Emcee follows, the last one off the lift.

He watches Alice make herself at home. Whose home? His home? The idea of having guests over is still a foreign one.

But he tries to look at ease as much as everyone else does, as he tosses his coat over the back of a chair and goes to the kitchen to fetch a fresh pack of cigarettes from a drawer. He remembered seeing it there among the take-out menus.

"Anything for you, Jared?" he asks, as he lights up.