"Yeah, I’m in traffic. Listen, I don’t think I’ll be making it to The Planet this morning. I’m really sorry, Bette, but I’ve got to head into the station directly or Rosie will have my ass. Can we get together tomorrow for breakfast instead?"

"Um, I have an interview tomorrow so that won’t work for me. How about later in the afternoon for coffee?"

"Sounds good. And Bette—good luck on the interview, this is for the Dean’s position at the LA Art College?"

"Yes—I’ll tell you how it went tomorrow. And Alice?"

"Yeah?"

"Is that a child crying in the background?"

Alice stole a quick glance at the minivan beside her. The child was red-faced and hiccuping.

"I don’t know what you’re talking about Bette. Gotta go!" Alice snapped the phone shut and thankfully inched forward and away from the bedlam she’d created.

As traffic eased and she began to move at a normal pace, Alice realized she was a little relieved not to be going to The Planet. Though she hated not seeing Bette, she found that her trips to The Planet were increasingly anxiety ridden, as she spent most of her time looking for Lara. However, once she caught a glimpse of the lanky redhead she always seemed to launch into a slapstick overload to avoid any significant personal contact with the chef. It certainly was not that she didn’t want to talk to Lara. Indeed, if Alice were honest with herself, she wanted nothing more than to sit down and figure out what was going on between the two of them.

Alice had spent the first hazy weeks of their "arrangement" in a doped stupor, barely managing to get through the day. Dana’s death had left her a yawning cavity of pain that had to be numbed. Alice found that a certain combination of antidepressants and Dana’s pain meds served the purpose well. Until the night she’d implored Lara to mark her back with painful scratches. Lara’s soft reply, "I don’t want to hurt you," had pierced Alice to the core. At the time she’d replied, "I just want to feel." Lara had complied quickly enough, but was especially attentive that evening during their time together. For the first time, it seemed, Alice looked at Lara rather than through her. What she saw moved her deeply and scared her shitless. When Lara asked that they begin to discuss their relationship, Alice felt the fight-or-flight-or-make-a-joke response kick in. Flight was the only option at the time.