“You’re making a big deal out of absolutely nothing, Dana. Do you seriously think you need to check with me for things like this? It’s not like you and Shane haven’t been friends for years now. And even if you hadn’t, how would it be my place to say anything one way or the other? Sweetie, you just got great news, I have nothing to do with that. Of course I want to celebrate with you, but you need to go out with Shane. I need to get some stuff done on my own too. Really, baby, please don’t even give it a second thought.”

Alice stopped talking and let Dana process this. She could sense the feeling of shell-shock coming off Dana in waves, and figured she was just too surprised and elated by the recent events to really process what she was saying, but it still hurt a little bit. Still, she tried to move past feeling that way since it didn’t matter much at all in the long run.

“You wanna grab something to eat really quick on the way home? Or maybe go to that little bistro you like? I don’t know if you and Shane have dinner plans, but it’s only midafternoon anyway. We could always grab something small,” Alice suggested as they turned onto a street by the apartment building that had a lot of little restaurants and bistros, one of which Dana had seemed to be particularly fond of the entire time they’d been friends. Alice sort of pulled up in front of it without saying anything, and from the way Dana’s face lit up when she realized a few seconds too late where they were, was enough to let her know it had been the right move.

They sat quietly at a little table in the back, not really saying much over their food. Dana was too happy to really be able to think, and while Alice wasn’t quite that exuberant, she was more relieved than she cared to admit. They seemed to sense that the quiet was the good kind, though, so they just ate and smiled at each other and held hands across the tiny table afterwards without a care in the world.

“So what do you have to work on tonight?” Dana finally asked, as much to break the silence as to let Alice talk about what the phone call in the car had been about, right before they’d left the hospital lot.