“So yea, I live with Sabrina my personal trainer and best friend.” Tina spoke from across the table smiling.

Just then, an appetizer plate came into view. A fricassee green salad tossed in light lemon vinaigrette served with a seared duck breast, and a poached egg was placed in front of her.

Tina’s eyes lit up. French cuisine was her absolute favorite. Not many dates of hers had ever taken to her to a French restaurant. But Bette, Bette had taken her to The Little Door, a Michelin starred restaurant that she had always wanted to go to. She looked across the table and saw Bette with a familiar bowl of soup in front of her.

She remembered the first time going to Paris with her parents at age ten and having her very first bowl of vichyssoise—a soup made of pureed leeks and potatoes often served cold. Bette has a great palate, she thought. Check!  

Bette lifted a spoonful of her cold soup and brought it to her lips and closed her eyes. Perfect! She thought.

Tina lifted her knife in her left hand and gently poked through the poached egg that lay on top of her bed of fricassee greens. She waited to see if the yolk would run, indicating a perfectly poached egg. She wasn’t disappointed.

 Bette was listening intently, hanging on to each and every word Tina had been saying to her for the past half an hour. She learned that Tina was originally from North Carolina, but then moved to California for college. She had attended the University of Southern California’s film school. She scored her first job two days after graduating. Bette felt incredibly lucky to be able to share this time with Tina.

Tina had learned that Bette had graduated Yale University in Connecticut and had lived and worked in New York briefly before coming to Los Angeles, thus opening the Bette Porter Gallery.

“Bette, look!” Tina covered her mouth and laughed. Across the room she saw Bette’s friend Alice. A waitress was bent over and Alice was clearly ogling her. She even held her hands up in a camera like mode and ‘snapped’ pictures. Alice must’ve been on assignment for a paper she was working at. Alice was the last person to ever set foot in a French restaurant. She hated the richness of the dishes.