“My my, child. Don’t you look just...endearing tonight,” Winifred says with a devious smile. She had a martini in hand, dry, with olives. She likely would only have one or two more tops. The older woman knew who Allison was and had been keeping an eye on her for some time now. “Your dress matches your eyes beautifully.” Her voice was drawn out. “And your shoes...perfectly accents the dress.” Winnie knew she was playing a dangerous game by getting so close to the girl that night. 

Max had told himself the entire time that they'd been broken up that it had been all his fault, despite the words before she'd left telling him otherwise. Allison had made it quite clear that she had left for herself, that she had wanted to go and explore beyond Echo with or without him. Still, it was hard to think that she wouldn't have stayed for him, even if Max couldn't face the truth that he had every chance in the world to show up at the train station the day she'd left. It didn't take much convincing to tell him that he'd been the one to let it all go, despite the end of their initial relationship being both of their faults. Max shook his head, placing a hand on hers as he tried to shift the blame between the two of them. "Nothing, you can't convince me that part of this is my fault," he told her, sure of his statement. He'd let the love of his life go, and to think that she had blamed herself for it made him feel sick inside. "I hope you don't really believe that, Alli. You're back now, it's ... we can be whatever we want to be. Friends, or--I don't know, or something else, but it's up to us, either way." @candykeep

If anyone had told him even a week ago that Max would be having drinks with Allison, he would've laughed in their faces, then probably gone home and cried wishing it were true. Though he'd only seen her a few days before, he'd been anxiously awaiting their next reunion while also secretly hoping that she'd walk into the record store, looking for him, like old times. Instead, the next time he saw her was when she walked into Tiana's, where he'd gotten a smaller table in the lounge area. Dani had told him it was the perfect vibe: intimate, not too fancy, but not the Duckling, either.

As the blonde entered, Max stood from the table, raising his hand to wave her over, feeling rather overheated suddenly in anticipation. He hoped that his sister wasn't somewhere nearby trying to snoop on them, but he couldn't count on it. "Alli, hey," he greeted, remaining standing to extend the offer of a hug. "I don't know if they had this place around before you left, but my parents like it a lot, so I figured I'd introduce you." Max sat back in his seat, sliding her a menu. "Did you happen to find that book you were looking for the other day, by the way?"

Though she knew she’d given the blonde a bit of a spook by showing up at her job, Allison was on a mission tonight, which was to get her as uncomfortable as possible at this party. She didn’t like that she’d come in with Max, who was now decidedly hers for the taking after their night together. The exes had been spending a little too much time together, more than Daisy would like, and there was no better place than in public to get her revenge. “Alli!” she squealed a bit, approaching her with a sweet grin. “I wanted to come and thank you for your help at city hall, you were a godsend.” She wasn’t sure how much she should reveal at once about her night with Max, but figured she didn’t have much to lose. Allison would be more mad at Max than her, anyway. “I had no idea that you were friends with Max--I saw you two come in together. He came with me to Wonderland a few weeks ago.”

Now that Daisy had made two close friends in New Salem, she had been spending an awful lot of her time there. She’d actually come to enjoy the little, creepy town that sprouted out of nowhere. She had been keeping an eye out, though, for a certain blonde that Max had mentioned one too many times for Daisy to ignore. It wasn’t hard to find people online these days, unlike the ones back in her home. The technology above the surface was astounding, and she could track down one Allison Watts faster than she’d thought. Though Daisy had paid her a visit once at her job, it hadn’t been enough for her to establish who she really was, which was a girl after Max’s heart (or so Allison could think). “Oh, I know you!” she exclaimed, turning on the friendly Daisy facade the moment she spotted the familiar blonde at the Diner. The moment she’d been waiting for. “You’re a friend of Max Dennison, right? Any friend of his is one of mine, too. Did you want company for breakfast? It’s a shame you’re here all alone. We can make it a table for two.”

Alli wasn’t getting it, and she was getting frustrated with how much she wasn’t understanding what Dani was trying to tell her. The memories that she held felt like they could hurt both Max and his ex-girlfriend, and neither of them were giving her much to work with, either. “I think I know what might’ve happened, but I--do you remember anything from that night?” Giving her the same grace that she had given Max was fair, Dani had decided. She wouldn’t give either of them some head start when the other could just go and tell on her if they wanted to. “I don’t know, maybe I’m just trying to come up with things that happened in my dreams, or something. I’m not sure whaat’s real and what isn’t. Is that weird?”

When Winifred had told Allison she would stop by the Mystery Shack she wasn’t lying. She had the day off from The Fates so she knew that day was fine to stop in despite if Allison was there or not. So, she made her way in and once there walked inside the shop. She acted as if she were just casually browsing the merchandise when she spotted the girl. Smiling to herself, she walked over and greeted her. “Hello. Working on a Sunday? That’s a bummer. I will admit I did not expect to see you here today.” A lie, but a believable one. “This is a neat place they’re running here. Any recommendations? I just don’t want to walk out empty handed.” Not that she would. Any interaction with the Dennison kids or Allison would be a successful one.