“Al… Five minutes?”

Alice nodded towards the door, not bothering to move her eyes away from the book she was reading.

“Alice, Bette’s going to get really angry if you miss this one as well.”

With a sigh, Alice closed the book and looked up, frustration evident on her face.

“Shane this is the third gallery opening in as many weeks. And at first, yeah I was happy to tag along and eat their free food and drink their free champagne… but enough is enough!”

“Wait… Alice Pieszecki is sick of free alcohol?” Shane joked, grabbing her jacket in one hand and pulling Alice up with the other. “I didn’t think I’d ever see the day.”

“See now you’re just putting words in my mouth,” Alice huffed before leaving the room, ready for another night with L.A.’s most prominent, important and snobby socialites.

Walking into the new gallery, Alice immediately spotted Tina and made her way over, making only a slight detour to the bar.

“I see you’re as thrilled as I am to be at another one of these,” Tina said, a smirk plastered on her face as she gave Alice a hug. “But at least I’ll be getting make-up sex for it tonight. You my friend are stuck with the cheap alcohol.”

“Thank you for reminding me that not only am I here, I’m also single,” Alice replied sarcastically. “I now remember why I kept you round as a friend all these years.”

“Al I was kidding!” Tina laughed, before tugging Alice over to where the rest of their group had congregated. Shane, Kit, Jenny and Helena all looked as bored as she felt, with only Bette showing the slightest amount of enthusiasm. Even then, Bette looked tired and ready to go home.

“Alice!” Helena exclaimed, hugging her friend tightly, before pulling back only slightly. “You’re here! Thank god! I’ve been bored out of my mind. Now say something funny…”

“Something funny?”

“Yes, you know…a joke. We were discussing it just then. How you’re the ‘funny one’ and how when you got here you’d say something hilarious to make us all less bored.” Helena waited on expectantly. “Well?”

Alice continued staring blankly at Helena while she spoke. “Helena, just go buy something pretty with your money. I can’t show the goods when I’m under this kind of pressure.”