Chapter 5

Day 1. Alice’s apartment. West Hollywood

Alice opened the front door of her apartment and the 3 of them walked in.

"So…. more wine or is everyone too tired?" offered Alice

Bette and Tina responded simultaneously:

"Wine" said Bette

"Tired" said Tina

Bette laughed and conceded.

"Tired it is, and you’re right, we’ve probably had enough wine for one night."

"No, you know what? One more glass won’t hurt, it’s fine"

"You sure Tina?"

"Of course"

Alice disappeared into the kitchen to grab wine glasses, a bottle and a corkscrew. Bette immediately wished she had offered to go so she was not left alone in the lounge with the blonde. They both looked around, avoiding eye contact.

"Shall we set up the sofa bed for you?" offered Bette

"Um, yeah, ok, we could do that I guess"

Wordlessly, the pulled the cushions off the lounge, stacking them in the corner of the room, then pulled on the handles to lift the frame and mattress of the sofa bed out and firmly settled it on the floor.

"I’ll got get some pillows and blankets" suggested Bette, eager to leave the room.

She returned just as Alice did with 3 glasses of chardonnay. Bette placed the pillows and blankets on the sofa bed and turned on some music. This time, Alice got the conversation going.

"So what other locations do you need to find Tina?"

"Well the campus is the priority. So depending on how meeting the chancellor goes, I may go to a few other colleges around town. Hopefully I won’t need to do that, but I have their addresses and contacts just in case. Other than that, I need a few exteriors for houses, restaurants, a playground, a cinema… oh and a car dealership." Tina ticked of the items from her mental checklist.

"Are you going to try look for all those tomorrow?" ask Alice incredulously

"No, it’s not like I have to have everything else sorted just now. I can even do it when we move in a couple of weeks. But if I have time, I’d like to have a look now. But, like I said, the campus is my priority."

"Hopefully Phyllis won’t have a problem with it – especially if you can shoot over the break in a few months." offered Bette.