"You’re different, Lara…and by the way, this is really good."

"Different, weird or different, changed? And by the way, thanks." Lara returned.

"You’re different than when you were with…Dana." Speaking Dana’s name made Alice suddenly tentative. She continued, "You seemed so quiet before and…", Alice trailed off looking at Lara with apologetic eyes.

"Boring?" Lara finished.

Reluctantly, Alice nodded. "It was more from lack of really knowing you, though."

Lara grew still. She regarded Alice thoughtfully before nodding her head. " I can see why you’d say that. Dana was so closeted when we first started dating, and that made it a little difficult to know how to interact with other people in her life during that period. And then—well, I felt like an outsider during the latter part of our relationship. It always seemed like a balancing act when Dana was with her friends and me. I think that made me appear withdrawn and reserved, because I really didn’t want to do anything that would make the situation worse for Dana—and I knew she struggled with guilt over our relationship and the impact it had on you and everyone else in the group. I guess I could have tried harder….it just seemed so damned awkward."

Alice blinked away the tears that pooled at the corners of her eyes. "I guess that was a hard period for everyone."

There was a brief awkward silence, then Alice continued. "Soooo, you wanted to tell me something when we were at Whistler….but we got interrupted. What’s up?"

Confusion flashed across Lara’s face before her expression cleared. "Oh….that. I was going to tell you that I was thinking of leaving LA. I had a job offer as a sous chef in Chicago."

Alice started and stammered, "What?"

Lara noted Alice’s flustered reaction with interest. "I’m not going. At first, it seemed like a great opportunity, and I thought it might be good for me to have a fresh start somewhere without all the memories. But then I realized that the memories would follow me no matter where I go. Here I already have a job that I love and," Lara looked at Alice steadily, "people that I care about. I decided that it would be better for me to stay put rather than run away from my life." Lara chewed her lip for a moment before concluding softly, "I ran away once, and I’ll always regret it."