What's Love Got To Do With It?

2.

Though Alice loved organizing, sorting out her interview tapes wasn't exactly on her fun activities list. But, if she really wanted to pick the best ones to promote herself, then she needed to sort them out.

When she grabbed the latest, she noticed that it was unnamed. Her last interview that wasn't for the RIVW had been some time ago, why didn't she remember this one? There wasn't even a date on the tape that should help her remember.

Surely, there was only one way to find out. She walked over to her VCR player and carefully slid the tape inside. But when she pressed play, she couldn't believe her own eyes.

What she saw was herself, just a few days ago. This was meant to be her interview with FP. Had she accidentally pressed play after she had stalled her videocamera?

As soon as she looked at herself sitting down on the edge of his desk, she heard a familiar voice echoing through the house.

"Alice? Honey, are you home?" Hal called her, successfully startling her. Shit, he couldn't see this tape. Never. Before she could look at the rest (not that she wanted to, she hadn't even meant to record them in the first place) she pressed the stop button and quickly removed it.

"In here!" She yelled, once the coast was clear.

"Should we go to Greendale today? I heard they have a cute market there." Hal proposed, a sweet smile tugging on his face. Little did she know at that moment, that all of that was part of his big disguise.

"Sorry, I gotta work..." Alice said absentmindedly, staring at the tape in her hand that was the evidence of the fact that she cheated on him.

"You never have time. I can take a day off, can't I? The RIVW won't fall the second you aren't there." Hal spat back, his anger slowly building up.

"Hal, when I tell you I have to work you've got to deal with it, alright?" Alice grew more annoyed with the second by his possessive behavior. He never wanted to do something with her, why start today?

"When you were working for The Register you weren't like this. Where is the old Alice?" Hal faked a pout, but it still managed to touch her. He was right, she hadn't really been paying a lot attention to their marriage.

"I'm really sorry, honey. I really have to go now." She send him an apologetic smile and left without another word. First she had to make sure that tape would be destroyed for good.

**

The days after their encounter, Alice was wandering through FP's head more than he liked. She was married for Christ sake, why did he have to think about a woman who was taken? What was it about her that was playing with his mind so much? He successfully avoided this feeling for years, and yet one afternoon with her could make him confused so easily.

FP almost chocked on his water when the woman he had been thinking about suddenly barged into his office, without a knock, without a warning.

"Before you yell at me, I need to talk to you." Alice held up her hand in defense, expecting him to send her away in a second. But he didn't. Truth was, he had been debating with himself whether to reach out to her or not.

"Actually, I was just about to call you. I need to talk to you too." He stared, slightly shifting in his chair. It was clear that she was surprised.

"Oh, what about it?" She asked, curious to know why he wanted to reach out considering he had been successfully ignoring her for weeks. Did he change his mind about doing an interview?

"Just wanted to know if you have any regrets. I felt a bit... weird, afterwards." FP wasn't so sure what kind of words to use, when he couldn't even describe the way he felt about their hook-up. It was good and he had enjoyed it, but he wasn't so sure she would feel the same. What if she felt awful? The least I could do was ask her.