CHAPTER FIFTY

Bette took in the sight of her beautiful, white bikini-glad girlfriend and sighed with happiness. Tina was unaware of Bette’s attentions as her eyes were closed. She laid there, enjoying the sun carressing her body, gently kissing her. Like the other tourists, they were having a lazy holiday at a hotel near the beach. However, Tina wasn’t too fond of Greek beaches and that’s why they spent the major part of their week by the pool. It was just as well for Bette.

The brunette flattened her hand on Tina’s stomach and felt its softness. She made circles with her thumb. People passing by from a distance would think that the girl was trying to feel a life inside that belly, even though it didn’t show. Bette was only enjoying the fantastic feel of a fantastic woman.

It wasn’t very noisy, people kept to themselves mostly. There were lots of Germans and also British people, but so far they had only heard one other American couple. They couldn’t care less – they were not here to meet other people or make new friends, they were here to relax after a very stressful school year for both. In hindsight, what they had done was crazy. Tina had resigned as a preparation to move across the country with a student when she hadn’t even confessed her feelings – she had even applied for another job already. After two months of being together, they had made the move to New Haven. Bette had dived headfirst into college life, enjoying every bit of it, assured with the knowledge that her girlfriend, who had been through all of it, wasn’t far away to support her, love her and cherish her. 

The past ten months had been far from perfect – they had had enough struggles, enough battles to fight. Most of them emerged from Bette’s insecure nature that had only been stimulated by her father’s behaviour. The fact that the blonde had had a neighbour that was every inch the opposite of her, made her fear that Tina would see that there were so many other options. 

For Tina, it had been scary to give up on a school that had helped her develop as a teacher and that had offered her great things, to go to a place she had never been before with a person she loved very much, but had her own experiences to go through. Tina had never said so, but she didn’t want to bother Bette with her angst and insecurities. She figured that it was hard enough on the brunette already and that she wasn’t strong enough yet to also bear Tina’s burden.