“Hey, Helena! Am I late?” Alice came running from what seemed to be out of nowhere, carrying three very large bags. Helena instantly rose from her chair to free the blonde from some of her heavy baggage.

“Don’t worry, I just got here. Hello Alice.” Helena smiled and gave the other woman a peck on the cheek. “Busy as usual I see.”

“Yeah, I have like five deadlines the next few days. It’s completely whacked.” Alice chuckled and made a move towards the front desk but was stopped by the dark haired woman.

“I already ordered for you.” After saying it she felt a little embarrassed so she added: “Unless you want something different today?”

“No, the usual’s fine.” Alice smiled, thankful for being spared the short walk.

“Well, then sit down and breathe woman! For Gods sake, you sound like you’ve been running the London Marathon.” She sighed.

“I’m sorry my physical condition’s not to your satisfaction, your ladyship.” Alice rolled her eyes and showed all her teeth in a wide grin. “I’m sure you could run the London Marathon without even break a sweat.” She grunted.

“Well, I did run the marathon. Twice. But I assure you I did sweat. It was nasty actually.” Helena wrinkled her nose in disgust.

“I bet it was. So what’s up?” Alice asked while settling down in the chair. “How’re the kids?” The blonde had noticed early on that Helena enjoyed speaking of her children and Alice found, to her own surprise, that she liked to hear about them. Baby talk would otherwise bore her to death, but it was the way the other woman spoke of them that made her want to hear. When she spoke of the children Alice could see there was some genuine happiness in Helena’s eyes. Despite what she thought the first times she met Helena, the British woman seemed to be the maternal type.

“I think they’re fine. I spoke with them on the phone yesterday. How is Dana then?” Helena quickly changed the subject. She did not want to talk about her kids today. She did not want to show the other woman how much it really hurt her to think of and talk about them now that it seemed like she would not be able to see much of them anymore.