Previously:Bette held her arms and nuzzled closer into her chest. The words could not come from her mouth. She was rendered speechless by her lover. How could she tell Jodi about her state of mind? Could she just tell her it was over? Does she owe her an explanation? She didn’t know enough sign language to tell her what she wanted to say. Speaking the words would have no meaning to Jodi. Saying “fuck off” like she essentially did to Candace was certainly not the right thing to do. Should she get Jodi’s interpreter to tell her? That seemed to impersonal. Should she send her a letter of an email? That seemed too cold.

Communication with her partners was always a challenge for her. Although there was nothing wrong with her hearing, she was often not good at listening to what they had they had to say. Now she had a partner who could not hear her but seemed to have listened better than she ever did. Why did she get herself into this relationship where her biggest issue, communicating, was now magnified 100 times?

She held Jodi close. She had to find her way to tell Jodi but she didn’t need to work as hard as she thought. Jodi already knew. All Bette could manage to do was sign the words "I’m sorry".

They held each other a bit longer as Bette fell back into a quiet sleep.

Part 9

It was initially awkward between Bette and Jodi when Bette woke up about an hour or so later. They had been drifting apart since Jodi moved away and now that Bette had a distraction it made matters worse.

Jodi indicated to Bette that as before, she did not believe in monogamy but out of respect for Bette and her love for Bette she tried to maintain that in the relationship but it seemed that she too had her distractions. Not that she has crossed any lines but she was certainly tempted.

As they discussed the mutual agreement to be more open in their relationship to others, maybe just a simple “friends with benefits” situation. Bette thought immediately about Helena and her statement about there not being any other cats in the house. She needed to talk to Helena about where they were and what is that she wanted.