The absence was taking longer than Ryan anticipated.

Tanya arrived in a flurry of excitement over the Diwali celebration. Ryan directed her to the bathroom where Kelly and Danica were patching up their makeup. The three women turned up later, with Kelly leading Tanya to the dance floor and leading off with some of the steps. Tanya caught on much more quickly than Ryan had. Danica lagged behind; she seemed lost in thought. At least, Ryan told himself that was the reason she did not look his way when they reentered the gym.

"How about her?" Ryan pointed out Tanya to Dwight.

Dwight grimaced. "Don't like blondes."

"Uh huh."

Carol, Michael's girlfriend, wove her way to him and introduced herself. Ryan was surprised about how normal she was. "Michael's told me a lot about you," she said. He learned that Michael knew his address off the top of his head.

Dwight butted in, "What did he say about me?"

While Carol fumbled for an answer, Ryan scanned the room. Kelly was greeting Pam, who must have decided to come after all. Michael was talking to Mr. and Mrs. Kapoor; Ryan should probably be worried about that, but he was not. Danica was nowhere in sight.

Ryan excused himself and walked over to his girlfriend.

"You know why I couldn't go to the party tonight," Gita told Danica.

The two girls met on the roof. The high school was two stories tall and covered a wider area than the Dunder Mifflin office complex. Music vibrated up the two stories to the two vampires' keen ears.

Danica nodded encouragingly. "You thought they would remember."

"I didn't erase their memories of me," Gita interpreted. "I should have, maybe, but I didn't want to. I just thought . . . it's been years."

"How did it happen?" Though Gita did not look particular traumatized by the question, Danica backtracked, "But if you prefer not to talk about it . . ."

"I was doing a semester in Italy. I was driving to a festival in Volterra that I had heard about. My friends warned me not to drive during the night, so I didn't. But it was cloudy. When I crossed a bridge, this gang appeared in front of my car. I swerved to avoid hitting them and ran off the bridge. Only, before I hit the water, one of the gang yanked me out of the car.

"I fought against my captor, but he was very strong. Then I felt this awful pain, and when I came to I was in this palazzo.

"The man who caught me, Demitri, pushed me in with this tourist group. I said, 'Forget you,' but he only pushed me down the hall to this room where the red-eyed vampires waited to feed on us.

"But when Demitri came in, no one remembered who he was. I mean, it was clear he was a vampire and everything, but many of the Volturi were sure that some imposter had infiltrated their headquarters. Luckily for him," Gita spat out, "Aro was able to ascertain that he did belong here. He then figured out that one of the food sources had some untapped talent and he ordered them to put off the meal until he learned who it was. He found out it was me, then gave me to one of the elder's mates to train me about the Volturi business, while everyone else was slaughtered."

"And you stayed with them?"

Danica's question was pure curiosity. Gita bristled anyway at any judgment Danica might have been withholding.

"The mates told me about Aro's talent. They told me if I escaped, they would go after my family. Aro did cover for me. I said I was an exchange student from India, and he let me lie. But if I disobeyed, I'm sure he would retaliate with the full truth."

"Alec does not know?"

"No. He chose me because of my talents. Though Alec is the kindest of the Volturi, I couldn't trust him with this. I hadn't learned until I accompanied him to the States that one of the employees in the documentary was Kelly. I hadn't seen her in nine years, and I couldn't have imagined that she had grown up and was working. In Volterra, you get to thinking that time stops. Maybe you felt like that in Alaska."

"A bit," Danica admitted.

"At least with this assignment I could keep an eye on Kelly and my family. "

"Would you be able to do that?" Danica asked. "Leave the Volturi?"

Gita sobered. "I don't know. If I do, it would have to be with Aro's approval. I will stay if the alternative is jeopardizing my family; I will never allow that."

The party was winding down when the Kapoors' finally consented to speak to Ryan.

"Well, I was a temp," Ryan explained, with emphasis on the "was", "but I got promoted, so the compensation is a lot more competitive." He, of course, omitted that he had not received much more of that competitive compensation, as he had not made a sale.

Mrs. Kapoor nodded, showing more approval in Ryan's promotion than his own parents ever had. How twisted was that? Ryan thought to himself.

"So you're saving money now to start a family at home," Mrs. Kapoor said.

At home? In Scranton? Hell, no.

"Oh no," Ryan gently corrected her. "Or, um, to travel." Identical frowns creased the elder Kapoors' faces. "And, um, or to buy an XBox." Why he said that, he had no idea. He did not actually want an XBox. at least not yet. If he got an XBox while he was still in his parents' home, he would have to accept he was stuck in this dull place for life. Which, ironically, would the same situation if he tied himself to Kelly.

Mr. Kapoor, as if reading his mind, spoke. "Is there something you wanted to ask us tonight?"

At that point, Ryan was very ready for the night to end.

"Where were you?" Kelly whined. Danica deigned to reappear just as the party broke up.

"Here," Danica said vaguely.

"Oh, then what did you think about what Michael did?"

"Oh," Danica echoed. She looked over to Tanya for a clue. Tanya circled one finger around the ring finger of her other hand. "He tried to chop off his finger?"

"He proposed to Carol!" Kelly stomped on the floor, though not very hard as she had not retrieved her shoes.

"And she said no," Tanya supplied.

"She said, 'Can we talk about this in private?" Kelly corrected. "Which everyone knows means no. She was trying to be polite."

"Poor Michael," Danica commented.

"Well, that's what he gets for proposing in public," Kelly opined. "He should know better than to do that if there's a chance he'll get shot down."

"This is Michael," Danica reminded her. "He never would have thought of it."

"Most people would have," Tanya said. "Carol's been married once before and she has kids. Wouldn't he consider . . ."

"No." Danica and Kelly said in unison.

Danica and Tanya unearthed their shoes from the mound in the hall. Kelly made a shallow search for her shoes, but quickly gave them up as lost.

Ryan's arrival distracted her from the dilemma of her missing shoes. She ran over to him and pounced on him. She smacked her lips against him.

"Hey, Kelly," he responded.

"If you want to propose to me in public," she purred into his ear, "I would totally say yes."