“Too loud with the drinking Dana” groaned Shane.  “Uh sorry” she mumbled looking to Alice for support.  Alice however had her head resting on her hand with her eyes closed as she slowly drank her coffee. Dana watched in silence and wondered what the point of meeting up in the morning was if you weren’t even allowed to talk.  But slowly as the porcelain at the bottom of their respective cups became visible her companions came alive and began to chat.  Over the coming days, Dana noticed that it was at this point that Bette and Tina tried to strategically time their arrival avoiding engagement with the moody duo unto well after that first magical cup. 

Alice grinned to herself as she remembered the impatient imploring looks Dana used to throw across the table at her while she waited.  Particularly in the early days of her relationship with Lara – each morning Dana would have some burning question regarding what she should be doing or what the correct response to something the red-head had said or done was.  She knew better however than to ask too early and so Shane and Alice would sit there in silence nursing the powerful dark liquid watching Dana squirm.  There was the odd occasion when the prospective information was exciting enough that Alice would forfeit the ritual and let Dana speak but they could never draw Shane into those moments.  Rule number one was unbreakable as far as Ms McCutcheon was concerned.

Alice caught herself reminiscing about happy times with Dana and was surprised to find that she was starting to be able to remember the good times in isolation without being swamped with memories of the bad times, memories that still to this day when they did come back made her feel like her heart was breaking all over again in her chest.

As she thought of Dana’s early morning brightness Alice couldn’t help but remember how grateful she was for it in those few blissful months that they were dating when the fully energized, vein popping, sweaty athlete would return to the apartment from her early morning work-out and give Alice a most welcome work-out of her own.  Alice’s face flushed a little at the memory….God Dana what you can still do to me she thought.