TINA

Tina woke up the next morning feeling like there was a huge pit in her stomach. ‘OK, she thought, this is either from those delicious Bahama Mamas that Alice mixed yesterday, or …maybe it’s because I’m seeing Bette tonight.’ Tina took a couple of deep breaths to try and get rid of it…nope, not happening…great.

She was having mixed emotions about their outing at the garden the day before. She was thrilled with the positive changes in Bette, and it had felt so incredible when Bette had laid her head in Tina’s lap, she had wanted to melt with happiness. Yet, no matter how much she ached to be with her, she couldn’t just go back to Bette yet. Too many things had happened. There was so much healing that Tina still needed.

‘*****!’ Tina sighed, thinking she should have told Bette she would meet her for dinner. Bette’s picking her up felt too much like a date. Besides, she didn’t know how comfortable she would feel sitting next to Bette in her car.

Tina rolled over to see what time it was, smiling as she did every morning. Alice’s Wonder Woman clock cracked her up each time she looked at it. That’s got to be someone’s idea of a collectors item, but where on earth would you even find something like that?

*****! According to Wonder Woman, it was 10:00! Bette was going to be there at 7:00 to pick her up. That means she only had nine hours to pick an outfit, shower, and…”Alice!!!”

Tina was up and out of the living room in no time, running down the hall to Alice’s bedroom, and pounding on the door.

“Alice!!”, she yelled again. She burst into the room and ran over to the bed.

Poor Alice had managed to prop herself up with one arm, while rubbing her face with the other. “Wha…wha…what’s wrong?”

“Bette is coming to pick me up!!”

“What? I thought she wasn’t coming until tonight.”

“I know…WHAT AM I GOING TO WEAR?! Come on, get up! I didn’t bring the right outfit. We have to go shopping!!”

“Tina, chill girlfriend… you have plenty of time. Why do you need a new outfit anyway? It’s just Bette. Besides, I thought you needed time before you could get back with her. If that’s the case, why do you feel the need to impress her?”

“ALICE!!!!”

“OK, OK. Geez, I’m up. God T, if this is how you act when you’re not sure about being with someone, I’d hate to see you when you’re really trying to woo a woman.”

Tina started to say something, but Alice put up her hand. “Please, just let me have a cup of coffee first and then we can go. *****, are stores even open at this hour?”


TINA AND BETTE

Bette pulled up to Alice’s apartment at exactly 7:00. She couldn’t believe that after trying on almost every outfit in her closet, she had made it here on time. She was so nervous about seeing Tina, because Bette understood what Tina was trying to tell her yesterday. She knew that Tina wasn’t going to just come home and allow them to pick up where they left off. Part of Bette was really proud of Tina for making that decision. They couldn’t go back to where they had been. Both of them had been unhappy at the end of their relationship. But Bette understood that because of how they had both been living their lives in the last six months that they were starting from two different places, and just had to have faith that they could make their way to the same ending place.

Bette took a deep breath and knocked on the door. She rolled her eyes and let out a nervous giggle, thinking she felt like she was picking Tina up for the prom or something.

Bette was still smiling as the door opened. “Hi.”

“Hi Tina.” Looking at Tina standing in the doorway, with the hall light illuminating her from behind, Bette just sighed. “You look beautiful T.”

Tina smiled. With that statement, as well as the look on Bette’s face, she knew that all of the scrabbling she and Alice had done that day, was worth it.

“Uh…do you want to….” Just then Tina looked down at Bette’s hands. She was holding a daisy. Well, it had been a daisy at one point, only now all the petals had been plucked off, except one. Tina looked into Bette’s eyes and saw so much love pouring out of them.

Bette held the daisy out to her. “Go ahead T.”

Tina looked down at what was her favorite kind of flower and reached out, taking the last petal in between her fingers and gently rubbing it.

“Oh Bette.” She then gave the petal a slight tug and it came off, falling into the palm of her hand. Tina looked back into Bette’s eyes.

“She loves me,” Bette said so softy it was almost a whisper.

They both just stood there, eyes locked, both feeling so much emotion, feeling so much love coming from the others gaze, neither one wanting to move. Finally, Tina found her voice, barely. She held the petal up. “Yes, she does.”

“Yes, she does,” Bette repeated just as quietly.

“Hey you two! Were you born in a barn?! Get in here and close that door!”

The moment ended, but not the emotions. Tina and Bette just looked at each other with silly grins on their faces and started giggling. Tina reached out and took Bette’s hand so that the daisy petal was being held by both of them and pulled her into the apartment.

“Hey Alice.”

“MS Porter.”

“How are you?”

“Good. How are you?”

“Good.”

The three of them stood there for a moment in silence before Tina said, “Well, now that you two have caught up, I think we will be going.”

Tina picked up her purse and started walking towards the door, not letting go of Bette’s hand. “Night Al.”

Bette had turned her head around and exchanged a wink and a smile with Alice. Tina didn’t see it, but Alice also held up both her hands to Bette, showing her that her fingers were crossed.

“Good luck,” she mouthed. “Thanks,” Bette mouthed back.

Alice cleared her throat. “Goodnight you two, and Tina, don’t forget your curfew…and remember girls…always practice safe *****!”

“Alice!!!” Tina and Bette both yelled in unison.

With that Alice plopped down on the couch, shaking her head and laughing. “God, I can’t help it, I just crack myself up!”

As they were getting into the car, Tina asked, “So, where are we going?”

“Well, I know you probably have had a lot of good Thai food in Vancouver, so I thought we would have Italian tonight. Is that OK?”

“Sure, that sounds good.”

“OK, Italian it is. Tina, do you mind if we stop by the house first? What I want to show you is there.”

“Our house?” Tina looked a little frightened.

Bette reached out and touched Tina’s thigh. “Please T.”

Tina turned her head and stared out the window. ‘Be strong. You can do this.’ “Yea…sure…Ok.”

Tina took her purse and started fumbling around like she was looking for something. She gently placed the daisy petal in the change pocket of her wallet and then pulled out her Altoids, like that was what she was looking for in the first place. Bette noticed what Tina was doing and smiled, but kept her eyes on the road. They managed some nice easy small talk on the way to the house. Bette asked Tina about her work, which got Tina started on one of her favorite subjects. The drive went by fast and while Tina was in the middle of talking about the grueling daily filming schedule, they pulled into the driveway. Tina stopped mid sentence and held her breath. She looked at the outside of the house that had been her home for six years. She let out her breath in a big whoosh.

“Bette, I don’t know if I am ready to go in there.”

“T, I know that this is hard for you, but I am asking you to come in, not seeing the bad times we had here, but seeing the good times. And there were way more good times than bad, right?”

Tina looked at her ex-lover and smiled. “Yes, many more good times.”

“Ok, then let’s do it!”

Tina gave Bette one quick nod and opened up her door. They walked up onto the porch hand in hand. Before putting the key in the door, Bette stopped and turned to Tina.

“T. I just have one question before we go in.”

“What’s that?”

“The woman who came out of your bedroom…is she your…are you…I mean…” Bette lowered her head in defeat, knowing she couldn’t get the words out.

Tina reached out and took Bette’s chin in her hand. “No Bette. She’s not…we didn’t…she’s just a friend.”

It was Bette’s turn to let her breath out. She didn’t know what else to say, so she just nodded and said, “Good.”

Smiling, she opened the door. She let Tina step in first, followed her in and gently closed the door behind them. At first Tina didn’t focus on anything. She just let her body feel the air in the house. She noticed with some relief that she was having no trouble breathing, unlike the last time she was here, when if felt like all the oxygen had been sucked out. She let her head slowly move around the living room, with Bette standing silently beside her, watching and feeling grateful that Tina was actually standing in their home.

Tina’s eyes started focusing on different things, the couch, coffee table, the pictures of her and Bette framed and scattered around the room, the painting…Tina gasped and propelled herself to the main wall of the living room. Hanging above the couch was the most beautiful painting…the colors…the light the artist captured…it was breathtaking. She gasped again, her hand flying to her mouth as she realized the painting was of her, Bette and the most beautiful little girl she had ever seen. Tears starting streaming down her cheeks and she felt Bette move up beside her and put her arm around Tina’s shoulders.

“T, I know that I could never explain to you fully what I see and feel in my dreams every night, so I had my dream…what I hope will be our destiny, put on canvas.”

Bette held up her hand and pointed to the little girl. “This is Mary.”

Tina reached out with her hand and brought it up to the little girls face, getting as close as she could without touching the painting.

“Oh my God!” Tina started sobbing, but couldn’t take her eyes off the painting. Finally, she lowered herself onto the couch, resting her head in her hands. Bette knelt down in front of her.

“I know T…I know. Now do you see why I had to come to you?”

In a very shaky voice, Tina shook her head and whispered, “Damn you Bette!”