Dana didn’t need to look at the picture she had already seen it. She knew what
Alice saw and understood the venom coming from her.

"Alice, please, just let me talk to you. I swear it isn’t what you think."

"It isn’t what I think? I think some crazy-ass woman that’s stalking you just
fucked up my entire world by sending me a picture of you kissing that fucking
trainer of yours. Did I misunderstand something?"

Dana wasn’t sure what was worse, the pure anger she heard coming from Alice
or the lack of pain. She knew Alice well enough to know that the only time she
gets this angry is when she is hurting so much she can’t face it. Eventually the
pain does come, it always does its going to be so much worse than what Dana
was getting now.

"Baby, please. Just let me talk to you. Let me see you."

"You don’t get to call me Baby. You don’t get to see me. You don’t get to talk to
me. Do you know that I was stupid enough to see those flowers and think you
had sent them? Ha! Funny, right? It wasn’t so funny when that lunatic called."

"She called you?"

"Yes, she wanted to make sure I got her present."

"Al, I’m sorry. I’ll fix this."

"There is nothing for you to fix. It’s not broken it’s gone. So do me a favor and
let me get ready for work. I can’t do this. I can’t talk to you. I’m here to do a
job, please Dana, let me do it."

"Alice, don’t say that. Don’t say it’s gone. It isn’t gone. We can get past this.
Please, Baby, I love you."

"You love me, huh? If you really love me, then leave me alone. This is only
hurting me more."

Dana’s head instantly bowed in defeat with that last sentence. Her presence
caused Alice pain. There was nothing she could say to answer that. She silently
walked to the door and left.

—

"LA Magazine, Julia speaking."

"Hey, Julia, it’s Shane."

"Shane, how are you?"

"Good, look Julia have you heard from Alice?"

"No, I haven’t. She only got to DC last night. What’s wrong?"

Shane stammered, trying to think of the right answer. She wanted to make sure
that Alice was ok, but she wasn’t really the type to spread gossip.