"Once you accept that there are just some women on this earth who can be dressed in burlap but will continue to attract interest and attention … even when you put a brown paper bag over their heads … then you will live in peace," Shane concluded sagely.

"Aaarrgghhh!," Alice groaned, frustrated.  She pretended to pull on hair, red-faced.  "I just don’t understand what they see in her that they don’t see in me?!"

"Al…Al…listen to what I just said," Shane urged her friend.  "Didn’t I just tell you something about there being some women who … um like Tina over here," she nodded toward Tina, who was busy tapping on her iPad.

Tina and Angelica, together with Christy, had flown to LA for the Valentine’s Day week.  Helena and Kit had added a new wing to "Hit" modeled after the bar in the Maldivian resort Tina and Bette had visited during their "minimoon," and were opening it on Valentine’s Day.  A couple of days before the event, Alice, Shane, and Tina were sitting around, after finishing lunch at the Planet, together with Angelica. 

"Who… what…something you said about me?," Tina looked up, and paused from her tapping. She looked at Shane then at Alice.

"Haven’t you been listening to anything we’ve been talking about for the last ten minutes?!," Alice exclaimed, turning her frustration about the subject on Tina.

"Whoa, whoa Alice. Don’t be yelling at people just because you’re frustrated!," Shane jumped in after Tina dropped her mouth, uttering simultaneously, "Wha-a-a-a-t-t?"

"Aaarrgghhh!," Alice groaned again, then buried her face in her hands.

Shane shook her head at Tina, who looked enquiringly at Shane. "It’s nothing," she mouthed as they both sought to comfort Alice.

Shane explained, as they both stroked Alice’s hair and arms, "She hasn’t heard yet from the show she’s been doing as a guest panelist about whether or not they’re going to take her on as a permanent member of the panel."

Alice raised her head and smiled apologetically at Tina, "And I heard from my friends in LA Magazine that they’ve approached this lez in San Francisco, who does the sports segment of one of the evening news shows over there, about coming in for a test.  She’s supposed to be this hot chick…."

Tina pursed her lips into a sympathetic smile.  "Aaarrgghh!," Alice moaned, and reburied her face in her hands. "What is it about hot women?," she groaned aloud.