“Oh, well I was hanging out with my faerie godmother,” she answered with a grin.

“Can’t you be serious for like a minute?!  Since you’ve been incommunicado, the ***** has hit the fan!”

“Well, I’m sure you’re just dying to fill me in…So go ahead, spill it.”

Alice told Shane all about Bette and Tina’s separation, and the reason behind it.  Shane shook her head and looked devastated.

“There’s just something…wrong with that,” she finally said.  “I’m sure they’re meant to be together,” she added wistfully.  “Hey, Dana and Tonya are here…”

Alice looked flustered, “Well, I’m gonna go get something to, you know, eat or something…” she muttered and took off toward the counter.

“Hey Shane,” Dana said as she approached the table, drink in one hand, Tonya hanging off the other.  “Where have you been?”

“Around,” Shane replied evenly.  “So what’s up with you Miss Dana?”

“Oh you know, the usual…training…I–”

“Yes, yes, Pookie, we know you work very hard,” Tonya butted in.  “She trains so much we hardly have any time to plan for the wedding…”

As Tonya prattled on, talking of this or that florist and this or that caterer, Dana tossed Shane an apologetic smile.

Shrugging, Shane hunkered down in her seat and started to zone out when Alice returned to the table.  Immediately the tension skyrocketed as the girls greeted each other with fake smiles.  “Something strange is going on,” Shane thought to herself.  Noting the weird energy, Shane slipped her shielded vision just enough to see the others’ auras.

Dana’s was a bright yellow, but where her aura and Tonya’s aura overlapped, it seemed Tonya’s lurid violet was smothering the yellow, tendrils like snakes twisted and writhed, clashing colors of yellow and purple.  Wincing at the sight, she shifted her gaze toward Alice, whose aura was a pale pink, shot through with the occasional streak of hot pink.  “Huh, I guess that explains it,” Shane thought as she settled back.  She had noticed one tendril stretching between Alice and Dana, faint, but still very apparent—pink on one end, yellow on the other and a cool orange where they melded.

Before she shifted her vision back, she saw Tina step inside the café.  Tina’s aura was a rich green color.  Tinged on the edges with black for grief, and red for anger. But inside of it, there was a smaller golden glow.  At first she was a little confused by what she saw, but when she realized what it meant, she became very solemn.  Rising as Tina came up to the table, she enveloped her in a gentle hug.  “I am so very sorry, Tina,” she murmured softly.