The knock on Alice‘s door at 4am wasn’t greeted with enormous enthusiasm from Alice, who was still too asleep to think of who would want to see her this early. However as soon as she saw Dana through the eyehole, Al felt wide awake, pumped full of anxious adrenaline and nerves. She fumbled with the lock and eventually pulled the door open, displaying an equally anxious looking Dana.

“Al”

“Dana. I want to apologise about tonight. I was going to tell you, I just it just didn’t happen the way I wanted it to.” Al started rambling, hoping that if she kept doing that she wouldn’t have to hear about how Dana only has feelings for her as a friend.

“Al it doesn’t matter.”

“Yes, yes it does matter Dana. It matters a lot,” Alice stated insistently, slightly embarrassed by the tears that began to stream down her face. “I wanted you to know first. I I wanted to know what you thought about it,” she looked down, unable to meet Dana’s gaze. “I wanted to see if if maybe you didn’t want me to go.”

The silence that followed was almost deadly, Alice immediately regretting what she said and putting Dana into a position where she obviously felt uncomfortable.

“I don’t want you to go,” Dana whispered looking straight at Alice who was still staring intently at the floor. “And I’m not going to move from here until you quit that job and promise me that you won’t even move away from us from me again.” Dana’s words were slow and shaky, having never been this frightened before in her life.

Alice looked up suddenly, shocked by what she heard her whole body suddenly tingly at the words Dana had spoken. She found Dana staring at her, her eyes full of love, vulnerability and hope, and she knew that every word she spoke was the truth.

“I am far too in love with you Alice to ever let you go.”