“Hey, Carmen…”

Her girlfriend glanced up at her tearfully. “Since we’re both kind of alone for Christmas, how’d you like to spend it with me?”

“What about your friends…”

“Fuck ‘em. I’d rather spend Christmas with you. So, what do you say?”

“Sure. I mean, I guess I’m not gonna be going to Church with my family, huh?”

“No. You’re gonna be having Christmas fun with me and possibly Jenny!”

“Yeah!” It was an attempt, but it was half-hearted.

With Christmas coming up, everything reminded her of her family, and hearing Feliz fucking Navidad every minute on the radio and in Corona ads wasn’t going to help either.

“You can do this, Carmen. You don’t need your family. Besides, you’re going to be with Shane. You can get through this.” She smiled down at Shane, the first one in a couple hours and gently placed a kiss to her lips. “Yeah… I love you.”

There it was again. She’d said it again. And this time, Shane didn’t hesitate.

“I love you, too.”

“OK, Howie, I’m coming in now!” Dana called out loudly, knocking on the door at the same time but not really waiting.

She hadn’t seen Bill around so she figured she was all right. Boy, was she wrong. She dropped the glass in her hand and it shattered on the floor at about the same time as her heart.

“A… Al… w… with… Howie?” She mumbled, her mind trying to wrap itself around the image in front of her and failing miserably.

Tears sprang to her eyes as the love of her life rushed to cover herself up and Howie did the same, pulling on some pants. Before she even knew what she was doing, she had turned and ran down the hallway, not bothering to look back. “This is not happening, this is not happening, this is not happening, this is not happening!”

Calls of: “Dana, it’s not what it looks like!” “Dana!” “Stop, Dana!” and “Dane, where are you going?” Filled the air from the two people she thought she could trust in the world. She didn’t even know where she was anymore. Her head started to throb and her chest constricted around her lungs. It was getting harder and harder to breathe. She looked around, but everything had run into each other, it was all just one big blob.

“Why? Why?”