Melora Hardin Talks 'Office' Romances

The Office wraps its fourth season Thursday, but the fate of Jan and Michael’s relationship remains a mystery, actress Melora Hardin tells PEOPLE. The couple’s ill-fated dinner party left things up in the air, but don’t count them out just yet.

“There’s some really good surprises in the season finale, so tuning in would be a really good idea,” says Hardin, whose portrayal of Jan has led to some of the show’s most memorable episodes.

While Jan’s fate will linger over the summer, Hardin’s dance card has been kept full with two of Disney’s leading men. She recently wrapped Seventeen Again, with Zac Efron, on whom she confesses a minor crush.

“Isn’t he great? He’s so sweet and absolutely grounded and lovely,” Hardin, 40, gushes of the High School Musical 3 star. “I thought he was adorable. I told him, ‘If I was your age you’d be in a lot of trouble right now.’ He laughed and said, ‘I don’t think I’d mind.’ So cute!”

Hardin is currently in Nashville playing Billy Ray Cyrus‘s love interest in the upcoming Hannah Montana movie. When the pair met, Hardin says she was instantly disarmed by Cyrus’s Southern charm.

“He saw me walk in from a redeye with my hair pulled back and no makeup on and proceeded to say, ‘Wow, that’s you? I’m so used to seeing you look like Jan from The Office and you’re so gorgeous without makeup on.’ He right away just won my heart,” Hardin says, laughing.

When it comes to dating someone you work with, Hardin is all too familiar. She found real love with actor Gildart Jackson when the two met at a wrap party of a movie she worked on years ago. They married and have two young daughters.

“That was kind of an office romance because sets are my office,” Hardin says of meeting her husband, noting that’s why so many television shows like The Office have characters that work together date each other.

“There is a survey that Oscar Meyer Deli Creations did that a lot of single Americans spend so much time at work and have so little time for personal time to meet that 67 percent of them gravitate towards having an office relationship. So a majority of have had an office relationship at some time in their career.” –Monica RizzoAmy Sussman/Getty