The sounds of morning pulled Alice from sleep.  Birds chirped.  Cars started. Gay men walked with their children.  Lesbians screamed at their partners for staying out all night.  Alice stretched, laid still for a moment, before sitting up and wiping weariness from her eyes. 

She could hear someone—it sounded like Helena—humming a song in the shower.  She could also hear someone moving and banging things in the kitchen.  Bette cursed, loud enough for Alice to hear the word clearly, and Alice rolled her eyes: that woman had such a hard time being domestic. 

Alice was tired. Bone tired. She nearly fell out of bed when she tried to untangle herself from the sheets.  When she managed to get free, she marched straight into the bathroom and flung open the shower door.

A shocked looking Helena stood still at the sight of Alice.  Not only had Alice walked in on Helena’s shower, but she looked awful. Her eyes were half closed, and her hair was astray, her clothes twisted and bunched.

“Good morning Alice, what are you doing in my shower?”

“I. Hate. You.” Was all Alice said, before slamming the door closed and walking out.  She came back seconds later, and opened the door gently.  “Sorry for that. I didn’t mean to slam the door.” She carefully closed the shower door this time and marched into the kitchen.

“Good morning Alice.” Bette looked like a cat who had swallowed twenty canaries. Her smile faltered when she saw Alice’s disheveled appearance. “Didn’t you sleep ok?” She asked.

“I. Hate. You.” Alice said, for the second time that morning.

Helena walked up behind her, wearing a white bathrobe and towel drying her hair.  Bette smiled again at the sight of her and they kissed briefly, before Alice moved between them and shoved them apart. Bette looked down at her, curious, then up at Helena who shrugged.

“Oh, I’m sorry!” Alice pretended to be apologetic. “Did I interrupt you both? Please, don’t let me interrupt you. By all means, go right ahead—just make sure that I’m trying to sleep while you’re fucking, and also make sure that you smash the house apart as you do so, and oh, also make sure that you bang the headboard of your bed really really hard so that no one in the guest room, or anywhere else in the house, can get any sleep!” With that, she walked into the living room and curled up on the couch.