“Yeah, that’s correct. Do you want to listen or not? I thought you just said that you were in the bottom rung of the listening ladder?” Bette griped. “I could call Shane instead. She’ll be more helpful.”

“It’s the last link of the listening chain.” Alice rolled her eyes.  “You can’t fool me, Bette. For the 10 odd years that I’ve known you, each time you screw up your work, you wouldn’t even have time to talk to me. You’ll be in the library, on your PC or on the phone, putting in your heart and soul to make things flawless. If there’s one thing I admire about you, it’s that you’re a god damned perfectionist, Bette Porter…”

She continued. “You don’t need me to listen about your work, you’ll know what went wrong and you’ll correct it all by yourself immediately. It’s relationships that you can’t manage, not work.”

“Well, sometimes I’ve bad days! Like today, for example.” Bette protested, determined to defend herself. “I was with Tina for 8 years, so you can’t say that I’m inept in relationships.”

Alice ignored Bette’s comment, and persisted in putting her point across. “What about those times where we had to fetch you from various pubs, drunken and incapacitated after you quarreled with Tina? You got to learn how to open your heart, and not escape each time something goes wrong.”

“You’re such a nag, Alice! I’m putting down the phone now if you insist on continuing on this topic.”

“Alright. I needed the sleep anyways. I’m quite tired because I just got off the phone with Helena like 2 hours ago. She said she was turning off her cell phone to charge it.  It isn’t really to charge it, is it? It’s because her phone was feeling lonely without you, am I right?” Alice mentioned casually.

“She called you?”

“Yup, she also told me that she was staying in a hotel. The Marriott? Do you have the phone number of her room? It’s 313-568-8000 extension 283.”

“I’ve got to call Helena.” Bette said quickly.

Click.

“Hello? Bette? BETTE?”

“Ah, that asshole. Hung up on me again.” she sighed dramatically. “Somehow, I knew it. Stubborn ass as usual.” Alice shook her head.