"So are you a big Anne Lamott fan?" She asked as Lara ushered her to a barstool in the apartment’s spacious kitchen.

Lara’s face broke into a smile. "I’ve been reading her quite a bit these days. Traveling Mercies has been like therapy. How about you?"

As they discussed books and favorite authors, Alice watched Lara move about the kitchen putting the final touches on dinner. She noticed for the first time that the redhead had dropped several pounds in the past months, and appeared too thin, even by WeHo standards. Despite the weight loss, Alice also noted that Lara was a devastatingly attractive woman who moved with a grace that suggested years of dance lessons.

Lara poured a glass of wine and offered it to Alice before pouring one for herself.

"To talking." She raised the glass and smiled.

"To….talking." Alice stammered in reply and clinked Lara’s offered glass with her own.

Hastily, Alice gulped half the glass of wine. Lara looked on with an amused expression.

"If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were a little nervous, Alice." Without waiting for a response, Lara turned back to the stove and began plating their dinner.

"Aren’t you?" Alice brazenly asked.

Lara hesitated before answering. Setting the plates down at the café table, she hoisted herself up on a barstool and picked up a fork. Looking at Alice, she said frankly, "No."

Alice blinked at Lara’s forthrightness.

Lara waved with her fork, "I thought I remembered you like salmon….was I right?"

Alice looked down at her plate. "Yes….and, um, it smells great." She looked up with confusion etched across her face. "But you’re not nervous?" Alice armed herself with a fork and waited for Lara’s reply.

Lara chewed for a moment, swallowed and shrugged her shoulders. "I don’t think nervous is the right word for how I feel. More like relieved. I was nervous before you got here. I was nervous this morning when I called you. I was nervous ten days ago in Whistler. But now, with you here, agreeing to talk I feel…relieved." She looked at Alice. "Weird, huh?"

Alice smiled. Lara was turning out to be a lot more unpredictable than she’d thought. Shaking her head she began to eat. It had been a long while since she’d enjoyed eating, but despite all the odds, she was suddenly ravenous. And, she realized she was suddenly feeling a lot more comfortable in the homey kitchen.