At the end of the day, everybody had gathered in the conference room, expecting to finish the movie.  Michael stood at the front of the room, next to the TV, with a look of doom on his face.

“Can I have everybody’s attention for a minute?”  Michael says, quieting the small buzz of chatter in the room.  “Due to circumstances outside of my control, which had absolutely nothing to do with me, or have any fault of my own...”  He continues, his voice quavering with nerves.  “We will not... be finishing the movie today.”

The entire office had a small look of disappointment.

“Are you saying you lost it?  Because you’ve gotta find it.  The Netflix people are already mad at me because I lost How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days.”  Kelly said, her voice wrought with anxiety.

***

“Okay, I didn’t lose the other movie.”  Kelly admits several minutes later. “Kate Hudson looks so good in that movie, and Matthew McConghaey is totally hot.  Even though he did that whole bongo thing.  That was total loserville.”

***

“Michael, I’m not sure recreating that particular scene where Kat dances on the tables would be the most... appropriate thing… for the office environment.”

Toby speaks in that tone he always has to take when dealing with Michael. And here with Michael’s hare-brained ideas.

Michael scoffed.  “Come on, Toby!  I know you’re in Human Resources and incapable of human emotion, but this...” He motions towards Pam in a suggestive way, “It’s a great idea!  It would totally improve morale around here.”

Kevin chimes in, “Totally.  I know I would work SO much faster...”

Pam sighs with disgust.  “You guys, I am not going to do a drunken dance on the reception desk.”

Michael frowns at this.  “Come on, Pamster!  Kat does it in the movie, why can’t you...”

“Michael...”  Toby interjects in Pam’s defense.  “It’s just a movie.  And this is the workplace, so I can’t force Pam to do a dance if she doesn’t want to.”

Pam grins victoriously at Toby, and a warm feeling washes over him.  Michael and Kevin both sigh with defeat, and Pam retreats to the break room.

“What an ironic twist: Toby the Pervert doesn’t want to see a hot woman dancing.”  Michael says, kicking his feet around.  “I should’ve fired you when I had the chance.”

Toby scratches his head.  “Michael, you’ve never had the…chance…to fire me.”

Michael stares at him in silence for a minute, realizing that Toby was right.  “Well, I wish I had.”

***

Creed stands up from his spot in the conference room and begins to leave the room.

“How’s it shaking, Mitchell?”  Creed said, nonchalantly.  He gave Michael a pat on the back as he made his way back to his desk. 

Karen leans and whispers to Jim, “I think Creed has something under his shirt.”

Jim glances out the corner of his eye and doesn’t notice anything that unusual about Creed.  He can’t help but think of the time he and Pam caught Creed with Kevin’s copy of American Pie 2.

“Nah, it’s probably nothing,” he replies. 

***

“I can’t find the movie. I am making the people in the office reenact the script.  It’s not that hard.  God, I can’t figure out where the disc went!   It’s not like it could’ve sprung legs and walked out of the office.”  Michael says, a hint of concern in his voice.  “Unless Toby used some more of his voodoo magic on it to punish the office.”  He pauses, seriously contemplating the idea.  His eyes widen, and he suddenly rushes out of the office.

***

“One time I accidentally brought one of Sasha’s stuffed dolls to work in my briefcase.”  Toby speaks, obviously having been confronted by Michael already.  “Michael found it, obviously mistook it for a voodoo doll, and threatened to have me fired on the account of me being a practicing magician, and not the cool David Copperfield kind.  There really is no response to that kind of… accusation.”  Toby scratches his head, and sighs in annoyance.

***

Creed was sitting at his desk, feet propped up on the edge.  He had the phone up to his ears.   “Steve, Creed Bratton here.   How much do you know about these shiny silver discs?”

***

Creed smiles proudly.  “Yep, that was me.”  He even holds up the DVD in accomplishment.  “I’m not quite sure what these things do, but I’ve got an old buddy who’s quite knowledgeable in electronics.  He’s a young man I met at the shelter, not quite sure how he wound up there..”  He stops for a minute, recollecting his thoughts.  “Besides, I’ve stopped caring about stealing things a long time ago.”

***

The women in the office mumbled how they wanted to see the end.  Michael, wanting to end the restlessness, once again catches their attention.

“I have an idea.”  He bursts in, his voice cracking with excitement.  “How many of you have seen the movie before?”  Pam, Kelly, Kevin, and Oscar all raise their hands.  Michael claps and grins.  “Alright, I can go print out some quotes off Indv...”

“You mean IMDB?”  Jim interjects, and Michael nods.

“Yeah.  That’s what I said.  We can act it out.  Dunder Mifflin Theater presents...” He trills his tongue, doing a drum roll.

No one is in suspense.

“Michael, we talked about this...” Toby speaks slowly, reminding him of the conversation that had taken place earlier.

“Well thank you, Mr. Buzzkill.”  Michael says, annoyed once more.  He scratches his head.  “We don’t have to do that scene, anyway.  Kevin can be the idiot jock Joey and… Phyllis can be the – Ah yes Stanley!  My brotha – you can be the English teacher who likes to rant about racism in schools today.”

“I will not,” Stanley drones.

“Fine, um….  Pam! You can be like Kat, you’ve been scorned by love, yes!”

“No, Michael, she won’t do that.” Jim interrupts.

At that moment, Pam turns to Jim.  She sees him holding Karen’s hand.  He can’t even look her in the eyes anymore.

Bad memory.  That’s all she is.

“No, Michael, I’ll do something.”  Pam says, standing up.  Michael looks over at Toby with a ‘take that’ look on his face.  Toby sits silently.

She rips the sheets of paper from Michael’s hands and glances at the top page.  Pam takes one deep breath, and remembers the lines of that movie she had seen so many times. 

 “I hate the way you talk to me, and the way you cut your hair.  I hate the way you drive my car, I hate it when you stare.” 

With a sudden breath of confidence, she shifts her gaze from the carpet to Jim. 

“I hate your big dumb combat boots, and the way you read my mind. I hate you so much it makes me sick, it even makes me rhyme.  I hate the way you’re always right.  I hate it when you lie.”

The hard part is over she thinks to herself.   She continues, unwavering.  “I hate it when ...” She breaks and silent tears start streaming down her cheeks.

“I hate it when you make me laugh, even worse when you make me cry.  I hate it when you’re not around and the fact that you didn’t call...”

She is reminded of all the times that she mentally willed him to pick up the phone, especially when her wedding went awry.  Her voice begins to waver.  This bravado is running out quickly.

The space between Jim and Karen grows.

“But mostly I hate the way I don’t hate you.  Not even close, not even a little bit, not even at all.”  Pam stops speaking, and looks around.  The room is dead silent.  There was absolutely no reaction at all.

In a panic, Pam rushes from out the room.  She just grabs her coat, and runs into the parking lot.

Nobody follows her.

Then, suddenly, Michael begins clapping loudly.  “Wow!”  He says, tears nearly flooding his eyes.  “That is what I call acting!”