“I got fired.”

Bette exhaled loudly, nervously. “Did Tina–”

Candace put her hands up. “Tina didn’t do anything but turn around and run away. I’ll have to admit, when I realized she knew, I was surprised she didn’t try to deck me. I would’ve decked me”

“Tina’s not really the violent type.” Bette muttered, half-relieved that there was no fight, half-sad that Tina had to see Candace at all.

Candace nodded. They sat there in uncomfortable silence for a minute before Candace spoke up. “When did she find out?”

“The night ‘Provocations’ opened.”

“Shit.”

“Yeah.”

“I take it she wasn’t happy.”

“Fucking understatement.sheshe left me.” Tears clouded Bette’s vision again.

“I’m sorry Bette.”

“Not as sorry as I am.”

Candace leaned forward, her eyes meeting Bette’s with intensity. “I meanI’m sorry she left youbut I’m not sorry for sleeping with you.”

Bette didn’t answer. Instead, both women sat in the tense, awkward, uncomfortable silence that seemed to permanently settle in the office. Candace looked at Bette’s face, watching the different emotions of pain, sadness, regret and just a little bit of arousal cross her features.

“I can’t ever see you againyou know that right?”

Candace sat back in her chair and sighed. “Tell me to leaveand I will.”

Bette didn’t respond.

Forty minutes later, Candace got up. Taking a pen and a post-it note, she scribbled on it quickly and stuck it to Bette’s desk. “There’s my home phone and address.”

Then, Candace walked out.

—————————————

“Where are we?” Tina asked Shane and Alice as they all got out of Alice’s car.

Of all the places Tina thought Shane and Alice would take her, an old junkyard never crossed Tina’s mind. Neverit wasn’t even on the list. Shane led the way, with Alice dragging Tina by the hand behind her. They came to a big hole the old, rusty twenty-foot fence that surrounded the yard. Tina looked at the bent, rusted sign that once said “No Trespassing” and shook her head. “Guys, isn’t this trespassing?”

Alice wrapped herself around Tina’s arm, raising her eyebrows and whispering in Tina’s ear. “That’s part of the fun!”

“Don’t listen to her T.” Shane bellowed. “I know the guy that owns this place.”

“You know the owner of a run-down junkyard?” Tina asked, surprised. Shane was just full of surprises, wasn’t she?