proud smile on his face and said, “Soooo… did you like it?”

Kelly could tell that Pam was trying not to giggle as she said, “Oh, yeah, that was… beautiful.”

Andy’s smile got bigger and he nodded like he was congratulating himself.  Then he sort of bit his lip and raised an eyebrow as he said, “So how about that date that I so skillfully propositioned to you earlier?”

This time Pam couldn’t hold in her laughter.  Then Jim cracked up.  Andy looked between the two of them, totally confused.  Kelly kind of felt bad for him, he was so clueless.  There was no way he had a chance with Pam, she was totally pining away for Jim.

When Pam’s laughter died down, she said, “I’m sorry, Andy, but it’ll never work.  I’m just not ready for a relationship right now.”

Andy’s smile faltered, then he quickly recovered and said, “Oh… well that’s cool.  I’m totally fine with just a physical thing.”  He leaned in closer and said, “You know, a friends with benefits type deal.”

Pam stifled another laugh and just got up and headed out the door, Jim followed behind her, struggling just as hard as Pam not to laugh.

Andy stared at the door and said, “Ooookay then!  I’ll take that as a maybe!”  His smile slowly disappeared and he looked down at his banjo, then rested his forehead on it and closed his eyes.  For all of this Andy guy’s seemingly unending enthusiasm, there was this air of tragedy about him.  She hadn’t noticed until that moment.

She quietly walked over to the couch and sat down.  When he didn’t look up, she said, “That was awesome.”

Andy’s eyes popped open and his head shot up.  “Oh!  Hey, I didn’t realize anyone else was still here.”  He laughed nervously.

“Your singing?  Totally awesome,” she told him again.

A small smile danced across his face and he bowed his head as he said, “Thank you muchly.”

“I so wish Ryan would do something romantic like that for me, but he won’t even sing when we go to karaoke bars.”

Andy’s eyes got wide and his mouth dropped open.  “Are you serious?  How could anyone not sing at a karaoke bar?  You’d have to be made of… steel… or something.”

“I know, exactly, right?”  Kelly couldn’t help but smile at him, and he smiled right back.  She suddenly noticed how much his eyes lit up whenever he smiled.  It was like staring into the light blue sky on breezy summer day.  Warm and comfortable.  “Do you like Hairspray?”

“Uh, yeah!  I’ve seen it three times already.  John Travolta as a woman?  Totally blows my mind.  Plus it’s got the uber talented Troy Bolton, so that makes it a must see right there.”

Kelly laughed.  Okay, Andy Bernard was a total genius.  Totally clueless, but still a genius.

Kelly waved goodbye to him and stood up, and as she was walking to the door she heard him say, “Hey, Kelly?”

She turned around and smiled as she said, “Yeah?”

Andy looked down for a minute, then he cleared his throat and connected eyes with Kelly again.  “You know,” he said, “A lady so fine… such as yourself, totally deserves to be serenaded… like, every day.”

Yep, total genius.