Take Max out on a Walk

With a few more hours left until he has to make a decision, Mark decided that it would be nice to take Max out for a walk, just to take his own mind off the night for now.

It was a quite sunny afternoon. The time was now half past three, and Mark assumed he would be just in time to make it to the meetup even if he goes dog-walking Max for another hour still. As he walked around the neighbourhood with his dog in tow, a voice called out to him, "Mark". As he turned around to look, he saw the slim toned figure of Katherine jogging up towards him with her own dog, Spoon.

Katherine was Mark's neighbour and was kinda the center of the neighbourhood gossip club over the past few months. She and her ex-husband, Patrick had a messy and awful divorce recently caused primarily due to a string of 'business trips' by Patrick which were publicly revealed as part of a lawsuit brought up against his company. Well, anyhow, the guy was left penniless and destitute after the double whammy of losing the lawsuit and his marriage in the span of a few months.

Now you might wonder, why exactly is this information necessary? Well, our protagonist, Mr. Mark Hudson has built a solid rapport with Katherine over the past few months over their afternoon walks and jogs and well, one of these days, Mark is even considering asking her out on a date.

Now who was Katherine exactly? Before her marriage to Patrick, she was his secretary and let's just say, their relationship wasn't exactly ethical in the first place. Well, eventually the couple got married and had a couple of kids. Now after a few years of relationship and marriage, she did put on a few pounds and wasn't exactly in the shape Patrick married her (which might've been why Patrick was looking out towards greener pastures) but divorce was the final straw for Katherine as she was back in shape in just a few months, a change driven entirely by pure hate and disgust towards her ex-husband. Katherine was now a solid 35, a bit too old for Mark to consider a full on relationship with, but great enough for a date or two.

The two exchanged hellos as they met and Mark increased his pace to a steady jog to keep up with Katherine.

"Any plans for the evening?," Katherine asked first, entirely oblivious to Mark's dilemma.

"Depends, actually," Mark replied honestly, as he explained about the meetup with friends, choosing to leave out Sarah.

"Hmm" Katherine says as both of them continue on their jog.

After jogging for a bit, Mark grows tired, unable to keep up with Katherine and lets her know that he's leaving. But before he can, Katherine says something that make his stop in his tracks for a moment.

"Hey, anyhow, if are free tonight, why not join me for dinner?"

Mark, shocked by the fact that Katherine was making the first move, stared at her questioningly, making sure his ears didn't betray him for a moment.

"We can watch a movie! Well, the kids aren't home and I get bored so easily," Katherine continues as she smiles.

"I'll let you know," replies Mark, still reeling from the shock and quickly walks off towards his home while wondering if Katherine had dropped any hints before and if he was oblivious to them.

As he made it safely into his home, Max realised that he was now in a bit of a pickle. He really wanted to have dinner with Katherine, but Jim surely won't take no for an answer if he lets him know he won't make it today. He also wanted to know more about Sarah and Liam, but he was sure he could get that information out of Jim later.

Well, he could also stay put in his belief that Saturdays are for self-care and shit and skip out on both Jim and Katherine. He looked at his phone, the time was currently 04:15 P.M.

So many options, so little time...