“My day was fine,” Tasha said. “Pretty uneventful.”

Alice rolled her eyes. “That’s great, only I just asked you what you wanted to do for the 4^th.”

“You know what we’re doing on Independence Day, we’ve already discussed it. Plans haven’t changed,” Tasha said.

“Uh, no I don’t. What plans?”

“I told you all about it, Alice,” Tasha said wearily. “If you would just listen to me sometimes -”

Alice gave a short laugh. “You’re going to lecture me on listening when I just caught you tuning me out?”

“I wasn’t tuning you out,” Tasha said irritably. “I misheard the question.”

“Mmkay. What are these plans that I was supposedly told about, Tasha?”

“Mike from the precinct invited us to his barbeque. I accepted.”

“Who is Mike and why would I want to spend my Independence Day with a cop? Get real. You know you never told me about this because I never would have agreed.”

“I did tell you and you did say you would go. I can’t back out now. How would that look?”

“Like you had the good sense not to want to “party”, Alice made exaggerated air quotes with her hands, “with a bunch of cops.”

Tasha sat up straight and set her beer bottle down on the coffee table. “You must be joking. The guys have finally started to accept me, and don’t just look at me as the young blood anymore. No way am I flaking out. I want to get to know them better.”

“What makes you think I want to get to know them, Tasha? They’re probably all misogynistic, racist -”

“Mike is black,” Tasha interjected.

Alice pursed her lips. “Does he know about us? That you’d be bringing a woman to this party?”

It was Tasha’s turn to roll her eyes. “I’m pretty sure everyone I work with knows that I’m a lesbian by now, Alice. If they don’t, then they’re incredibly dense, or they just don’t listen.”

Alice shook her head. “I just don’t know if it’s the best idea.”