8:11pm

With a wrapped box under her arm, Angela returned to the living room, smiling a little when she saw Ember still on Dwight's lap. She long ago accepted that Dwight was never going to love cats but he had become considerably more tolerant of them in the last year. Occasionally he was even affectionate, such as now scratching Ember behind the ear. Angela took a seat on the couch and set the gift between them. "A little early but Merry Christmas, Dee."

Dwight smiled and reached over, which finally forced Ember to move, and set the gift on his lap. He painstakingly unwrapped the gift (to save it, Dwight was extremely proud of the fact that he had never purchased a roll of gift wrap) and Angela's mind began to drift to earlier.

While he took the matter quite seriously, Angela knew it was some sort of set-up. It felt very much like one of Jim's pranks except much more involved, something carefully planned over weeks instead of just an afternoon. Many times she tried to intervene, make it clear to Dwight he was falling for yet another prank but Dwight always stubbornly refused to believe her to the point she would give up and let him fall.

And then in the parking lot she saw him, in the bushes far less hidden than he thought and Angela narrowed her eyes when she realized he was hiding with someone else. The flash of frizzy hair was unmistakable. Angela was surprised, they were far from the scheming duo they used to be, in fact they had hardly spoken since the merger. It was a poorly kept secret that Jim's transfer and Pam's broken engagement were linked, that something had clearly happened between them. But Angela stayed out of office gossip the best she could, lest she became the topic herself. And for whatever reason Jim and Pam were well-liked so any chatter about them was kept minimal.

But there they were, standing right next to each other, back at the scheming. Perhaps they weren't as distant as Angela thought. No, she could count on one hand the number of times Jim had visited Pam's desk in the last month, and he clearly had something going on with Karen. (Angela scowled, Pam was hardly Angela's friend but she was at least never pushy with untested party elements. A Christmas raffle? Angela had never heard a more terrible idea)

"Yeah!" Dwight's excitement pulled Angela out of her head and back to her living room. "A scale model BS-75 Battlestar Galactica!"

A smile tugged at Angele's lips, "You like it?"

Dwight scoffed "Is Boomer a Cylon sleeper agent?" Angela blinked a couple times, and Dwight grinned, "Of course I like it."

"Good." She scooted over on the couch and gently took the plastic ship out of Dwight's hands. One it was safe back in its box, Angela leaned over and gave Dwight's collar a tug. "I have another gift for you."

"Oh do you?" Dwight replied in a low tone. Angela smirked as she glanced up, and Dwight tilted his head back to the sprig of green above them.

"A little mistletoe."

Dwight frowned, "The berries are red, they should be white. The leaves are correct however." He looked back to Angela, "There's a great mnemonic to remember the difference between holly and mistletoe, it's in German though-"

"Dwight," Angela said softly but sternly and he immediately stopped talking. She arched her eyebrow and Dwight finally got the hint, removing his glasses and leaning in towards her.