A few rows in the front, Tina
snored softly, to the fury of a fifteen-year-old traveling alone. The poor teen
had probably thought she’d get a rest from her parents, and instead ended up
more tired than before, due to a restless night.

Alice got to admit, those
people really did have a good hold on their impulses. She could visualize the
anger those two might be feeling, mostly because they were a mirror of her own.

Sleepless nights made her
horribly cranky. She’d be thinking about taking a rest for the entire day, but
wouldn’t allow herself to do so and miss a second of her first evening in
Italy.

No, every minute mattered.
There was no time for sleeping. She’d just drink a ton of Marina’s strongest
coffee and forget about being tired.

She passed Tonya and Dana,
watched as they held each other tenderly in slumber, closely so. If auras
really existed, theirs would certainly be bright pink, so shiny one would spot
it a hundred miles away and know that those girls were deeply in love.

Alice felt a pang in her
belly, echoed by a stronger one in her heart. She froze for a while, kept
staring at them. Her best friend had finally found a true mate, someone who’d
stay with her until death did them part. Either death or a divorce, anyway.

But still. Shouldn’t she be
happy for Dana? Dana, who had faced so many hindrances in life and deserved to
be utterly merry?

She shook her head and went
back to her seat, refusing to acknowledge the dark emotion that rose in her
chest. The feeling that she was falling and falling through an endless black
abiss.

8:30, L.A. time.

Bette sighed, stretched her
hands and fingers until they snapped and felt loose. She was used to it, the
result of so many hours spent typing in a notebook.

Her eyes were also a little
bit heavy due to overexposure to the laptop screen. She turned the machine off,
glad to let go of it after a long period of time.

At least all the work for
that day was already over and she’d really be able to enjoy those precious
first minutes of her trip.

She could barely wait to see
Marina and tell them who was managing The Planet. She hadn’t revealed the
identity of the new owner through e-mail, had only built up expectations.