A buffet by Brenda's pool cottage

Brenda and Tom have laid out a buffet spread next to the guest cottage by their backyard pool. Across from the pool cottage is their main house, a two-story modern construction. The pool cottage is a little house with a refrigerator, two showers, two toilets, and two rooms with twin guest beds. It has an outdoor kitchen with grill, mini-fridge, and rangetop built into a tiled bar on the patio by the pool.

Tom Box is a portly gentleman with silver hair, shorter than medium height, wearing a loose-cut, expensive-looking embroidered shirt -- "A Mexican wedding shirt," he says -- shorts and sandals. He's a gracious host, friendly to you and the nursing trainees, but he defers to Brenda. "It might be my house, but it's Brenda's party," he says. "Glad to meet you, Gloria. Brenda's told me how much she's looking forward to working with you."

Two people are helping with the buffet. A woman with black dress and apron is working the grill, while a young man is bustling around helping with dishes and chairs and refills. Your eyes are drawn to the young man. He has a broad, smiling face much like Tom's, and a similar look, a little short and tending to roundness. You frown. Brenda's his second wife. Is that young man his son from his first marriage? The woman at the grill, Betty, has something of the same look. And then you look at Brenda, chatting with the trainees. The same look, short, round, and cute, augmented with a diamond ring, wedge sandals, and a designer-casual dress. You smile to yourself. Tom Box has a type. He hires for it and marries it. They must just be household staff, right?

"All right ladies," Tom calls out. "I'll just say good night, then. And Tommy and I, we'll leave you in Brenda and Betty's good hands. Have fun! Now don't be too loud outdoors, we've got triple pane windows on the house, but the neighbors might hear. If you'll let me borrow Brenda for a moment. C'mon, sweetheart, let's go tuck in the little bean."

Tom retreats to the main house with Brenda, taking the young man along and leaving you and Betty with the nurse trainees. They're a group of young women that Brenda helped pick, along with her network from her old sorority. Their common look seems to be sun-touched, smiling, and active. Two of them are already in the pool, batting a ball around. Two of them are hanging over the grill, chatting with Betty about the house and what it's like to work here, and two of them are leaning together over a table, talking about a nurse training exercise they'd taken last week.

"Oh, I don't work here," Betty says. "I'm just helping for the evening, with the party."

"Oh, haha, it looks like you belong here, you really know how to work the grill," one of the trainees says. It's Dot, a freckled redhead. Dot's pal is Anna, an ice-colored blonde in a frosty blue bathing suit. She nods along with Dot and Betty but doesn't say much.

Over at a table, Kelly and Jennifer, a petite blonde and a tall, Eurasian-looking brunette, are leaning close, talking.

"I never realized," Kelly says, "how different women are."

"Right, not just the anatomy," Jennifer says. "I mean it's kind of like we're not all the same kind of flower, but also, you know, you have to touch differently when you're giving an exam."

"Ha ha," Kelly says. "And you know everyone's question is 'Am I normal?' Ha ha."

"More like, are you normal for you," Jennifer says. "Are you healthy in the way you should be? It's complicated."

In the pool, Olivia and Margarita are batting a beachball around and splashing. Olivia is a tall, dark-skinned young woman with tightly braided hair who looks like she could have been on a basketball or volleyball team. Margarita is a brown-eyed, golden-skinned young woman. Earlier, when they'd heard you were one of the hospital's senior nurses, they talked with you about your experience there over the years and how things had changed for nursing.

"You want to join us?" Olivia says.

"I don't have a suit!" you protest.

"Didn't you hear Brenda?" Margarita says. "Suits optional after the boys are gone. Come on, Gloria."

You take a deep breath. Do you want to dive in naked with the two of them? Or are you more interested in the young ladies intensely discussing girl parts? Or are you more curious about Betty, who seems to know a bit more about Brenda's household?

• Use TRUTH to chat up the girls and ask them who they like. Roll +Cool(0) for one girl (Betty), or +Cool(-1) for two girls (Jennifer and Kelly) (+0 Cool, -1 two girls).
• Use TELL HER to get the girls to do something (have Olivia and Margarita take off their swimsuits: +Hot(0) (+1 Hot, -1 two girls).
• Use STALK HER to try and get a girl alone (+0 Cool, -1 if it's two girls).