“I-I have to go. I’m sorry,” she said to Alice, her eyes firmly fixed on the ground. Alice felt a sharp twinge of regret rush over her as she heard the hurt in Dana’s words, but before she could say anything, the tennis player had disappeared into a swarm of people.

“Smooth Alice,” Shane casually called from behind her. She had heard the entire conversation, and had come to the conclusion that both Alice and Dana were just as hopeless as each other. “Let’s get out of here.”

———————————————————————

“Hey Al, you remember Dana Fairbanks?” Rob McKenzie asked the blonde from the door of her office. Alice nodded without looking up from her laptop which she was furiously typing in.

“Well she has a make or break game this week in LA. If she wins this she will be number two in America.”

“Well as happy as I am for her Rob I have no idea why you’re telling me this,” Alice said, finally breaking contact with her screen to look up at her boss.

“There is a press conference tomorrow at the Ridges Hotel. I want a follow up on your previous interview with her. Try and get more than one line answers though Pieszecki. I’ll fax you the details of the conference later.” Rob walked out before Alice had the chance to object. He knew that Alice had a great disliking of the tennis player, much to everyone’s amazement, but work was work, and Rob knew she’d go through with it eventually.

Alice simply sat back in her chair after Rob had left, contemplating whether her job was really worth sitting through another torturous interview.

“It’s only a press conference, no one on ones,” she said under her breath.

And so it came to be that the next afternoon at 5:15pm, Alice was rushing through the streets of LA to the Ridges Hotel. A bad morning followed by an equally bad afternoon meant that Alice was not in the mood for dealing with spoilt celebrities, and then to top the cake her car broke down.

“No. *****. No, no please!” Alice cried as her mini slugged another few meters before collapsing. “You piece of *****! Bloody Fairbanks!” Alice cursed the tennis star as she got out of her car, locked it and began to run towards the hotel. It was still a good twenty minutes away on foot, and as the conference had actually started at five, Alice wasn’t really all that surprised to have arrived at the hotel just as closing questions began.