Chapter 11


Tina was in a state of shock. Paralyzed, she sat there, in the car, looking at Bette…her hands slid lifeless to the side of the wheel. She felt as if she was seeing Bette for the first time…. a different person was standing in the park in-front of her, not the Bette she knew…sophisticated, powerful, tense Bette… Instead …there was a beautiful, alive, simple, heavenly creature, walking barefoot on the grass on this beautiful summer day.

Tina couldn’t move, she couldn’t stop staring at the magnificent sight in front of her, Bette’s most precious pieces of art could not compare to what Tina was looking at that moment.
In Tina’s eyes Bette herself was the most magnificent thing that she had ever saw, the most priceless piece of art that she ever laid eyes upon.

She couldn’t remember the anger that flushed her body every-time she even thought of Bette in the past 8 months, she didn’t want to remember that feeling. Her eyes hypnotized by the sight could only see one thing, her heart paralyzed by the surprise, could only feel one thing…love…undying love…. unbelievable longing…desire…endless…endless…love.

Half day dreaming, she saw herself opening the door and coming out of the car in the flash of a second. In realty, she couldnt move. Her body betrayed her, but her mind was picturing the scene.
She saw herself walking…. No, running into Bette’s arms…. holding her tight…. kissing every part of her face, eyes, lips, cheeks, forehead…running her fingers through Bette’s wild hair,

Bette stopped pacing; her heart and soul were all in the story she was reading. She stood there, not realizing she had stopped breathing for a few seconds as she was reading the last chapter of the book in her hands.

She hurt so much for the character of Florentino Ariza, who did not stop his longing for Fermina Daza and saved his undying love for her throughout all of the 51 years, nine months and 4 days that had past since the day she rejected him, when he was 22 and she married another man.
Not a day had past without something happening to remind him of her. Bette knew his pain, she felt it at the bottom of her soul. The undying, unbearable love, the knowledge that the woman he so desperately belonged too was is the arms of someone else.

When she finely realized that she wasn’t breathing, she picked up her head and inhaled deeply, releasing a soft moan of intensity from her mouth. That was the moment she saw Tina.

TINA…her Tina…. her Fermina Daza, sitting in the car, looking at her with love in her eyes.

She thought she was dreaming, her mind playing tricks on her, letting her see a Fata Morgana, an illusion. Like a man in the desert hallucinating an oasis.

It was only after she saw Tina’s lips part in to what she could only imagine was a sigh, only then she realized it wasn’t a dream, NO, not a fraction of her imagination.
It was real. Tina was there. Four steps away from her aching body, looking straight at her in a way that could only reflect Bette’s own feelings…. infatuation…. desire…. tender, ever so powerful feeling of home…. of belonging.

At that moment, the sun was shining brighter than usual…the wind blowing harder than before and Bette statuesque body was rooted to the ground. Her hair blowing gently in the wind, the bright sun shining behind her making it seem as if a bright aura was surrounding her and made look like an angle.

But the angel that Bette saw was not herself. Her angle was sitting in the car in front of her.

They both froze. Both Bette and Tina looked straight into each others eyes…they couldnt look away, they couldnt even if they wanted to.
They didnt want to look away, the joy of seeing each other again was a million times more powerful than the memory of the last time they saw each other, 3 months ago.


It took Bette a few seconds, (in her mind it could have been years), before an involuntary smile crossed her face, revealing her beautiful white teeth and her eyes shining with love in a way that Tina had never seen before.

She smiled…she did not talk or move in her direction…not blink or look away…. she just smiled…that was all she could do as her heart exploded with happiness.


Tina was in the same state of mind…euphoria…if she had died at that moment; she would have died a happy person. Seeing this angel…. this muse…. in front of her was too much to let any element of intellect, reason or logic enter her being and when Bette finely flashed her million-dollar-I-love-you-till-the-day-I-die smile. The only thing that Tina could have done was to smile back. Hesitating at first, but then with everything that she had…heart …body and soul…it was the only thing she could do, the only thing that they could both do, knowing exactly what brought them here, to the same spot…. their house…. their memories…. their love.


Bette smiled…but instead she wanted to cry, knowing that Tina was there just a few steps away from their once “home sweet home,” when she had no reason to go back there, no reason but the longing for their life together, made her want to cry…. tears of joy.

That was the same thought that ran through Tinas mind, but was interrupted by a loud sound that startled her. The horn blowing coming from the car behind her made her jump in her seat…. she looked back and saw a line of cars, waiting for her to make the turn.
They thought she was waiting for the road to clear, but a few minutes later, when they saw she was still not turning they all got upset.
Tina felt their anger in the form of a rain of noise…they all started honking their horns as loud as they could.
And with that…. the moment was gone.

Tina finely made the turn and drove away…she could still see in her rearview mirror, Bette, standing there, sun in her hair, the smile never leaving her face.




Bette was slowly coming out of her dream/reality/wishful, encounter with Tina.
It took her about two minutes to fully recognize the fact that she just saw Tina for the first time since she found out that Tina was pregnant, not only that, but the knowledge that Tina was passing by their old home just like Bette herself did every single day pushed her over the edge.

“Yeeeeesssssss,” she screamed into the park. “Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes,” she shouted jumping up and down in the air, (much to a few bystanders amusement who thought she was either crazy or really into the book she was holding).
She stopped jumping and started to run, picking up her shoes and jacket from the grass.
She ran like a prisoner who just saw his rescuers on the horizon, the only difference was that her destination was absolutely nowhere.
She ran and jumped, screamed and laughed at the same time and when she grabbed an old lady walking with her dog in the park and hugged her telling her, “she loves me!!…she loves me!!…she still love me!! all of the amused bystanders officially decided that she was out of her mind.