Max tried not to get frustrated with the sins, that sounded better than dolls, or didn't sound as silly. He knew he needed to reach out to the insurance company again, but he'd just spent four hours pausing or canceling all his subscriptions, making a comprehensive spreadsheet regarding his last three months of spending, and called his older brother to be picked up Friday so he could see Stevie off.
That one phone call had been more draining than his last week of work, finding out he now lived in a haunted apartment, and the struggle of knowing he might need to borrow money to pay rent. Any motivation he'd begun the day with had died five minnets into the call.
He lay on the ground, surrounded by the sins, debating every life choice that brought him to today…
"Exercise is a great way to work off steam, we could jog around the block. Get pumped to start going to the gym." Ire offered as he stretched his arms, then started doing some push ups.
"Before I go out I need to buy new headphones." Max sighed, that might be appealing… if he had headphones. Then he could at least listen to music as he explored the area. I mean… seriously who just walks around these days…
Reed glanced over, "Does your phone have headphone jacks?"
"No, Bluetooth only, the pair I had… well I don't have them anymore." Max lamented with another sigh, he'd been gifted a pair for Christmas… well he hadn't been able to bring himself to take anything Arianna gifted him. The fact that she used his money to buy him gifts hadn't seemed important at the time, but now he regretted leaving so much behind.
"Rest… is good… we did… a lot today… yawn." Ace murmured as he plopped down on Max's stomach, curling up for a good nap. "Don't… burn yourself… out."
Max wanted to laugh, "I think you're my spirit animal Ace." The bear paws patted his stomach.
"I'm… everyone's favorite." Ace stated matter of factly as he pulled Max's shirt up like a blanket.
"Yeah, I'll take a thirty minnet nap, then food prep for the week, productive and procrastinating at the same time." Max promised as he stood up walking to his bed. He plopped down, cradling the bear to his stomach as he set an alarm on his phone.
Tony came bounding in, leaping on the bed, "Oh! Oh! I'll make sure you wake up! Food is Great! Naps are good! And best days are lazy!" he sang burrowing into the blankets.
Max took a second… had Tony… just… he parodied a song… damn, now that song would be stuck in his head all day. God is great, beer is good, and people are crazy. Max fell asleep as a few of the others came to join him for a nap.
True to his word, Ace was running around the bed the moment Max's alarm went off. With a yawn, Max followed the exuberant pup into the kitchen. He looked at his very full fridge, "Hmm, I'm thinking… tuna fish, I can make a weeks worth… cook the rest of the bacon… hmm." He had a lot… but most didn't stay good long after cooking.
"Oh! Rice! We can cook now and make fried rice! There's ham and frozen vegetables!" Tony said hopping up to check the items in the fridge.
Max hesitated… he'd… never made fried rice before. Not to mention… rice wasn't so great after a day or so.
"We can freeze them in portions! OH! Fried rice is great! Lunch! With breakfast! As a side! Oh! Fried rice is the best!" Tony wheedled running around Max's legs.
"Uh, sure, let me look up a recipe." Max pulled up fried rice foods, the sheer amount of options was a bit overwhelming. Scrolling through images, he saw fried rice wrapped in seaweed as a quick, filling, easy on the go option. Max looked through his cabinets… then started looking up seaweed recipes.
Fifteen minutes later Max was so far down the rabbit hole he was looking up ways to cook lyve octopus… anyway! He'd learned a lot. Thankfully Dillon had bought him the wraps of seaweed otherwise he'd have never thought of them.
"Oh! We should boil the eggs first! Then! Wash and cook the rice! Do you like garlic? Yeah, lets add some garlic to the rice, give it some oomph!" Tony directed after moving to his shoulder.
With his back seat cook, Max started cooking. While he wasn't a chef, he'd never poisoned anyone. Over three hours later, he had tuna fish, a dozen hard boiled eggs, four frozen portions of rice, four portions of rice cooling for fried rice, two pounds of bacon, and enough pan fried ham for his future fried rice.
Now… the dishes… Max stared at his disaster of a kitchen. He had dirty dishes in the sink, on every counter, and on the floor.
"Should… probably… handwash the… big stuff. No… need… to invite… pests…" Ace murmured from on top of the fridge. "Getting… pests to… leave… takes forever…"
"If we get insects or mice, they could also become an expensive problem." Reed agreed looking around the kitchen.
Max sighed, he really needed to invest in those rolling countertops like Dillon had. Just $400… "On it." Since Max didn't need instructions on how to wash dishes, he started listening to a podcast as he cleaned up. For a heartbeat… he thought about washing them in the bathtub. The sink was just… so small…