An hour later Shane was pulling up outside Alice’s apartment block.  Try as she might Alice never had the desire, never mind the energy to extend her jog so it actually carried her back home.   This meant she had become dependent these last few months on at least one of the gang being there to drop her off.  One day in fact she had waited at the planet for Shane to go to Wax attend to two clients and then come back for her to drop her the short distance back to her place.

“So Shane you got clients to take care of or do you want to come hang out for a while?  I’m up to date with all my deadlines at the moment so I’ve nothing concrete to do today?” Alice asked as she was wringing her hands in her lap gazing down at them, then, trying to pull herself together she took a deep breath in and added “ but you know you’re probably busy it’s cool I’ll just go work on some new story ideas for my next article.”

Shane knew that Alice was feeling uneasy about being faced with a day with no specific goals.  Since Tasha had left they had all been amazed at the discipline that Alice had applied to her life in an attempt to remain in control.  Gone were the days of idly passing hours on end doing nothing only to spend the last fourteen hours before some deadline needed to be met rooted to her laptop skipping meals not sleeping and for once not connecting with the outside world.  It seemed Alice had a plan as to how to get through this worrying separation from Tasha and it involved routine.  Given the freelance nature of her work however that was sometimes easier said than done.  Shane recognised the request for what it was and quickly agreed to spend her morning with her friend. She had no clients booked until this afternoon and had just been planning on catching up with orders from suppliers this morning which could wait. 

As Alice approached the door of her apartment she was relieved that Shane was right behind her.  She felt like today was one of the tougher days and with little to occupy herself if alone, the writer worried where her mind would wander to.  They entered the apartment and Alice went straight to her bedside table where she’d left her cell calling out to Shane to make herself at home.  She picked up the phone and walked back into the living room.  She looked at the phone and saw once missed call.  A mild feeling of panic began to stir in the pit of her stomach as she looked to see who it was from trying to reassure herself that she was over-reacting. It could be from anyone, she was a popular girl after all!  But then she saw the display with Unknown Number and the mild panic built to something much stronger.

Shane sensed the uneasiness coming from her friend

 “Hey Al what’s up?” 

“I ugh, it’s ugh, em…” Alice mumbled holding the phone in front of her looking at it like it might explode.

Shane reached out and looked at the display for herself.  Unknown number she read

“Al what’s wrong with that. Were you expecting a call from someone?”

“Tasha” she whispered, “what if they’re calling about Tasha?”

Shane finally caught on and realised the potential implication for Alice of a call from a number she did not recognise.  Shane could feel herself become concerned but knew that she should be the reasonable one.

“It’s probably nothing Al; see if they left a message!”

“I don’t think I can Shane.  I can’t do this again.  I can’t lose someone else I care about” Alice squeaked out her pitch getting higher with each phrase. A look of sheer terror spreading over her face.

“Come on Al calm down, it’s going to be fine we’ll do it together.”  With that Shane wrapped her arm around her friend’s shoulder and dialled Alice’s voicemail putting the phone on speaker.

“Um Alice?” a hesitant male voice began “Alice it’s Howie.  Howie Fairbanks – Dana’s brother.  Listen I’m sorry to call so early, I remember you’re not much of a morning person so you’re probably still asleep or something….God I’m rambling…..uh…um…Alice listen I really need to talk to you.  It’s important could you call me?”

TBC?