Solstice, said the sign over the dark entryway. Once inside, the name was nowhere to be seen. A wooden bar across one end of the room and booths across from it, with a few wooden tables scattered between. The bartender, a young woman in her mid twenties, had a smooth chestnut coiffure interrupted with a few strands of hair that curled around her face, and a lovely smile. She served a shot of vodka to a man in a dark grey suit. "Thanks, Maia," he said.
"How was your weekend?" Maia asked him cheerfully.
"Ellen and I went skiing," Daniel answered. "She was great, she went down the three diamond slope for the first time. I was waiting for her at the bottom for twenty minutes, but she made it and was ready to go again." He would have gone on about his ski trip to Maia, but he noticed she'd stopped listening. Her gaze was fastened on the man who'd just entered the bar.
Long, dark hair, lanky and almost black, framed a sallow face with deep-set eyes. Daniel had seen this man come in before, and every time, Maia looked at him that way. Daniel thought she was probably in love with him. The dark-haired man came up to the bar and sat down, only one seat separating him and Daniel.
"Michael," Maia breathed. She was leaning over the bar, her face close to his. She straightened up and her tone became more businesslike. "What'll you have?"
Daniel always felt in a way that he lived at the bar. Solstice, it was called. After long hours on the job crunching numbers, he could unwind there. He liked sitting at the bar and talking to Maia, the bartender, or to one of the other patrons with whom he had made an acquaintance. He headed there as soon as his work day ended, most days, just as he had on this Monday.
Maia brought Michael his order. Daniel hadn't heard what the order was, his mind had wandered for a moment, but it came in a tall glass over ice and was a light tan shade. Maybe some kind of whiskey and water or soda. The dim light in the bar didn't let him see if there were bubbles. He realized a moment too late that the man might take amiss his staring at his drink trying to see if it was soda or water, and their eyes met. Daniel felt distinctly uncomfortable as Michael's eyes, narrowed with suspicion, caught and held his. He picked up his shot of vodka and stood.
Maia looked at him with an air of helpless apology while Michael's face held dismissal and contempt. Daniel looked away from them both and scanned the booths at the back of the bar. As he'd hoped, his friend Karen had come in while he was not looking, and he took his drink over to her table and sat down across from her.
Karen's flaming red hair swept the table top lightly as she looked up and smiled at him. "Sit down, Daniel," she said, a faint tone of humor in her voice as he had already sat down. "How was your weekend?"
Daniel began repeating the story about Ellen and the ski slope for Karen's benefit.
"You and she are doing okay now, it sounds like," she commented.
Daniel nodded. "She's been hinting about a ring," he confessed. "I think she wants to get engaged..." His voice trailed off as he noticed Karen staring out into the room. Michael had talked Maia out from behind the bar and the two of them were dancing, Michael's arm around Maia's waist, holding her close. The music playing was a slow ballad and the feeling between the two was palpable.
Daniel looked back to Karen's face, seeing an expression he'd never seen there before. "What's wrong?" he asked her, keeping his voice low.
"Nothing," she said, her tone making the word sound like a lie or sarcasm, Daniel wasn't sure which. Karen looked as though she would rather be anywhere but here. Yet she usually enjoyed spending time in Solstice as much as Daniel did. He thought sure Karen was about to get up and leave, but just then, a whiny voice called her name and slung into the booth blocking Karen's exit with her body.
The newcomer to the booth was a skinny blonde, skin greyed with exhaustion, eyes wildly dilated. "Dr. Dare," she repeated, as though the name were a talisman for her. She threw her arms around Karen. "I found you. Finally. I went to your office, then to your house --"
"Alison," Karen said. Her tone was patient on the surface, but there was an undercurrent to it. "I've told you before, call my answering service, they'll page me if it's an emergency." She held up her cell phone/pager. "Then I will call you and we can talk, set up an appointment. That's how you do it." Daniel could tell Karen was uncomfortable, but Alison was clinging to her and she didn't really try to free herself. Part of the unfamiliar expression was gone, replaced by her professional demeanor. "This is my friend Daniel. Daniel, one of my patients, Alison Kincaid."
"Are you allowed to tell him my last name?" Alison asked.
"Alison, I'm not working right now. If you choose to come see me in my time off, the whole confidentiality thing is a lot looser. That's another reason you should be going through the answering service." Karen seemed to slump as Alison let go her clinging for a moment, a pout forming on the blonde patient and then dissipating before it was complete. The red-headed doctor smiled at Daniel. "I was just about to invite Daniel to come home with me," she said. She spoke the words a little louder than necessary, and Daniel had to stop himself from looking over to see if the dancers had shown signs of having heard. He was pretty sure she hadn't planned to invite him over and had just thought of it to get rid of Alison.. or some other reason? He wasn't completely certain. He'd never been to her home before, never even contemplated the notion of meeting her outside the bar. Their friendship had seemed limited to this place, somehow.
"That's great, I'll come too," Alison chirped, seeming to perk up.
Karen smiled at her, a smile that didn't seem sincere. "Sure, you can both follow me." Hmm, Daniel considered, that didn't sound like inviting him over had been to get rid of Alison... if it had, would she have assented so readily to Alison's inviting herself along? He wondered what was going on.
Alison stood, allowing Karen out of the booth. Daniel followed the two women to the parking lot.
About fifteen minutes later, he pulled into the driveway of Karen's house, parking right behind Alison's roadster. The house was an old one, big, and the front windows were finely crafted stained glass. They gave Daniel what felt like insight into Karen that he'd never had before, from seeing her house. She seemed richer and more complex of a person, because she had a well kept, antique home with fragile works of art. Or maybe it was only the colors of the glass that were rich and complex.
Karen unlocked her front door and let Daniel and Alison precede her inside.
"You've never been here before, huh," Alison said, elbowing Daniel in the side. He turned to her, and she gave him an exaggerated wink. "I have," Alison said in a sing-song tone, resonant with childlike bragging.
"I have to make it an early night tonight," Karen declared, locking the door and overriding anything Daniel might have said to answer Alison. "Would each of you like coffee? I have herbal tea, too."
"But, Dr. Dare," Alison whined. "I have to tell you stuff. It's about Chase--"
"You have two hours a week to tell me stuff, Alison," Karen replied quickly. Her voice was kind, yet completely unyielding. "I'll see you Thursday at one. Why didn't you tell me whatever it is this morning at our session?"
"But, Dr. Dare," Alison repeated. "Please, I didn't know this was important this morning. But it is, it's about your husband --"
"Alison." The sharpness in Karen's voice stopped even the whiny girl's insistence. "If there is something about my ex-husband that you found out from your boyfriend, I do not need to know about it. Tell the police, tell Social Services, tell him himself if you want to, but I will not discuss him with you."
Alison buried her face in her hands and started to shake. Daniel looked from one of the women to the other. He wanted nothing more than to get out of there before he was witness to further scenes, but he felt obligated, Karen had wanted him here, maybe she felt safer with him here. He patted Alison's shoulder in a gesture he believed futile, hoping it would not be, and she grabbed and clung to him, sobbing aloud, arms wrapped round his neck. He gave Karen a moment's helpless look hoping she would realize he'd had no idea this would happen, but he felt guilty all the same, because Alison's warm body, her closeness, even the tears she was shedding, gave him trouble breathing, and it was a struggle not to feel aroused. With Alison pressing against him so tightly, he was sure she'd notice, and as her crying slowed again he was sure she had, because she darted him a knowing smile as she loosed her grip on him, incongruous with the tears still rolling down her cheeks.
Daniel let her go, moved to stand closer to Karen, a gesture of solidarity with his friend, although he wanted even more now to leave. Karen must have sensed that, because she sighed. "It's okay, Daniel. You can go." She looked over at Alison, frowned, and said, "You can both go. I'm very tired. I'll walk you to your cars."
"If you want," Daniel told Karen. "But I have time for coffee first, if you aren't too tired."
"Karen makes the best coffee," Alison told him with a sly smile.
Daniel frowned at her. To Karen he said, "We can walk Alison out, then have coffee. Then I can head home, I have work tomorrow too." He was trying to figure out what she wanted, and that was his best guess.
"I'm sorry, I really am too tired," Karen said. There was a slight edge to her voice. "I shouldn't have invited you two over, but I didn't realize how tired I was till just this moment."
Daniel thought she was upset, but he wasn't sure what it was about. He looked at her, the red hair falling in her eyes, and felt a strong friendship toward her, protective and warm. "Don't worry about it, Karen," he said, the warmth evident in his voice. "I understand how that can be." He looked over at Alison, who was curled up on Karen's sofa. "Come on, Alison, it's time to let Karen get some sleep."
"Fine," Alison said, dragging the word out into three whiny syllables. "It's not my husband who'll be--"
"Alison!" Karen cut in sharply.
"I'm going, I'm going," Alison said, in the voice of a teenager being nagged by her mother. She went to the door and strode out it quickly, slamming it behind her.
Daniel followed at a more reasonable pace, Karen beside him. "Goodnight, Karen," he said.
"Goodnight. Sleep well." She smiled at him, not quite convincingly, and let him out.
As Daniel walked toward his car, Alison's pulled out and drove away with a screech. He took a deep breath, let it out slowly, and got into his car, driving away and home.