So there we were. Here and now. At a place where something had begun that no one had realized had started a small stone rolling a long time ago.

"Shoo, shoo," came Clementine's voice, causing Harper to look to his right, followed by Marcus, who looked over his left shoulder to where the blonde was waving her hand to get the man to leave, "Come on, shoo."

"Why?" Clementine's request was ignored, instead Marcus turned to her, "There's no reason."

"You're a man. And let's face it. There's a reason you and Asher have been such close friends for so long," Marcus let out an 'all right' and looked at the blonde with anticipation of what was to come, "You don't have to bother her."

"Wow," Harper said, puffing out her cheeks and raising her eyebrows, looking forward before turning back to Clementine, "I would have said it was still okay. The stupid, the really stupid stuff hasn't happened yet. We haven't reached the level of Candyshop yet. Not by a long shot, let alone Bad Touch."

"Oh, what a miracle," Harper's denial was smiled at exclusively by Clementine, "with this group of men, it wouldn't have taken five minutes. I'll bet. Come on, go."

While Clementine and Marcus squabbled, Harper put her hand in her pocket at the buzz, pulled out her phone and saw Judith's name on the display. 'When are you coming, roughly?' was written under her aunt's name.

Harper let out an unconscious gasp, stood up, put the phone away and reached for the cord under her chair. That had been clear. Something like this, something like this, was bound to happen. Some things are predictable and 'inevitable'.

Whatever it was couldn't have waited, of course.

"Where are you going?" Marcus inquired in surprise and in the process, Clementine began to ignore, thanks to Harper's abrupt standing up and fumbling with the leash as it came out of nowhere.

"My aunt," Harper shook her head and waved it off immediately because it shouldn't matter or be a cause for concern as it will be for some trivial reason, "I don't know. You never know with her. Maybe it's a box she can't carry on her own or maybe she's just curious. Whatever. But since she's my landlady, I should go and see what she wants."