Tina’s shift ended at 9 a.m. At 9:15 she was standing at Bette’s door.

What the *****, right? Somebody had to tell her.

The sense of dj vu was terrible, but the knowledge that nothing had to be the same was delicious. Tina wasn’t tied to work for the next few hours, Bette wasn’t due to leave in those same few hours, the heat was rising in the snow and whether that should be impossible or not, it certainly wasn’t. The stage was set and ***** the minor role. Tina couldn’t stop grinning. The notorious jacket was slung across her arm, her sleeves rolled up and shoved past her elbows, her shirt unbuttoned so low she looked down once more to make sure she wasn’t completely showing her *****.

Yet.

Tina grinned wider, feeling another psycho laugh coming on, and this time repressing it out of sheer excitement, not dread. God this was so much better than regret. So much better. She almost didn’t care what came next, and whether that was true or only felt true, she didn’t care about that either. She was all about the feeling, period. ***** the outcome.

Or rather, let ***** be the outcome? The grin spread again and Tina reached to knock on the door. The delay was slight before it opened and Bette stood before her, casually dressed, a bit disheveled, yes, and her eyes red-rimmed, but still, as gorgeous as Tina remembered.

She looked surprised, Tina thought, and it took a moment for her to speak. “Is that you?” she asked, her mouth turning up into the most sheepish of smiles.

Tina’s smile, on the other hand, was instant. “It’s me.”

“You’re off?”

“I am.”

Bette’s surprise had barely worn off before she looked down, shifting her weight anxiously from one foot to the other. “I wasn’t sure I’d see you. My flight’s at 12.”

“Was,” Tina corrected.

She looked up. “What?”

“Your flight was at 12. The airport’s closed. I just called. No flights out.”

Bette’s mouth dropped open. “You’re kidding.”

“Would I kid about this?” Tina asked pointedly.

Bette looked back at Tina in disbelief before Tina one-upped her further, not breaking eye contact but moving a few steps closer and letting her arm fall to the side, the jacket dragging the floor.

“Your manners are disgraceful by the way. You gonna invite me in?”

Bette gazed downward, her eyes falling helplessly on Tina’s cleavage. Tina followed them down, then back up. “I know how you hate buttons.”

The tension was not broken. Not in the least. But Bette laughed anyway, the realization hitting her, rather slowly, that her day was not going down the way she’d planned. “They’re unbecoming,” she said.

“I agree.”

Tina snuck one hand behind Bette’s back, her ***** brushing lightly against her as she pushed the door open the rest of the way. “I really wanna come in,” she breathed into Bette’s ear.

Bette closed her eyes and inhaled the scent that was Tina. A little musky, a little sweet, a lot *****. And so heady she thought her senses might overwhelm her. It was all she could do to step back, to reluctantly disengage and mentally assert herself within this new, unexpected reality.

But Bette was Bette because some things she was sure of. So it was without hesitation that she suddenly extended her arm in dramatic fashion, her gaze heating up as she lowered her voice to mimic Tina’s. “Please,” she said, “come in.”

The healthy look of lust was a relief to Tina, who let out a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding. She didn’t mind being the more aggressive one, if Bette wanted to play it that way. Nor did she mind being the more submissive one, if that’s what turned Bette on. What she did not want to be was the unambivalent one, marching forward recklessly as Bette hung back, unsure.

So when Bette growled at her in that ***** way, her voice saying come in, but her eyes saying come, whatever fresh anxiety Tina was feeling melted anew.

She would have laughed. Because it would have been funny. If it hadn’t been so hot.

“I must warn you,” she said, stepping inside the doorway, her eyes meeting Bette’s. “I’m too tired to blush.”