A couple of days later, Max was sitting on the couch reading the daily reviews of Sleepy in Chicago while Leo was doing the accounting books.

"Best I've ever seen… Strangely hilarious… Never seen anything funnier…" Max read aloud, and he lowered the paper onto his lap quickly. "Well, nothing new there!"

"There's never anything new in the paper about it, Max. It's the same thing every day," said Leo, tired of hearing about Sleepy in Chicago's daily reviews. They never changed anymore, and it bored him to tears.

"I know, I know! You think I don't know that? I'm the one that reads them!" Max exclaimed, closing the paper and tossing it up into the air. "What are you doing anyway?"

"Checking the books. Max, we aren't doing what we did with Springtime for Hitler, are we?" asked Leo.

"Doing the same… No! Why would we? We're too rich to have to do that again! Why?" asked Max, surprised that Leo would even ask such a question.

"Because it says here that we raised a thousand more than the show itself even cost," said Leo, looking up at him.

"Did we? Oops," said Max, shrugging with his hands up in the air. "What can ya do? I don't keep track of the prices of the plays anymore." Leo sighed and looked back down at the book.

"I guess I'll just hide it somewhere, then," he muttered, and he got back to accounting.

"Good Leo," said Max, grabbing his cup of coffee from the coffee table and sipping it. He let out a gasp and stuck his tongue out, setting the cup back on the table. "Ooh! Still hot!"

"Maybe you should let it cool, then," said Leo as a knock was heard at the door.

"Maybe you should let it cool, then," said Max in a mocking tone, standing and walking to the door. He opened it, and outside the door was a beautiful girl – not young, but younger than Max – with dark wavy hair and chocolate brown eyes. "Laura!"

"Maxie!" exclaimed the young woman who was Laura Bialystock, Max's younger sister, and she threw her arms around his neck.

"Laura, what are you doing here?" asked Max, clearly surprised at his sister's surprise visit.

"What, can't a girl visit her big famous handsome brother? You look great, Maxie! You've lost a lot of weight! And you even grew a moustache!" Laura exclaimed, stepping inside the office. It was no longer white from when Ulla had painted it. Max and Leo made sure that it returned to the way it looked before Ulla had even appeared.

"Oh, dear… She wants something," Max said, closing the door behind him as Laura sat on the couch. He then approached the couch as Laura settled herself in. "The only way I know this is because I never get complimented unless you want something, Laura."

"Nonsense! You're famous, you're handsome, so I told you the truth!" Laura told him, looking over at the desk. "And you must be Leo Bloom!" Leo looked up with slightly wide eyes.

"Er…" Leo said nervously, freezing completely.

"Wow, he's as nervous as you said he was," Laura said, turning her attention to Max.

"You haven't seen anything yet," Max said, sitting down next to his dark-haired sister. "Now, why are you really here?"

"Oh, you always see right through me! Okay, I'll tell you why: I'm tired of this boring life I lead. I want a chance to be on Broadway while I'm still young and beautiful!" Laura said, standing up and looking at the ceiling.

"Well, you're beautiful, Laura, but you're not so young anymore," Max said to her.

"Shut up," Laura said. "I just really want a chance, Max!" She sat down next to him. "You're the only one that can do it for me! Please, Max! I'm the only little sister you have and are ever going to have!"

"Unless Mom and Pop adopt another!" Max exclaimed.

"Max, stop messing around!" Laura snapped. "Please give me a chance!"

"All right, I'll think about it," Max told her.

"You will? Great!" Laura exclaimed, hugging her brother tightly.

"Okay, okay…" Max said, not really enjoying the hug. He pushed her off of him. Leo had kind of zoned out when they talked after that, thinking about Max's reaction to Laura's hug. Max would have liked it if I did that to him, Leo thought to himself. But then he snapped out of it when Max called Leo's name. "Leo!"

"Huh?" asked Leo, looking at Max.

"What do ya say? Does my sister have what it takes to be on Broadway?" Max asked him.

"Er… Whatever you think, Max…" said Leo, hating the spotlight being shined on him.

"I'd take that as a yes, Laura! Well, you'd better get going then! We haven't even decided what our next play will be, and we need peace and quiet for that!" Max told his sister.

"All right, all right! I get the hint," said Laura, standing. "I guess I'll see you whenever, Max. If you need to find me, I'll be at Mom and Pop's."

"Sounds good to me. Be safe, Laura," said Max as his sister left, and he closed the door behind her. He then looked at Leo, who was now staring at the books.

"I would have never guessed that you two were related…" said Leo, obviously being sarcastic.

"Yeah, the Bialystocks tend to be a bit… what's the word?" said Max, trying to think of the proper word.

"Boisterous? Loud? Spontaneous?" asked Leo.

"Exactly," said Max, taking a seat on the couch again. "We need to put an ad in the paper saying that we're looking for scripts."

"Or we could just revive an old one that you produced a while back," said Leo.

"Like…" said Max, looking at Leo.

"Anything Comes? The Warlock of Giza? A Streetcar named Murray?" Leo asked him.

"Hmm… That doesn't sound like a bad idea…" said Max, leaning back on the couch with his chin in his hands. "Find the script for Anything Comes, Leo. I think I know what to do." Leo nodded and stood, making his way to the closet. "Should I grow a beard?" Max heard the sound of a box dropping in the closet, and then Leo appeared in the doorway with an expression that Max couldn't even guess the name of.

"NO! NO BEARD!" Leo snapped, and Max put his hands up in surrender.

"All right, no beard," he said. Leo stood there heaving for a minute before going back into the closet. "Well, that was interesting…"

"I found it! Wait… That's Anything Can't Happen… Nevermind!" came Leo's voice as Max picked up a newspaper and a pen.

"Hmm… Four letters, clue is 'strange sensation causing you to scratch your skin…'," he said to himself.

"Here it… No, nevermind!" said Leo again.

"Aha! Itch! Max exclaimed, and he wrote it down.

"You want me to scratch it?" asked Leo from the closet. Max looked up from the paper with wide eyes.

"Leo… I was talking about a crossword puzzle…" he said.

"Oh…" said Leo. "Here it… Nope, no it's not…" Max picked up his coffee from the table and sipped it.

"Too cold now," he said, and he set it back on the table.

"Want me to turn up the heat?" asked Leo.

"No! Just find the script!" Max exclaimed.

"Okay…" said Leo, and he went back to hunting for the script. "Aha! No…" Max groaned and stood up.

"You want me to find it?" he asked his companion.

"I can do it!" Leo said to him, and Max sighed, bored with everything around him now.

"Everything you ever wanted is just waiting to be had…" he began singing quietly to himself. "Beautiful girls wearing nothing but pearls! Chasing you, undressing you and driving you mad!"

"Who's undressing me?" asked Leo.

"FIND THE SCRIPTS!" Max shouted at him. He heard Leo let out a cry, and then Max went to the window to look down on the street below. "Oh, look at that hot dog vendor go… And that taxi totally just sped past him. Nice driving, you moron!" Max laughed to himself as Leo poked his head out of the closet door.

"H-hey, Max?" he asked.

"What?" asked Max, irritated now and turning to Leo.

"Nevermind…" said Leo nervously, going back into the closet. Max approached the closet a lot more cautiously.

"What is it, Leo?" he asked his nervous partner in a tone that was much more gentle.

"C-Can you help m-me?" asked Leo nervously, and Max chuckled slightly.

"Of course I can help you, little buddy!" he said, and he went into the closet. It was cramped, the tiny closet. There were shelves upon shelves with boxes filled with papers of all kinds. "What boxes have you looked through so far?"

"All the ones on the shelf that I'm facing," said Leo, turning. Max turned as well, and found himself face-to-face with Leo.

"Well, isn't this awkward?" said Max, looking down directly into Leo's eyes. Leo nervously gulped and nodded.

"I-it is, isn't it?" said Leo, nodding.

"Yup," said Max, now teasing Leo and making him even more uncomfortable.

"I-I've got to go somewhere. B-be right back!" Leo exclaimed, and he pushed past Max and ran out of the closet. Max placed his hands on his hips and heard the front door slam shut.

"And that was even more awkward," said Max to himself. "Well, I guess I'm finding the script." Leo, meanwhile, was running like a madman down the street and found an empty alley to hide in. He had actually had the desire to kiss his best friend! How could he have such thoughts? Leo knew that he ought to admit to himself that he indeed did love Max Bialystock, but he certainly didn't want Max to hate him because of it! He knew that Max was in love with Evelyn Saunders, and he assumed that Evelyn was still in love with Max. But what could be done about it? Leo just brought his knees to his chest and buried his face in them, unable to stop the tears that came flowing from his eyes.