“Because you were 45 minutes late, you had no idea what happened to Tina. She turned really pale and almost fell down here or injured herself, hadn’t it been for Shane. We were all thinking why…” Dana said, with her eyes shifting focus from Alice to Tasha then back to her bottle of beer.

“Oh, my gosh… She fainted? Is she safe now…?” Alice asked. “What is with your lips, Jenny?”

“Oh. This? Uhm…” Jenny hesitated. “I… Hmm. There was this loose carpeting in Moira’s house and I tripped, hitting something on the way down. I forgot what that was.” She smiled at her lie. “But yes. Tina’s safe now. Bette took her home.”

“We were worried about her but we’re glad that she can rest now… I think that’s all she needed. Maybe she’s just stressed out, which was why Dana and I decided to visit her tomorrow and treat her to some feel good food.” Lara flashed them sweet smile, with her eyes crinkling in contentment with her life, perhaps. Then she gave Dana a peck on the cheek.

Alice nearly raised her eyebrow to ask who gave her the permission to butt in but civility won over anything else and so she opened her mouth to say something, “Where’s Papi? Max or Moira…? Carmen?”

“I’m gonna get out of here, guys. I need to do something…” Helena didn’t give anyone a chance to ask her to stay or to ask her why she had to leave very early. She just left her seat and went straight to the exit rapidly.

“Okay… I think I really did miss a lot of things. What the hell is going on around here?” Alice looked at everyone in the table, waiting for someone to tell her the story.

“Look, Al. I don’t know. We don’t know. Helena and Tina were pretty quiet when they got here and they stayed that way. Don’t look at me…” Putting her hands up, Shane couldn’t provide a definite answer for her inquiring friend. “Moira had gone someplace. Papi’s probably with her. I don’t know about Carmen. I’ve tried her cellular phone and her home phone, I got nothing. Her sister doesn’t even know where she is.”