Nasedo never showed. They had no idea why, at least none that they could substantiate. Michael was off, so he decided to go home. He had laundry to do, and was pretty tired. It had been a long couple of weeks. He had been home for about ten minutes when he got a knock at the door.

MICHAEL: Hey.

MARIA: Hey.

MICHAEL: So…come on in…what’s up?

MARIA: Nothing, just wanted to see what you were up to.

MICHAEL: Well, you’ve entered the exciting world of laundry.

MARIA: Oooh.

Since they had that conversation a few days before at Tess’s house, Michael and Maria had been spending quite a bit of their free time together. Maria had stopped by his apartment, spent a few hours, just hanging out. They hadn’t really said much, hadn’t really done much. They hadn’t had a conversation about their relationship, they hadn’t started making out, nothing like that. They’d just been. Michael had been grateful. He needed Maria, but he just always had trouble with the rest of it. Often, he wasn’t deep, he wasn’t articulate; in short, he had trouble expressing himself. He was happy that Maria wasn’t expecting him to do that right now. At the same time, he really wanted to be with Maria again. However, he knew that it would require more than just a quick look and a slide across the couch. Right now, that was beyond him.

MICHAEL: I have to go down to the machine…be back in a sec.

MARIA: OK.

Maria needed someone too. With Liz and all of her problems, and the fun of living with her mother, she needed some place to go, some place to feel safe. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to see Liz, or help her if she could, or her mother for that matter. She just needed something, something safe. At least with Michael, she just had this sense that everything was OK, the way it should be. She didn’t necessarily want to be back with him, per say. Enough of the whole Max/Liz saga had rubbed off on her for her to know that getting back with Michael might not be the greatest thing in the world. Maybe Liz was right, she thought, maybe it would be too painful now, when the future was so uncertain. Funny how it was so easy to advise someone else to follow their heart when you’re struggling with the same problem. Nevertheless, here is where she wanted to be.

Michael came back with a load of laundry back from the dryer. He sat down on the couch, started to say something, and then stopped. They went back to the TV. A few minutes later, he got up and went over the counter, and picked something up.

MICHAEL: I have something for you.

MARIA: Oh, really…what is it?

Michael held out a key.

MICHAEL: I wanted to give you this, you know, in case you ever need it.

MARIA: What’s this a key for?

MICHAEL: For the apartment.

MARIA: Your apartment?

MICHAEL: Yeah.

MARIA: Michael, I’m touched. Thank you.

MICHAEL: Well, I just thought that, you know, since we’ve been hanging out here a lot, you might need it.

Maria thought about giving him a hug and a kiss, but stopped herself. She wasn’t ready yet; it just wasn’t right. But at least she knew that he was thinking about her. This was a seemingly un-Michael thing to do, but then again, just when she thought she had him figured out, he did something else. He always kept her guessing.

SCENE 2

Tess came home a little later that day. She had been out at the cave, making sure that it was still secure, when she had just decided to spend the night up there. She had been doing that a lot recently. It made it feel closer to her past, closer to her future. Nasedo had been able to secure the entrance. It looked exactly as it had been before. She just wanted to make sure it stayed that way. She knew that the next person to discover it might have the secret to destroy all of them. She got home and listened to her messages. There were two of them. She hit play on the machine. The first message was from Max, telling her about their meeting that morning. She decided to drive over that way when she heard the second message. It was from Kyle.

“Tess…Hi…it’s Kyle. I was wondering, if you didn’t have any plans for tonight, maybe we could get together. I have these free movie passes, and they expire after tonight. There’s a few good movies playing, it might be fun. Give me a call.”

Tess was pleased with herself. Her latest operation was moving even more swiftly than she had imagined. She called him back, told him sure. Then she left for the Evans’s. Isabel was out with Alex, so Max was the only one there.

MAX: Hey…where have you been?

TESS: Sorry…I was busy. So what happened?

MAX: Well, Nasedo didn’t come, so it was pretty wasted.

TESS: Sometimes he’s like this, Max.

MAX: Make that all of the time. We just need an edge, an edge that I don’t think he can give us.

TESS: What do you mean?

MAX: Does he know anything? He’s so secretive. He only tells us things on a need-to-know basis. And he’s the one defining the need.

TESS: He’s never let me break down his façade. I can’t help you there. So…what are you doing tonight?

MAX: I don’t know…TV…computer…that’s about it.

TESS: Well, I have a date.

MAX: Really?

TESS: Yeah. Kyle gave me a call this afternoon.

MAX: Kyle?

TESS: Yeah.

MAX: And you’re going out with him?

TESS: Yeah.

MAX: You make no sense.

TESS: What do you mean?

MAX: Well, just the other day you came to me, practically threw yourself at me, and now you’re going out with Kyle.

TESS: Well, a woman can change her mind, you know.

MAX: But what about our ‘destiny’?

TESS: What’s that I see, jealousy, Max?

MAX: What are you talking about? I told you that I didn’t want to be with you. What do I care who you’re with?

TESS: OK…whatever, Max. Just remember that when you wake up and remember that I’m the one for you.

MAX: Whatever. Good night, Tess.

With that, Max escorted her out. What was she thinking? How could she change on a dime like that? Was she just trying to make him jealous? Why did she think that going out with Kyle would do that? She told him countless times that they weren’t going to be together. Did she think that all she had to do was to date someone else? He didn’t get it.