Dana smiled lightly at Leisha as they said goodnight and looked at her nervously as she thought about asking her inside.

Leisha sensed Dana’s dilemma and leaned in closer to the tennis player. She had had an amazing time with Dana. So good in fact that the date had actually lasted a lot longer than either of them had intended and Leisha could already hear her boss chewing her out in the morning for missing their evening meeting. But all of these thoughts flew out of Leisha’s mind as she continued leaning in and touched Dana’s lips lightly with her own. She lingered the for a few seconds before pulling back and looking at Dana. “Let’s not rush things. I had a really great time and I would love to see you again.” Dana smiled liking the fact that Leisha seemed to understand her enough to say that to her. Dana nodded and squeezed the hand that had somehow ended up in her own. “Besides,” Leisha added as she turned toward her car. “You’re all out of furniture. Where would we sit?” Leisha waved as Dana smiled at her remark and waited in her doorway until she had gotten into her car and drove away. When the car was out of sight the happy smile that Dana had been wearing faded as she thought about the reason that she didn’t have any furniture. Dana felt guilty all over again. She threw her head back and made her way to her bedroom to think.

Dana liked Leisha. She was sure of that. She was nothing like Alice, but she seemed to understand her in a way that only Alice ever had. And this confused Dana. She hadn’t thought that it would be possible for her to meet anyone else in the world who understood her in the same way Alice did. Dana stared at her phone and tried to fight the urge to dial Alice’s cell phone number. Part of Dana wanted to talk to her and tell her that she missed her desperately and she wanted her to come home. And part of her wanted to call her and tell her what a good time she had that night with Leisha. Not to rub it in, but to just tell someone what was going on and even though Dana had Lara, Alice was still the first person that she thought of. Slowly Dana picked up the phone and dialed Alice’s phone number