She carefully took the tree and decorations out of the boxes. Taking a while to untangle the bunched up ball of lights, which Alice had told Dana she put away so nicely the year before. She chuckled as she untangled the lights bit by bit, thinking of how Alice had so casually lied to her. But the way she did it with such cute profoundness that nobody even herself thought to question her further.

A few short hours later, everything had been done she smiled on with amazement at the fact she had managed to do it alone and for it to look like every other year they done it together. She got herself washed up and ready and changed from the clothes she ended up wearing the night before to bed. She wasn’t shocked to not hear off Alice and knew she was busy woman but somehow burning inside of her, her love towards this woman had not changed, it was just much harder to project it. She finished the long haul process of packing her suitcase and preparing all the documents she needed for her trip.

She took a deep breath and one final glance at the home she loved, she purposely left the Christmas tree lights on, and placed a picture of herself and Alice the first Christmas they had spent together both wearing goofy Christmas hats and them making a toast to one another, the funniest thing was they spent it on there own so they had taken the photograph themselves. In the picture they were lopsided but that didn’t matter it was the capture of a momentarily good time in both of their lives.

But also beside that she had found a picture of Alice and Helena, they both looked so happy. She didn’t actually recognise the place it was taken, but from Alice’s so detailed information of that part of her life, she knew it had to be her apartment. Although Dana herself could never quite work out what had been so funny she still smiled at the picture knowingly that it would bring a smile to Alice’s face also. Dana knew Alice missed her beloved friend dearly and at this time of year, Alice would incessantly reminisce on the loving times she spent with Helena. She knew that Alice missed parts of her life she left behind, but she knew that Alice wouldn’t let onto this and the only time she mentioned them to her would be Christmas time and Helena’s name would be one highlighted in depth.

As she closed the door and faced the car waiting for her she knew she was making the right decision to go without saying goodbye, after all Alice knew about this trip for the past month and a half. And she had even reminded her last night but she still didn’t come home. As the car slowly pulled off from the pavement beside their apartment her eyes fixated on the place she had grown to call home. One last glance for 2 weeks, although it felt in her heart that she was going away for a year. It was hard she had never felt so strongly for anybody in her life, more importantly a woman. Alice was her first and hopefully her last, she had never found someone who knew her soul so intensely. And at the time her and Alice met she had been looking for love but in all the wrong places and that obviously was Alice’s queue.