When Alan stormed angrily into the flat, Mike turned down the volume on the television and put his head around the living room door. He saw and heard Alan's bedroom door slamming shut, which really annoyed him.
 
     “Goodnight Mike, I hope you've had a nice evening, I love you too,” he muttered to himself, as he, like Alan, slammed the door. He couldn't believe they could be so ignorant.
 
     “Bloody marvellous, they can't even say good night!” he thought, as he stared at the TV and picked up his can of lager.
 
     Hearing the door slam, Alan waited for Lisa to follow him into the bedroom, believing it was her who'd slammed it. When she didn't appear, he assumed she'd gone into the living room, and was crying on Mike's shoulder - which made him angrier still.
 
      He lay on the bed, staring at the ceiling, and thought about how much she had upset him earlier. When Lisa had come down the stairs in the red dress, she had taken his breath away. But when he had found out that it was all to impress some jumped-up prat from London, he had lost it completely. How dare she sit up in Karen's room making plans that didn't involve him? How dare Lisa arrange to go to the party without him? She had really pissed him off.
    
     After an hour or so, Alan had calmed down, and was beginning to regret being so hard on her. He was just about to go through to the living room and apologise, when there was a tap on the door. He assumed it was Lisa, but was surprised she didn't just come in.
 
     “It's okay, you don't have to knock---it's not that bad,” he called out.
 
Mike stuck his head around the door, and was equally surprised when he saw Alan in the room by himself. 
 
     “Are you kidding? The noises that have been coming out of here of late, believe me, I have to knock! Anyway, unlike certain other people I know, I thought I would do you the courtesy of saying goodnight.”
 
Alan thought Lisa must still be in the lounge, so he got off the bed to go and talk to her.
 
     “Sorry, Mike, I had an argument with Lisa, but I suppose she's told you all about it.”
 
Mike, of course, didn’t have a clue what he was talking about.
 
     “I haven't…” he started to say.
 
Alan interrupted him before he could finish.
 
     “I suppose she's told you that the argument is all my fault!”
 
Mike started to look confused. Why would Alan think Lisa had spoken to him, if she wasn't even in the building?
 
He was beginning to get bad vibes.
 
     “I'm sorry, Mate, I haven't seen her. I assumed she was in here with you...”
 
Alan started to feel nervous.
 
     “Didn't Lisa follow me up from the car?”
 
Now Mike thought he had lost it completely.
 
     “How the fuck would I know? Nobody even bothers saying ‘hello’ to me these days!”
 
Alan started frantically pulling on his jeans, while Mike looked on in amazement.
 
     “I heard the door bang after I came up. Wasn't it Lisa?” Alan asked, clutching at straws.
 
Mike suddenly realised what had happened, so understood why Alan was confused.
 
     'I'm sorry, Alan. That was me---I was a bit pissed off at you for not saying hello when you came in, so I slammed the living room door. It wasn't Lisa.'
 
Alan pulled his sweater over his head.
 
     “So you haven't seen Lisa tonight?”
 
Mike thought he had made himself perfectly clear.
 
     “How many times do I have to fucking tell you, I have not seen Lisa.”
 
Alan grabbed his car keys and his jacket, his face tortured as he realised Lisa must still be outside. He just hoped that she was still in the car…
 
 
 
 
 
Alan was in a flat panic. Lisa wasn't in his car, she wasn't in the car park--- and it was all his fault. He had been so sure she had followed him up and slammed the door just like he had. But how could she? She didn't have a key.
 
     Now it was pouring, the kind of rain that soaks you to the skin in minutes. As Alan felt the water running down his face, he called out her name over and over again, but Lisa was nowhere to be seen.
 
      Everything was going through his head, including flashbacks of their argument on the way home. He now realised how she must have interpreted his angry words. She hadn't even met the guy from London, and he had more or less accused her of seducing him. Who could blame her for taking off? It was his jealousy, and failure to tell the truth that had caused the argument. Because of him, Lisa had walked off into the cold miserable night, with nothing to her name but the clothes she stood up in.
 
     When Alan hadn't come back after ten minutes, Mike came down and joined in the search. They looked down every alley, and checked everywhere they could, but Lisa seemed to have disappeared into thin air.
 
     Just as Alan was on the verge of calling the police, Mike ran towards him and called out. He'd found Lisa sitting on a park bench quarter of a mile away. As Alan hit a run and followed Mike back to where he’d found her, he said a silent prayer of thanks under his breath.
 
     Mike stopped short about thirty metres from where Lisa sat, and when he knew that Alan could see where she was, he turned around and made back towards the flat.
 
     “Lisa!” Alan shouted, as he ran towards the bench.
 
She didn’t move. She just sat staring straight ahead, as though in a trance. Although soaked to the skin, she didn't seem to care, and her beautiful long hair lay in pathetic strands about her face and shoulders. Alan scooped her up in his arms, and was amazed to feel how light she was---and how limp. She just stared up at him, which made him feel like a total shit.
 
     “Lisa, I'm so, so sorry,” he said, as he cradled her in his arms.
 
She still didn't speak, and Alan felt his eyes fill up with hot tears which mixed with the cold rain as he carried her back to the flat. He just hoped he could make her understand.
 
     By the time they reached his front door, Alan was really concerned. Lisa shivered uncontrollably. Her face was deathly pale, and her eyes seemed glazed - like those of someone who had lost hope.
 
     The minute he got her into his bedroom, he took off her wet clothes and wrapped her in a warm blanket. He then held her tightly in his arms, and told her over and over again how much he loved her. At last, after what seemed like an eternity, she looked into his eyes, and raised her hand to his face.
  
      “I'm sorry,” she whispered.
 
Relief flowed through Alan's body when he heard her voice.
 
     “Oh God, Lisa, I'm sorry---It's not your fault - it's mine!”
 
He kissed her tenderly as he held her tight, warming her body with his, swearing to her that he would never do anything to make her doubt him again. He also explained his need to tell Carla face to face, just as she had wanted to do with Nick, and Lisa eventually realised she had misunderstood the meaning of his words in the car. Knowing he still loved her, warmed her more than any blanket, and eventually the shivering stopped.
 
     By the time Mike popped his head around the door, two cups of hot tea in his hands, he decided they weren't needed. They had obviously thawed out all by themselves....