Tina was having breakfast at Alices. She was reading the paper while eating some cornflakes. Alice, right from the shower, with a towel around her body walked in the kitchen.
Uhh
I know, I knowjust need my coffee and get dress. I am so ***** late!
Someone talked dirty words till dawn this morning? Tina was teasing her. It was so cute to see Alice blushing.
Not all of them were dirty u know, some of them were well, you know.
Tina could not stop smiling. You have a gift for words Al, no wonder your career choice
Shut up T, I dont have time for this!
Pretending to be mad at her, Al left the kitchen. Tina followed her to her room, wanting to ask her about Dana. She stopped at the ajar door.
Hows Dana doing?… and Shane?
She is fine, the tournament starts in two days and she is getting nervous about it but you not going to believe this she said that Shane is converting almost every women at the tournament, seems she is on a roll .
Tinas smiled, it was a bitter sweet smiled. She missed Shane, she wanted to talk with her about the kiss, about them, wanted to tell her they were fine, maybe apologize.. but she left with Dana before she came back.
Alice walked from her bedroom to the dining room, preparing her purse and turning off her computer.
Apparently she is quite good at her job and Dana said that they are getting along great
With that Alice laughed hard.
What?
Nothing, Shane is torturing Dana with too much information about ***** sexuality, and you know Dana, almost every night she has to ask me about something Shane said or did its just so ***** cute to imagine her goofy face as I am trying to explain to her what Shane meant
Tina laughed too, it was easy to imagine Danas face.
Gosh I miss her
With that and a kiss on the cheek, Alice left Tina alone with her thoughts.

She was going to go to the Center and then, after more than a month, she was going back to yoga class. God, she missed it so much.She has been afraid to jump into Bette so not till today she found the courage to go back. She changed her routine, she was going to attend class at lunch time, not the usual early morning class she used to go with Bette.
She was in Alices bedroom finishing packing. She was moving to Danas place. House sitting she said, and you will have all that space for yourself… she added.
Alice was going to help her after work, after picking for her few more things from her house, her laptop among others. Thinking about her house, their house, made Tina think about Bette. She hated to think about her but she was still missing her almost every hour.Everything reminded her of Bette, streets, tv commercials, her clothes, her friends. Almost every night she dreamt with her. Some of the dreams were beautiful ones but then after waking up, she had to face reality and that was hard, other dreams were as painful as reality and they usually left her tired and sad.
It seemed to Tina that there was no way she was going to feel better any time soon. At least, she thought, she wasnt feeling sick anymore. Its been more than two weeks since her last episode, just right before she went to visit Zoe. Alice found her on the floor, sweating, and Alice in her mom-mode rushed her to the doctors. It was a panic attack, thinking about Bette and Candance had that effect on her. It was always the same, starting with a spinning stomach, weakness and cold sweats then some more chills and more weakness, making all that difficult to breathe. It was an awful and scary feeling. After her last one she decided to go back to Dan Foxworthy. She called to make an appointment and again, that made her think about Bette. But she was getting better, she was feeling lighter and happier. She knew she had to talk with Bette at some point, but she was not ready.
She knew, Alice told her, that she always asked about her but she was not ready to face her, to talk with her. Not yet.

Bette was at the CAC. It was almost noon and she should be finishing some papers for her next exhibition but instead she was writing Tina an email. It was her routine, almost everyday she wrote something to her. Sometimes it was just a few words, some feelings she needed to share with her but others were long, tearing emails. Tina never answered them, she didnt even know if Tina was reading them. But just in case, Bette continue to write her. Therapy was helping, she hated to acknowledge that it was helping her a lot. She even made herself talked about Candance. That didnt go very well but the email she wrote to Tina afterwards did.

She knew, Alice called her, that Tina was back in town. Alice was so happy about it, so relaxed knowing that Tina was ok, back in her apartment, that Bette had to smile at how much Alice was becoming Tinas surrogate mom. She knew how caring could Alice be. But then, imagining all of them together, enjoying each others company made her sad.
She wasnt expending much time with her friends anymore. Alice was busy at work or with Dana. Shane, to Bettes surprised, left with Dana the moment she came back from who knows where and Marina, well Marina was not the kind of company Bette enjoyed that much. She spent almost every night talking with Kit, sometimes with Kit and Ivan, and sometimes alone. She was getting better at being alone. She wasnt feeling like meeting new people. She finally aknowledge that she had enough people in her life, good friends and a great sister. All she wanted was Tina back but she was getting used to the idea that it was going to be a difficult task, that it was going to be the battle of her life.