“*****,” Alice said, staring after Dana who had just disappeared from view. Dana was still with Lara, and Al had moved on, or at least she thought she had. Sitting there with Dana tonight, she could still feel her heart clenching every time she found Dana looking at her. She could still see the woman that she had loved for so many years. But she could also see the fact that Dana was now loved by someone else, and she had begun to accept it.

“Hey Al, you alright?” Shane now took the position that Dana had been sitting in not ten minutes before, and looked at Alice anxiously, hoping nothing too serious had gone on between her and Dana. Al just sighed and smiled.

“It’s crazy Shane,” she said quietly, still smiling, her eyes gazing at the rim of her bottle. “I think Dana may have just I don’t know what you’d call it, it was probably a Shane I think she may still be in love with me.” It had taken Al a long time to say it, probably because she was scared to death of what it would mean if it were true.

“Well yeah. Alice of course she is,” Shane replied, mildly confused. “I though you knew that ages ago?” Alice looked up at Shane, staring at her intensely, wondering just what the ***** was going on.

“What? Shane I’ve been in Canada for three months. I hadn’t spoken to Dana before tonight for at least a month more, so how did you come to the conclusion that I knew?”

Shane didn’t say anything, not knowing what to do. The realisation had hit here like a punch to the stomach. She didn’t read the letter.

“Oh I don’t know body language, signs” Shane mumbled, her eyes on the ground, grasping what a mess she may have just put Dana in. Alice had too much on her mind to question Shane’s rather peculiar reply, and just nodded, taking another sip of her almost empty beer before turning her body around to face Shane’s.

“Shane, the problem is that Dana can’t feel that way for me anymore,” Al began, quickly cut off by Shane.

“Al if this is about Lara, Dana broke up with her three months ago.” Shane wasn’t sure whether she should have told Alice this information or not, but she didn’t want Alice to judge Dana based on a relationship she had ended months ago.

“What?” Al answered loudly. “Oh *****.”

“Alice, what’s going on?” Shane had begun to worry just a little more about her friend, who’s emotions were moving from one extreme to the next in a matter of minutes.

“Shane, I didn’t tell you this, I didn’t tell Dana either but” Al closed her eyes, trying to visibly imagine what she should say next.

“I met someone in Canada. A guy, Philip, whose moving over here in two weeks and” Al’s voice trailed off into almost a whisper. “And moving in with me.”