Twenty minutes ago, we follow Max upstairs

Max closed the door and let his mask fall for a second, silently cursing his impending loss with some angry hand gestures. He was a bad loser, even at casual party games. He could have waited with the call of nature, but he needed to get any advantage he could on the two dorks, and playing on an empty bladder was not a disadvantage.

He climbed the basement stairs and came into the hallway, seeing into the living room where the patron of the house was watching television. "You guys done already?" Marcus, Alex' father asked. He had Mediterranean blood in his veins, dark hair and olive skin, in his late 40s. Bit of a beer gut but overall in good shape. For Max he sounded like a strict parent, but that was probably biased by Alex' toiling under his yoke. His personal experiences with Marcus made him think he was pretty amicable to people as long as you pulled your own weight.

"Nah, I just needed to, you know," Max said in reply before pointing at the bathroom door in the hallway.

"I see," Marcus nodded. "Alice is in there right now, but she should be done within a few minutes. She knows she only gets seven minutes to shower and she's been there for over thirty minutes now."

"Seven minutes huh?" Max said as he leaned against the door frame. "Did she threaten to report you for crimes against humanity?" He continued with a smile. He knew Alice mostly through Alex' descriptions. A few years Alex' senior, she had a short fuse and a penchant for drama. She was good looking, but she had some of that drama queen game going on.

Marcus chuckled. "She probably checked online at least twice."

Max nodded with a smile and gave a little scoff himself, glancing around. "Janet out on a book-reading club?" He asked, wondering where the matron of the household was at.

"I'd call it a wine-tasting club. At least for Janet," Marcus said with a smile and a roll of the eyes. "She'd be home within an hour or so. She'll probably bring a friend or two for an after-party while they wait for the cab, so warn the guys downstairs," he said before taking a pause. "I should look into making that downstairs bathroom work again. Maybe that'll motivate Alex to get a girlfriend," he said with a smile.

"Yeah, but I suspect what will happen is the women in the household will banish both of you to that bathroom," Max said, pointing downstairs, causing Marcus to laugh.

At that moment, Alice unlocked the bathroom door and opened it fast, staring daggers at her father and Max. She had her hair tucked into a towel and a pink bath robe tied around her waist. Max turned around quickly, slightly startled. Pulling his left hand out of his back pocket, a small paper card slid without, barely remaining in his pocket.

Alice rolled her eyes and pressed a bundle of clothing in her arms to her chest, moving out of the way. "Were you guys talking about fixing the bathroom downstairs? If so, I'm all for it," she said as Max silently bid Marcus farewell with a wave of his hand and took his leave for the bathroom.

(post suggestions in the comments for what path you would like to see us travel next - CM)