Bette’s day had been busy enough to distract her from any question about her and Helena’s encounter.  Her body still buzzed with happiness, and she let worried thoughts pass through her mind without fixating. She even found herself whistling as she walked toward her car—unfortunately it was that S.O.S. song which otherwise would have been enjoyable, had been on a loop in her head for much of the afternoon.

Driving back to her house, she did think about Helena’s issues as of late, and how her and Peggy might help Helena to work through the damage that Catherine had obviously done.

When she walked through her front door, she smelled chicken and the unmistakable scent of chocolate. Homemade truffles sat on the counter, next to a large green salad with avocado and artichoke hearts. Three wine boxes sat next to this display, each signed ‘love, Peggy.’  

Helena seemed to have made herself perfectly comfortable in Bette’s house. At one time, Bette would have interpreted this badly—now, she saw Helena’s openness as rather refreshing.  As Bette walked outside to greet Peggy and Helena, she was happy with the easy way in which Helena filled the space with her presence.  She was lounging by the pool, wearing a tank top and rolled up jeans, talking amicably with Peggy. 

When Helena had first appeared on the scene, Bette had naturally come to the conclusion that she was some sort of invasive species of human.  But Helena had genuinely wanted to connect with this group of friends. She may have been careless about Bette and Tina’s history, but Bette knew now that much of what she had thought to be malicious on the part of Helena, had more to do with Helena’s general outlook on life. Relationships were just a part of the natural ebb and flow of life—nothing was permanent.  Bette had realized this after they had discussed their mutual love for yoga.

Helena, on the other hand, still wanted to make up for her incursions into Bette’s life. She had never set out to deliberately undo Bette’s world, but there had been moments when she knew that she did not have to make some of the moves which she did make.  Perhaps pressing Bette’s buttons during her time at the CAC wasn’t wise, even if her intentions had been to make up for the CAC’s loss of Peabody Foundation support.  When she saw Bette come into the backyard, she was reminded of her desire to make up for her actions.