A week went by, and Dana and Alice went out once more, but with less disastrous results (at least, as far as restaurant owners in the greater L.A. area were concerned). Better and Tina had been continuing their therapy and doing well. And Shane…she was still Shane.

Then came the bombshell. There it was, splashed on the front page of the tabloids: “***** Tennis Star Stalked By Ex-Fiance!”

Dana was understandably horrified and upset, and proceeded to run out and buy every copy of the tabloids she could find and destroy them, but of course it did no good. It seemed half the world had read them, and the other half had heard about it from those who read the story. People stared everywhere she went, and the phone would not stop ringing. The worst thing was, every detail was in there: the fight, the knife incident, the vandalized Subaru, the restraining order against Tonya, and the threatening phone messages. There was even a cover shot on one magazine of Dana leaving the hospital. How they took the picture, she’d never know. The information was attributed to an anonymous source in the police department.

“Whatever happened to privacy,” Dana muttered, preparing to check her answering machine for the third time in two hours. Since coming out and advancing so quickly in the pro tennis circuit, Dana had become a reluctant celebrity. She still wasn’t used to the attention and occasional paparazzi, and doubted she’d ever be.

First in the messages were frantic calls from Alice, Shane, and Bette and Tina, followed by another from Alice angrily demanding to know why Dana had lied to her. The rest of the calls were from reporters, followed by a creepy message of a woman cackling evilly, which she was sure was Tonya, violating the restraining order.

Dana sighed. Alice refused to return her calls because she was angry at Dana for not telling the truth about what went on with Tonya. Her other friends were understandably miffed about it as well.

Dana just valued her privacy too much, and hadn’t wanted to involve them. Besides, she’d been somewhat embarrassed and humiliated by what had happened.

Tonight Bette and Tina were giving a party, and before that the gang was supposed to go to Milk together. Dana wasn’t even sure she wanted to go at this point, but she figured it had to be better than sitting at home, alone with her thoughts.