A mother and daughter interaction

"What the hell are you doing here, old hag?" Tanya spewed harsh words at Alice who stood at the doorway of the office. In a matter of mere seconds, the atmosphere around the office became really tense—as if they had a long driven animosity between the two.

"Hey! Is that some way to talk to your mother?" Alice revealed their relationship, much to the surprise of no one in the room—not even Chuck. In fact, Chuck really disliked the fact that Alice made an entrance to the office when Tanya was literally at her all-time low.

"Yeah, it doesn't matter. Why the hell are you here?" Tanya felt the same as Chuck about her mother's sudden appearance. It wasn't that she hated her mother, but that her arrival always led to certain annoying situations.

"Wow, you are not going to invite me in, are you? That's fine, I'll invite myself in." Alice barged into the office, just to stumble across all the things around. Finally, after literally surfing over the pile of garbage, she grabbed a seat just to find one of Tanya's incredibly torn t-shirts. "Like, literally! Why the hell is there a t-shirt here? And it's been torn to no bounds! Like, how do you even wear this? Why don't you buy a new one? Oh, that's right—you make jack shit for a living, don't you? Just what do I do with this girl…" Thus began a long lecture on a multitude of things. However, Tanya's focus was on the t-shirt that her mother found, since that was supposed to be the only one she had. She had no idea about the one she had on. It was truly a strange time in her office.

"Look, if this is what you came for, why waste your energy? We could've easily done this on thanksgiving. So, go back for now. If you want to look around the room or something, feel free to do so. Or are you here to remind me again that this office is your property? Anyway, now's not the time for that. I'm really not in the mood. So, can we do this some other day?" Tanya sighed and got up. She went towards Alice and picked her out of the chair and slowly dragged her towards the front door. "You know what, looking around the room won't be pleasing, so why don't you look around the city—and not come back any time soon. Don't worry, I'll contact you someday! Bye, then!" She waved at Alice and tried to close the door on her. But Alice wasn't the type to give up, as she used her entire body to stop Tanya's actions.

"Let me talk, for God's sake!" Alice had quite a struggle with Tanya over the door. For a middle-aged woman like her, it would've been nearly impossible to match toe-to-toe with Tanya. But it seemed like she hadn't lost afoot. Or maybe it was that the thing she came for was so important that she wanted her daughter to hear it. "It's about your sister, Meghan!" It was the latter in this case. After hearing her sister's name, Tanya didn't struggle to let her mother out. She quietly went back to the office table and took a seat, while Alice came back and sat on the sofa.

Tanya let out a deep breath. "What did she do now?" Alice never came to Tanya's unless it was to complain about Meghan. Tanya knew that—but she felt that Meghan should be a bit responsible herself.

"She came here last week—she was going to move here, to this town. She wanted me to keep it a surprise from you so that she could swing by as early as possible." Alice explained. Tanya was surprised since Meghan never came to her office—or she was too drunk to notice; either way, she was a bit surprised. Alice continued, "Judging from your face, I feel like she didn't come here." This time, Alice was the one who took a deep breath before she spoke. "So, you heard about these missing cases happening around here?" It felt like she deliberately shifted the focus to it, as if it was related to Meghan.

And Tanya wasn't an idiot to not understand what she was on about. "I hate this! This is like the worst segue to anything ever! If you're going to say what I think you're going to say-"

"She's missing."

"FUCK!" Tanya literally tried to flip the table out of anger. She went on a rampage for the next few minutes, breaking things up left, right and center. Alice did not dare to talk since she understood Tanya's frustrations. After all of it, they shared a few minutes of silence. Soon after that, Tanya grabbed her coat.

"Where are you going?" Alice questioned. She knew that Tanya going out after a massive tantrum was never a good sign.

However, this time around, Tanya was level-headed. "To the police station, where else? I do have to check out if they have something on her case or not." Tanya was about to head out when Alice called her back yet again.

"Wait, come here!" Alice made Tanya come back all the way to her. Those three feet in the congested room felt like a bigger stride for a lazy person like Tanya. It was truly rare when Tanya set herself out to do something, so taking that few steps in could really mess up the morale. But it was her mother calling, so she couldn't just walk away from it.

"What is it now?" There was a slight disinterest in her voice. She didn't seem like she cared. But, she was very much surprised when Alice hugged her and planted a kiss on her cheek.

"I love you, baby. Now, go!" Alice turned Tanya around towards the door and gave her a slight nudge. As she exited her office, she gave out a faint smile. Meanwhile, Alice sat back on the sofa giving out a placid smile on her own. Little did she know that she had company in the form of Chuck, who decided not to go with Tanya and got a glimpse of Alice smiling, a rare sight in general.

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