“I don’t consider it hiding,” I said, trying to steer the conversation away from this topic because I knew it upset her. I knew she sometimes let Shane and Jenny read parts of what she was working on, but she never did with me. I wasn’t exactly jealous of the fact, since Shane was one of her oldest friends and Jenny was a writer, but it hurt a little anyway. Still, I would never have wanted her to feel guilty for that.

“I do. Because that’s what it is. It’s…” she stopped and took a deep breath. “The things I’ve been writing about are the things that we went through. I fictionalize them a hell of a lot better than Jenny does, but that’s what I write about. And I guess I just don’t want to hurt you any more than I already have by letting you read any of it.”

I almost bought a ticket to Chicago right there, just so I could hold her.

**********

Alice had adored her new office on sight. I don’t know why it made me feel so glad, since she wasn’t that hard to please, and it was something she’d be able to use a lot. Still, the second she saw it, she let out a cross between a squeal and a sob, and then she ran back into the house, pushed me against the wall and kissed me. This was made a little awkward considering the fact that I was still holding two of her suitcases, but she managed it anyway.

“I can’t believe you made that! I was only gone a week,” she said when she’d finally released me. I made an exaggerated motion of putting her suitcases in our room as though I was exhausted. She followed me.

“I didn’t make all of it. The contractor guys did,” I told her. “And Shane did too.”

“Shane helped you make that? Why the fuck is she always making us furniture or things that hold furniture?”

“Because she’s our friend. And I guess she likes building stuff. I don’t know, and I don’t care. She helped me and now you have an office outside.”

Alice looked thoughtfully out the bedroom window. “It’s like an upgraded version of Jenny’s shed.”

“It is not!” I protested, offended. “And it’s not even Jenny’s shed anymore.”

“Well, you made out with her in it, when it was.”

“Thanks. I already knew that. Do you really like it?” I asked, because she had an evil glint in her eye and I really had no desire to answer any questions about Jenny that had anything to do with nudity or anything related to it.

“Of course I like it. That’s a really dumb question.”

**********

I started awake in the semi-darkness of the room, hearing something moving by Alice’s door. I went into protective mode immediately, not realizing what I was doing, and was out of bed before I could stop myself.

“I didn’t mean to startle you, Dana,” Dr. Hernandez said softly. As my brain slowly woke up a little, I looked away from him sheepishly. “Go ahead and go back to sleep. You haven’t gotten much lately and you haven’t been asleep very long. I’m just doing some checks. Tomorrow I’ll come in and we can talk about where to go from here.”

That was all I needed to hear. I glanced at the clock; only half an hour since I’d laid down. I decided to try for at least double that time.