******If you have skipped the author’s note then please go back and read it because without your participation I cannot continue this story. Thank you.*******

Dana sat on the steps to her condo with her head in her hands thinking. Everything had changed. As she peered up at the sky through her fingers, Dana felt the world looked different. Maybe it was just the fact that she was different. Alice had kissed her. Aliceher best friendhad kissed her. She smiled as she recalled the event with perfect clarity. She had been lying in bed awake listening to those little weird sleep noises Tonya made, when her cell phone rang and vibrated across the nightstand. Fearing the noise would awaken the slumbering Ton-Ton, Dana dove off the bed for the gyrating monstrosity as Tonya rolled over with a searching arm finding only air and sheets. Dana was already more than halfway off the bed by this time. This, combined with the sound of Dana’s movements, made Tonya sit up and snort in annoyance.



Dana had answered the phone in the mean time, “Dana Fairbanks”.



“Dana, its Alice… umm I need to talk. Can I… can I come over?”



Dana’s brow furrowed, Alice would never call her at this time of the morning knowing that Tonya would be there.



“Al, what’s up? It’s really early. I mean are you okay and everything?”



Dana heard Alice hesitate like she was going to let something out, “Dane I really have to talk to you about this in person and I would rather it be now than later.”



Dana sighed and conceded, “Ok, come on over, I will be waiting”.



Dana spent what seemed like an eternity waiting for Alice sitting on the couch in her living room contemplating the millions of reasons why Alice insisted on coming over. Finally, having exhausted her mind, she got up and went to the window to watch for Alice’s mini to come into sight. Alice was not in a good way that was for sure. Dana had known her long enough to know when her best friend was struggling with something big although she didnt know what was coming and she couldn’t help but feel a sense of immense anticipation coming over her. Something big was going to happen tonight. What she expected she could hardly say, but she certainly didn’t even think it was what was about to transpire.



Alice parked on the street in front of Dana’s condo and gathered her thoughts. “What am I going to say,” she mused to herself. She felt a strange sensation that made her look to her left where she saw Dana standing in the window waiting for her. Taking a deep breath Alice prepared to get out of the car and face Dana andherself. However, her preparation was in vain, for once Alice reached the steps everything she had been thinking flew away like a caged bird. Automatically Alice’s head slumped down.



Dana opened the door ready for anything, or so she thought. Alice’s face was a collective of feelings, but the most prominent was confusion. Dana was usually the confused one so she knew this must be as big as her sense of foreboding had told her it would be.



Whispered hellos were exchanged and Dana’s first question was the obvious one, “What’s going on? It’s four AM, are you okay?”



“You can’t marry Tonya,” was Alice’s response.



This, being the last thing that Dana had expected to hear, confused Dana even further. Where on earth could this be coming from?! She knew Alice was one to exaggerate at times, but this statement… she better have a good reason for this one. Dana knew somewhere inside she wasn’t marrying Tonya for the right reasons, which made her even quicker to defend her decision. Tonya, as always, found a way to put herself into the picture by yelling, “Sweetie, are you okay? Do you need me?”



Dana opened the door behind her and gave an automatic reply, “No, no, no, it’s okay”, only to turn back to Alice and an expression she had never seen before. It was a way that she had always imagined someone would look at her, but why was that expression on Alice, of all people?



“What are you talking about? Why?”



Alice would not appease her curiosity, though, and simply stated the good old cop out, “Because”. Dana felt her face harden against the feelings that were stirring inside of her, “Because why?” Again all she got in response to this was a whispered, “Because”. This time though Alice took action. It was an action that threw the world into even further confusion for both of them. In that split second it took Dana to realize what was happening, her mind left her. She was simply there. Her body seemed to melt away and her emotions took over. The kiss seemed to exist for an eternity, but was actually only a fraction of a moment. A moment lost in time. Disbelief surrounded Dana, but was soon joined by an unexpecteddesire.



When Alice looked back up into her eyes and saw the same emotions she was having reflecting back, her instincts took hold. Leaning forward and grabbing Alice’s arms, Dana propelled them back into that world composed of nothing but feeling. She couldn’t say that she had never imagined what it would be like to kiss Alice, but those thoughts were inspired by a rather random peck of a kiss they had engaged in on a dare. This was so much better. Dana was ready for the feelings this time. She had always disbelieved the stories, but this was like a very large bus slamming into her. When they parted she could feel herself crashing back into her body.



All the emotions stirred by that kiss stretched like a web between them until Alice broke the spell, “Oh god, I’ve got to go.”

Dana watched in shock as Alice ran away from her and then sat down on the steps as she heard the mini zoom off into the dark morning. Her head fell into her hands, “What the ***** just happened?” A very good questionWhat had just happened? In the blink of an eyea dam had burst. This release of emotions she didn’t even know she had was going to cost Dana any sleep she might have gotten.



Sighing, she got up and went inside to at least try to sleep. Tonya was waiting for her in the bedroom with one eyebrow raised. “What was that all about? What does Alice mean coming here at this hour! Some of us sleep at four AM! Whatever strange habits she has doesn’t give her the right to encroach on us!”



Dana cringed at this outburst from her fianc. Slipping back into bed she offered no real explanation. “Lets just try to go back to sleep, okay Ton?” Tonya, being more tired than she could be irate at the moment decided it was best to take Dana’s advice. Soon Tonya was back to making her weird noises and Dana was still brooding. Why did Alice have to do this, why did she have to run away afterwards? There was so much that they had to talk about. Having made up her mind, Dana picked up the cordless phone by the bed, walked into the bathroom and speed dialed Alice’s cell. When there was no answer and it went to voice mail, she didn’t possess any words to say.



Alice entered her apartment building passing her neighbor Patty on her way in. “Hey,” Patty called. Alice not realizing she was being spoken to walked right past her and unlocked her apartment. It was only then did she notice Patty looking at her strangely.



“Oh, Patty… umm, hey, have a good morning.”



Patty’s puzzled expression now included a raised eyebrow as she watched Alice enter her apartment. Maybe it had something to do with that blonde woman going into Alice’s apartment earlier. Patty soon gave up trying to figure this out and continued on to the elevator.



After shutting the door behind her, Alice walked into her living room and was surprised to find Tina sitting on her couch. This night just kept on rolling with the surprises. “Tina? Hey, what are you doing here? Are you ok? What?” The blotched appearance of Tina’s face reminded Alice of her own face when she had been fucked with by people she had trusted to keep her heart safe.

After, settling Tina down on the couch for the night, Alice went into her room and started changing into her pajamas. This night had blown her totally away. She had kissed Dana and Tina had found out that Bette had cheated on her with Candace the Carpenter. For some reason, Candace always reminded her of “Bob the Builder” so she couldn’t help but call her “Candace the Carpenter”. Now she was going to have to change that to “Candace the Homewrecker”. This wasn’t all on Candace though; Bette was totally responsible for her actions. God, this pissed Alice off to no end. It was just like Bette to do something stupid like this after almost eight years with Tina. Alice could understand that loosing the baby had taken Tina a little out of things lately, but that didn’t mean Bette had the right to go find whatever she was missing somewhere else. In some ways Bette really did resemble a male, and Alice should know…having dated the species. That was the good part of being who she was. She got to choose between the variety of evils and plusses that came with both sexes.



Alice was startled out of her thoughts by her beeping cell phone indicating a new voice mail for the fiftieth time that night. She couldn’t bring herself to turn it off or listen to it, so she just stared at it and soon found one of the tank tops she usually wore to bed. Slipping it on, she sat down and held her phone in her hand, flipping it open and closed…open…close…open…close. She always fidgeted when she was nervous. What if the voice mail was Dana calling to curse at her for the kiss, or worse, what if it was Tonya who had seen the kiss and was calling to tell her that she was going to kick her ***** or sue her or something?! Could she even do that? Suing her was something that didn’t seem too likely but the kicking of the *****….whole different story. Tonya was much bigger than her and however Alice liked to think she could take her, she knew that all Tonya had to do was sit on her and it would be over. Dismissing the outlandish thoughts that were so normal to her she opened the phone with determination and dialed her voice mail.



The automatic voice came on the line to drone that she had one new message. She pressed one and prepared for anything, everything and…well…nothing. When all she heard was weird noises and breathing her forehead hunched. Then, finally, Dana’s voice came over the phone.



“Alice… god… we so need to talk about this. What was that? I mean, you kissed me? I don’t understand and I just wish that you would answer your phone. Please call me back. Just call me on my cell, ok? I don’t want to wake Tonya again.”



Alice closed her phone and sighed. Leaning back on her headboard she contemplated what to do. She really wasn’t ready to face this, but she didn’t know how long she could leave Dana hanging before she came and forced a conversation. She did the only thing she could, she called Dana back. When the phone rang three times she was getting optimistic that Dana had just gone back to bed and forgotten about everything, but Dana’s whispered hello dashed any hopes she had of avoiding the confrontation. Alice tried to play it off with humor as she was apt to do.



“Dana, hey…. how you doin?”



“Alice, we have to talk.”



“Gee, if you want to be all serious…,” Alice let her humoristic front fall, “Ok, when, where? Can we do this later? Right now I am still a little shaken up and Tina’s here and I just think I am going to need a little time. I think we both need a little time.”



Dana, confused over why Tina would be there at six AM, was distracted from the issue at hand for a moment. “Why is Tina there? You know what…never mind. Can you meet me this afternoon? Not the planet. I don’t want any interruptions. Can you just meet me at the club?”



A) Alice meets Dana at the club that afternoon.

B) Alice puts off seeing Dana so she can get her ducks in a row.

C) Alice agrees to meet Dana but stops by her friendly neighborhood bar first.