ALICE Ch 359

Faye jitters in her chair.

“This is a nice hospital,” Alice says for the fourth time.

They’re finally alone in the room. Faye’s impulse, which is difficult to overcome, is to hug and smother and have a meltdown with all the feelings that are going on. She resists that. Alice has severe burns to her back and her right shoulder. It’s not, in the great scheme of things, a lot. As far as implications for driving, the injury is far less severe than Faye’s.

It’s still extraordinarily painful, which is why Alice is loopy on drugs.

“Yes,” Faye replies impatiently. “It’s Singapore. Everything’s nice. That’s why it costs so much.”

“Oh, shit. Am I paying for this? Is it like America, where I’m in debt forever now because I went to the hospital? Oh shit. Oh shit.” Alice starts to squirm and lets out a hiss of pain.

“No! No! It’s fine. It’s fine. There’s healthcare.”

“How do you know?”

“Because…” Faye looks away. “Because everywhere’s got it, Alice. Except, you know.”

Alice makes a sad little whimpering sound.

“It’s fine. The team pays for this anyway.”

“Team. Team,” Alice replies. “Oh, shit. Who’d I hit?”

Alarmed, Faye looks sharply at the IV, wondering what they’ve got her on. Her mother went over all this with Alice, like half an hour ago. “Er, Mio hit you, Alice. She was overtaking you. You let her pass.”

“What? That’s weird. Is she OK?”

FF1

Mio likes to have sex kneeling with her partner flat on her back, spread wide. Irina seems happy with that, based on the sounds she’s making. Her body taking it rapidly like this is a much sexier sight than Mio’s sweaty back. Cosette as well: just the way that she arranges her pale body on the blue sheets so that she can lick and play with Irina’s breasts while Mio fucks her is like something from a painting.

Patty reflects that she takes Cosette’s beauty and sexiness for granted. She’s been with a lot of women, but the truth is that none of them compare to Cosette on any level—at least in the bedroom or in terms of glamor. Cosette seems like she’s far out of Patty’s league; it’s obvious that she does what she does out of fealty to Irina, although she doesn’t seem to mind, exactly. Patty wonders if that’s why she’s often rough with Cosette, doing demeaning things that belong in porn—or maybe she’s showing off for Irina, the woman who has more money than god.

Patty chews her lip. She has no choice but to keep her mind busy with introspection, something that she typically tries to do as little as possible, because she is not about to give Mio the satisfaction of seeing her get an erection from watching.