“But having sex with random strangers is not how you’re built, Aerin,” Alice pointed out bluntly. “There I said it.”

After a pause, she added, “Shane, maybe.”

I looked at her and saw the shadow of a smile, and then an earnest, worried look crossed her eyes again. “But not you Aerin. We were there, remember? Over a year ago? When you took all those pills and almost …”

She grabbed my forearm and squeezed it. “C’mon sweetie. Stop hurting yourself.”

I blinked back tears. “I’m not …. I’m just ….”

She drew me into another hug, instead of telling me off again. Shane joined her from my side. At first, my arms hung limply on my sides, but after a few moments, I wrapped my arms around them also.

After a while I raised my arms up and away from them, and they also took a step back.

While Alice surreptitiously wiped her eyes, as I did also, Shane drew me into a side hug, “I don’t think you should be by yourself right now, sexy girl. No telling what trouble you could get into here in LA, especially with all those bikini-types down by the beach where you’ll be near to. Why don’t I go with you to wherever you’re going? Just for the rest of the day. Alice can take my things …”

I laughed lightly, shaking my head as I did, “You do realize I’ve been able to manage things by myself for about a year now, right?”

Alice harrumphed, “All you’ve managed to do, chica, is avoid catching any STDs from all that whoring around you’ve been doing…”

I raised my eyebrows at them.

“Jules got drunk one night and spilled her guts out about her worries about you when we were visiting with her and Diane a couple of months ago,” Alice explained briefly.

“She told us about the high-powered lawyer, who you cheated on with the DJ visiting from London and who was doing a stint in Jules’ club. After the DJ left you went back to the lawyer, but then you stepped out on her again with the single mom, fashion designer,” Shane did a brief run-down.

I bit my lip.

“You seem to really like the single moms, huh?” Alice cut in.