ALICE Ch 219

Erica Bruhl is keeping her distance from FUTA. She can keep professional ethics separate from what she does at night, but FUTA is in disarray. Someone could know that even without the insider info she got from Meri. Making herself a part of the story would be irresponsible, and Erica honestly doesn’t know if having sex with Glynda is doing FUTA a favor or not. Maybe she’s an outlet for Glynda’s tension. Or maybe she’s just feeding Glynda’s self-loathing. One way to find out would be to talk about it, but if there’s one thing Erica’s learned about Glynda, it’s that she doesn’t love to talk about her feelings.

So she’s at the bar in the hotel, writing about the likelihood that Mio will either be formally made FUTA’s third driver, or kept on standby for that purpose in some way while the other driver’s contract is still up.

Which it won’t be for long; mid-season renewal is coming. It’s a little hard to concentrate with Meri ten meters away, though. She’s at a table with Colby, and they’re hunched together in quiet conversation.

FF1

The Williams sisters modeling bikinis for Old Navy isn’t even trying to be horny, but it’s still hard to scroll past the ads when they pop up on Alice’s feed. She lies on the bed in Faye’s room, letting her brain melt.

Faye sits at the edge of the bed clipping her toenails in a tee that has a dog wearing sunglasses on it. She finishes and checks her phone, then crawls over to Alice and snuggles up. That cannot be comfortable for her. Faye is soft and warm. Maybe Alice is warm, but it’s got to be like trying to cuddle with a duffel bag full of wrenches or something.

Faye doesn’t seem to mind, though. Indeed, it’s moments like where she seems happiest. The imposter syndrome hits hard. Alice doesn’t even feel like a decent girlfriend, let alone a good one.

“You’re being weird,” Alice murmurs.

Normally, Faye would get comfy, and then her hands would start to mess around with Alice: playing with her clothes, rubbing her skin, gently caressing or whatever in the hopes of getting some action, even when Alice is visibly super tired.

Tonight she’s just snuggling though.

“Mmm,” Faye replies. The translation is that she wants Alice to ignore her weirdness and pretend that everything’s normal.

“What’s going on?” Alice asks, still scrolling. She lightly scratches Faye’s back over her tee; Faye likes that.

“Mmm,” Faye insists, disapproving.

“Use your words.”

“I don’t like this circuit. I’m worried about Mum. And I’m jealous.”

Alice takes that in. All fair points. She dutifully told Faye all about what she did with Irina and Sasha. At the time, Faye had gotten pretty revved up and seemed to enjoy it, but of course it’s more complicated than that. And since when does Faye communicate her feelings directly and sensibly?

Alice sighs and places her phone face down on her chest. She looks at Faye.

“Try again,” she says.

Faye makes a pouty face, then turns her head to avoid eye contact.

“I have a confession,” she says.