“Hey! How the ***** have you been woman?” Dana smiled as Carmen said hello to her and wrapped her arms around Dana’s shoulders. “We thought you might have dropped off the face of the earth there for a while.”

“Hanging in there.” Dana replied as she returned the hug from Carmen. “But I could really go for some coffee. So what do you say we get outta here.” Carmen nodded and the three women got into the car and headed toward the Planet.

“So how’s everyone else?” Dana asked when they had arrived at their favorite hang out and sat down. “Bette, Tee, The kids?”

“They’re good. Wondering about you.” Shane pointed out. “But Lara tells us that you’re doing fine, so” Shane let her voice trail. “She also tells us that you have a new woman.” Shane grinned as Dana choked slightly on her drink and then set it down on the table.

“I don’t have a new woman.” Dana protested, her cheeks reddening. Shane smiled happy to see that five years with Alice, who was somewhat freakish, had done nothing to diminish Dana’s bashfulness when it came to discussing relationship matters. “We’re just friends. You know hanging out, doing stuff. I can’t spend the rest of my life locked in my house because” Dana let her voice trail at the thought of Alice’s betrayal. “We’re just friends.” she reiterated with a deep breath.

“So tell us about this new friend.” Shane held up quotes as she spoke the word friend.

“There’s nothing to tell. I barely even know her.” Dana said trying to hide the blush in her cheeks. “When there is something to tell I promise that I will run in here to tell you guys. Deal?” Dana asked hoping that they would stop tormenting her.

Shane let out the closest thing to a giggle that ever passed her lips and then looked over at her girlfriend. “You heard that right? We get the info first.” Carmen nodded.

“We’ll hold you to it Dana.” She said. Dana smiled and shook her head at her friends not realizing till this moment how much she missed them

Alice sighed as she paid for her groceries and looked down to check her watch. Today was supposed to be her first day back to work, but she had called and asked them if they would give her another week. Alice wasn’t ready to face the phone calls again. She had spent most of the week finally taking a moment to realize the severity of the situation. It had been six months since Alice and Dana had spoken and Dana had given her publicist the go ahead to let it out that they were officially over. With all the spare time that Alice suddenly found herself with she had slowly began to understand that there was a good chance that she and Dana really were finished. Add this to the information that she had pried out of Bette and it was almost a done deal. Dana was seeing someone else.