Previously…

            “I know Tina, but I’ve got to at least try. I’d NEVER be able to live with myself if I didn’t at least try. Let’s face it. How often does someone come along in your life that completes you?” Shane had hoped that both Tina and Bette pondered that last statement. She knew Bette and Tina belonged together, but did they?

I don’t remember how it happened, but somehow Tina agreed to meet in my room to talk – my room – that I would need to rectify. Prior to taking Angelica on a joyride tonight, I had checked out of the hotel. I told Tina that I would need to, again, check into the hotel and would call her with my room number. She rolled her eyes, in that annoying way that she does, when I let her in on that tidbit. Fear overcame me when I thought about her running through my actions in her own mind and determining how serious I was about running off with Angelica. Fear turned to shame when I thought about it. How could I have been so stupid? For crap’s sake, I’m an Ivy League graduate. Melvin would be so disappointed. Kit must – SHIT! I’ve got to find Kit and make sure she knows what has transpired. First things first – I need to get a room.

I get my room after much scrutiny about not having any luggage and dealing with the concierge’s dumbfounded glances since he was the one that helped me check out of the hotel only a few hours prior. I reach for my cell phone to call Kit, but then realize that I don’t have it and recall hurling it out into the snow earlier that day. I really need to stop doing that. I chastise my childish behavior and decide to go see Kit before I go to my room and call Tina.

I step onto an empty elevator and am alone with my thoughts for the brief ride to Kit’s floor. I blankly stare at the numbers above the elevator doors as the ride slowly rises through the hotel. The elevator doors are mirrored on the inside and I see an image staring back that is all too familiar but completely foreign to me at the same time. Who is that woman in the mirror? From where did she come? How did I get here? The ding of the bell and the doors opening to Kit’s floor bring me back to the present. I step out from the elevator and view it as my emergence into this new world that I must forage through. I am reborn. Tonight I will make amends for what I have done and have resolved within myself to put Angelica’s needs first over my own agenda.