I put my drink down, leaned forward and looked her in the eyes. "Alice, listen to me. What you think you have with Gabby and what she thinks she has with you are two completely different things. Trust me, I know every move she pulls."

Alice scoffed, "You pull every move she does."

I shook my head, "Ah, but I don’t lie about it. That’s the difference between her and me, which is why I don’t have someone like you thinking I’m in a relationship with them. Al, you have to see this."

"I know what you’re saying, but Shane, she’s said she’ll be different this time."

"Al, she always says she’ll be different this time."

Al shook her head and waved her hands. "I know, I know… whatever… anyways, what are you doing tonight?"

"Dunno, nothing really planned at the moment, why?"

"I was thinking I could bring some beer around to your place, we could hang out or something."

I leaned back in the couch. "Yeah, no can do. We could do it at your place though."

Alice laughed, "What? Roommate problems? Too many people crammed into that tiny apartment finally getting to all of you?"

I shrugged, "Something like that…"

"Well, come to mine then. We’ll throw on some movies or something."

"Sure Al, just no stupid chic flicks."

We argued for a bit over which movies would be acceptable to both of us, then she headed off to turn in an article. I finished my drink and headed back to work. The afternoon went by fairly quickly, and soon I was driving over to Alice’s, a 12 pack of beer in the passenger seat. We started drinking, lit a joint, and put on a movie that we instantly didn’t pay attention to. The beers went quickly, as did the bottle of tequila that Alice pulled out halfway through the second joint. We would chat about random things for a bit, then just sit quietly for long periods of time. We were sitting on the floor, leaning on the couch. The movie had ended ages ago, and the menu screen was playing on loop in front of us. Finally, Alice reached over and hit the power button on the TV remote.