Tina had hardly had time to compose herself before she heard Alice. She felt a mixture of annoyance and regret. She reached for her heels and slipped one on. Maybe it had been too soon to be kissing Bette.

The thought stopped her cold; her hand froze in mid-air while reaching for her other shoe. Too soon? “Soon” implied a “later”, and “later” implied that she’d maybe try doing it again. She didn’t get further time to process any of her whirling thoughts before Alice appeared in the entryway, all loud talk and waving a champagne bottle.

“Hey, Al,” Tina said, attempting to sound normal. Thank God Alice was drunk. She could never get one over on her if Alice had been sober. She’d be able to tell something was up. As it was, Alice was looking at her with a mixture of surprise and suspicion.

Tina breathed a sigh of relief when Alice became distracted by the food, and changed the subject. Tina wasn’t really paying attention to anything Alice was saying. She allowed Alice to eat the food she’d barely touched; Tina wasn’t hungry any more anyway. Little pings of excitement were shooting off in her chest. She had almost kissed Bette. Her lips had almost touched the lips of one of the most beautiful people she’d ever seen. She furtively glanced at Bette, wondering if the other woman’s lips felt as soft as they looked. Alice was blabbing away; Tina was smiling and nodding, providing answers where required, while trying to sort out what she was feeling.

“What are you doing here?”

Tina froze again, reverie interrupted. She didn’t have to come up with an excuse, as Bette came to her rescue and answered for her. Alice let it go without comment, thankfully, and turned the conversation back to herself and the remainder of her attention to the food.

At some point, Alice snapped open Tina’s untouched fortune cookie and read aloud the slip of paper. “’You will find a new love.’” Alice snorted and Tina knew what she was probably thinking: that it was unlikely for Tina, with her pathetic history of relationships, to find love. “These things are even more worthless than horoscopes,” Alice said. Tina sneaked another glance at Bette. Maybe not, Alice.