After all the compulsory socialising of the past few days she badly wanted time alone.Heading out of the hotel, she decided to make for a coastal path...leading up into rolling green hills. It took her only a minute or two to realise that she was overdressed, even though it was early November and the temperature was in the mid to high forties. She went back to her hotel room and took off her heavy coat, sweater, skirt and tights. She donned a sleeveless top which came down only to three inches. Bitch.I could feel my face reddening. Alison was my best friend at the paper, and I couldn't believe I had even thought that about her. Fortunately, she had moved on to her own cubicle to tackle today's police and courthouse beat.The rest of the staff quickly followed."Hando."I didn't look up. Dan Edwards, who covered city hall, was a jerk."Dan the man."The next set of footsteps approached, the high heels clacking on the linoleum floor. That would be Shawn Michaels, the statehouse."G'morning,. Alicia sat on the examination table, clothing in a pile on the floor. She had never really liked doctor visits. Part of it, probably, was the scar. The constant examinations after the accident, the touching, the questions, had made her self-conscious about a flaw she had wanted to just disappear, wanted others to ignore. Not that anyone had ever ignored it. Every eye was drawn there, her paranoid mind kept telling her. It was all others saw ... but, after awhile, that became a secondary issue. " I wasn't flat a thirteen." You were never flat." The other girl giggled."Are you talking about Emma Myers?" she asked. The two turned and one nodded."Yeah. You know her?" I saw her this morning in Mistress's quarters."Was she eating Mistress?" one of them giggled."Uh, huh. What's wrong with her?" She's been sold, silly." To that awful Gunther man." Is that bad?" Course it's bad, silly. Gunther beats up girls bad, an' when he wants to really really hurt them, he buys em'." Everyone knows from.