Alice too had her own trepidation to deal with. As she exited the building and made her way to the Mini, she tried her best to focus on making things work with Julianna, and not allowing those smoldering feelings for Dana to interfere. She knew it wouldn’t be easy, especially if Dana meant everything she said last night. But she was committed to Jules, committed to making it work with her, and committed to not get lured down the inevitable path of heartbreak that loving Dana would lead to.

Once she was securely fastened in the driver’s seat of the Mini, her cell phone rang.

"Hello?"

"Hey Al."

"Shane, what the hell are you doing up at this hour?" Shane listened as she glanced up at Dana, currently sitting across the table from her, knee shaking and fidgeting nervously with her hands.

"Uh, you called and woke me up before, so now I’m up. Besides, you sounded a bit frantic in your message before, I wanted to make sure everything was cool."

Alice closed her eyes wondering how exactly to respond to that. But she made a promise to commit herself to Jules, and that meant putting whatever happened with Dana last night behind her. "Yeah, things are cool."

"Really?"

"Yes, really. Why, what’d you hear?"

"Oh, nothing. I mean, Dana was here before…" Dana’s eyes widened at this, just as Alice’s did.

"Dana was there?" she asked anxiously. But after realizing that her tone was giving her away, she continued coolly. "Oh, that’s nice."

"Yeah, she seemed pretty upset."

"You sure you aren’t mistaking her upset for a hangover?"

"No Al, she said some things to me…I don’t know, very un-Dana-like." Dana scowled at this.

"Very un-Dana-like? So you must mean she was honest," Alice quipped.

Shane just rolled her eyes and continued in her efforts. "Listen Al, are you sure you don’t want to talk to me about last night. I mean, it sounds to me like it got pretty intense."

"I don’t know Shane, I’m thinking it might be best if I leave last night in last night and just focus on right now, you know?"

"That’s up to you, Al. But why don’t we meet for coffee in twenty minutes anyway."

"Uh," she sighed and checked her watch. "Sure, why not? So…you know any good coffee places?"

"Shut up," Shane returned with a laugh. "I’ll see you at The Planet in twenty."

Once the call was safely ended, she returned her attention back to Dana. "There. I’ll go talk to her, but I can’t promise anything. She sounded pretty determined to not talk about whatever happened between you two last night."

"She says that now, but we both know Al, she can’t just not talk about something like that."

The stylist considered this. "Yeah, that’s true. Whatever, I’ll go talk to her about it. But I swear to God Fairbanks, this is the last time I do something like this. After today, you’re on your own."

"Fair enough," Dana smiled genuinely and hugged her friend once more. "Thank you for this. You really don’t know how much it means to me that you’re willing to help. I’m not sure how I can ever pay you back."

"Just go get her Dane. Get her back and be the woman she deserves, the woman I know you can be. You two belong together, I just hope you can remind her of that."

A look of confidence and resolve washed over Dana’s hopeful face. "I can Shane. I know I can."