Al sighed as softly as possible, listlessly ran her eyes over exquisite t-shirts. There, she’d done it again. Depressed herself with thoughts of Dana. Sweet, foxy, unreacheable Dana, who’d get married…

‘Are you ok, Alice?’

The question made the blonde shake her head, wake up from the latest in a seemingly endless list of reveries. She took a deep breath, almost choked on it and turned to the person who’d taken her out of a rather painful headtrip.

Robin ‘s dark irises were fixed on her, worriness radiating from it as an eerie mist. The trapeze artist had hung behind, feeling left out from the other women’s high spirit and light conversation.

The rest of the group had gone inside a store, whereas Al and Robin pretended to be window-shopping.

‘I’m… I’m fine. I’ll be, anyway.’ And she would, when her heart stopped bleeding for Dana damn Fairbanks. ‘You don’t seem to be so well yourself.’ Although she wasn’t as observant as Alba, Ms. Pieszecky had noticed Ms. Allenwood’s prolonged silence and the presence of an aura of heavy thoughfulness.

‘I’m just feeling a little left out, you know? You girls have been together as friends for such a long time… What am I apart from an outsider?’ The trapezist said, revealed only one of her reasons for being in a pensieve state.

‘Don’t stress. We love new recruits. Give it a few more weeks and you’ll feel like our sister. Indeed, you’ll scream for solitude and run away at top speed. Probably with young Alba at your trail. The two of you’ll go crazy with us.’

Hearing Ms. Hernandez’s name made Robin grunt. The girl was exactly the second thing that was making her feel bad, though she couldn’t and didn’t want to discuss it.

Allenwood hadn’t liked Jenny’s plan at all. Why should someone so small, young and harmless get hurt when the true aim was Marina? Wasn’t there another way to punish the Italian for her acts, without an extra person suffering as well?

‘You’re hiding something.’ Alice prodded, too happy to forget her issues by focusing on Robin’s, the closest target. ‘Spill it, Robin. You’ll hear loads of our personal problems, since we discuss everything, but we’ll want to listen to yours as well.’