The next morning came too early for Alice. She nudged Dana’s leg off her stomach and lurched to the bathroom. Her head felt three sizes too big. She had spent the previous evening until early morning with the girls, drinking and dancing. With a bolt of clarity, she acknowledged that this was fine when she was younger, but now that she was pushing 30, getting drunk on a week day was not as fun as before. In fact it seemed to border on downright stupid. Alice scowled and shuffled to the kitchen to make coffee. If she didn’t have an early morning meeting with her editor, she would have just called in sick. As it were, she needed to write her Female Bond-age article.

As she waited for her coffee, she stared into the sink, noticing for the first time the specks of mold that were marring the stainless surface. She also noticed the coffee cup with the chipped handle, the dinner plate with the hairline crack, and the trash compactor that wouldn’t turn on unless it was kicked rather viciously. Yuck, yuck, and yuck. Is this all I have to show for? Well, Alice thought hard, I do have a career that I love. She scowled again when she remembered her current writing assignment. Another fluff piece that would go under the Humor section. Suddenly depressed, she sat down at the kitchen counter with her head propped up on one hand. Her other hand tapped without rhythm on the wooden surface.

So she didn’t really have any accomplishment she could be proud of. Her house was falling down around her and her job was to be a literary lightweight. One step away from chick-lit. Yuck. With the way things are going, her next assignment could be to profile the life and times of an LA fashion boutique salesgirl who falls in love with her macho fashion-forward boss who later turns out to be (gasp) gay.

Her sad musings were interrupted by Dana’s yelled good morning from the bedroom. She couldn’t help but smile when she heard her girlfriend bumping around various furniture. She imagined murmured curses and stubbed toes. Dana would change into her running clothes and go out for a run in a few minutes, a routine that was unchanged for the past 5 years, except when she was out of town for a tournament. It was a good thing that Dana never aimed to be a top ranked player. She was content to be at around the bottom hundred, playing tournaments within the States. The furthest she had ever travelled was to Canada and she was eliminated in the first round. Dana never talked about it, but Alice suspected that Dana never wanted to leave the country where Alice herself was.