“That is ridiculous.” Dwight said flatly, as he leaned forward and rested his elbows on his desk. He stared unflinchingly and disbelievingly at Jim.

For his part, Jim leaned back in his chair, crossed his arms, and took Dwight in with a questioning smirk.

“Why…is that ridiculous?” He asked casually.

“Because the answer is Empire. Everybody knows that.”

“Mmmm…I’m pretty sure it’s The Phantom Menace, Episode One.”

Indignation colored Dwight’s face. “Absolutely not. The Empire Strikes Back is the best Star Wars film of the sextrilogy!” His voice raised slightly, enough so that it drew annoyed glances from Phyllis and Stanley, and interested neck craning from Andy.

“A sex trilogy, Dwight? Wha-

“It means a group of six films, Jim. Don’t be perverted.”

“Wouldn’t that be a hextrilogy?”

Dwight stopped for a moment, and Jim watched in amusement at what he guessed was thirty plus years of concentrated movie-watching information being un-spooled in his mind.

“I-Regardless! The Phantom Menace was horrible, Jar Jar Binks, mitichlorines, Jake Lloyd…” Dwight grunted to punctuate the thought.

The fact that Jim completely understood everything that Dwight had just said left him partly amused, but mostly ashamed….and a little worried. Still, he had an hour to kill before he had to go to a sales call, and really nothing better to do…

“Yeah, but Dwight….I mean, how else can you know who has the force?”

“It….It’s a mystical energy.” He stared at Jim, as if his four-word explanation adequately articulated the point. In response, he got an ignorantly disbelieving headshake that only further angered him.

“So I suppose you think the smoke monster has some sort of scientific reasoning behind it?” Dwight asked, intellectual superiority and sarcasm oozing from every syllable.

Jim fought against rolling his eyes. Lately, it seemed that every conversation that they had somehow, inevitably, returned to the television show Lost. He figured it was because of the new season, but also reasoned that Dwight had nobody else to talk to about it. Consequently, Jim had decided to humor him.

“Um…I think it’s pretty obvious that it’s a nanoparticle cloud.” He said dismissively, knowing that they had talked about it a couple of days ago and Dwight had angrily argued against it. He swung ever so slightly in his chair to look over at Pam to see if she was taking this conversation in.

And she was.

As their eyes made contact, he saw her mouth ‘dork’ to him with a quick smile. He winked back and then turned again to Dwight.

“Wrong. Dismissed in a podcast by the producers. Also….” Dwight stopped himself and looked thoughtfully at the ceiling. “Scientifically impossible. Unfeasible. Dumb.”

There was a pause between them. Dwight smiled contently at having shot down Jim’s ridiculous nanoparticle theory…..While Jim was weary of mentioning anything else about the show in fear that he might get dragged into an hour long lecture on the true nature of The Tempest.

With a shrug of his shoulders, Jim returned to Spider Solitaire on his computer, but after a handful of seconds, the silence was broken.

“Where are you going on your sales call?”

Jim looked up, a little surprised by Dwight’s interest. “Oh, um, Laurie Chemicals…I guess they had some issue with the website or something… so I’ve got to go there and make the sale myself.”

“Pfft. Without me, you’ll never make the sale. I’m the Harrison Ford to your Mark Hamill.”

“That….doesn’t make any sense, Dwight.”

“Whatever, Jim. Just don’t cry to me if you mess up.”

“Alright….well, I won’t. But, I mean, Pam could make the sale.” Jim said off-handedly, and then put a 7 of spades, on an 8.

Dwight’s eyes narrowed at Jim’s words, and he looked over at Pam. She was now over at the shredder destroying some faxes out of boredom. He watched as she tried to put more than the instructed number of sheets in for shredding, and jammed the machine.

“I don’t believe you.”

Jim heaved a sigh, and took a quick glance down at the clock in the corner of his monitor before he looked back up at Dwight.

“What?”

“I don’t believe that Pam could make the sale.”

A small smile lit his lips, and Jim looked over again at Pam as she banged her palm on the side of the shredder loudly. His mind, which over the years had learned to plan fast, and scheme quickly, went into motion instantly.

“Do you want to bet?” He asked Dwight challengingly, with a raised eyebrow.

“Gambling is illegal. Also….you’d lose.”

“Alright, well, if you’re too scared—

“What do you want to bet?” Dwight asked quickly, each word coming faster then the previous one.

“Um, well….what do you want if you win?”

Dwight rubbed his chin thoughtfully, and then with a crooked and slightly sinister grin, spoke. “When I win….you must stand in the middle of the room, and announce my superiority to you….in sales….and in Lost knowledge.”

The thought of actually losing briefly flitted through Jim’s mind…but then he remembered that the sale with Laurie Chemicals was pretty much completely in hand. And anyway, he knew it would be worth what he could get when he won.

“Alright…and when I win….you have to…..bake two dozen cupcakes for me and serenade the office with the song of my choice.”

Without hesitation, as if Jim’s request had already been completely expected, Dwight asked… “Frosting?”

“Peanut Butter…vanilla cupcakes.”

“What song?”

“Uh…I haven’t decided.”

“Hells Bells?”

“No, I was thinking more….soft rockish.”

“Kashmir? I can play it on my recorder.”

“Um isn’t that like over eight minutes?”

“So?”

“Alright, Dwight…just…yes or no?” Jim stuttered slightly.

“Deal.” Dwight extended his arm across the piled up binders that was the line of demarcation between their desks. Jim reached over and shook it.