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Another Left Turn: The Crush (ch5)
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‘Ooh, that sounds nice.’
‘Yeah, and—’
Bette stopped at the sound of a door closing. Both women turned, saw Angie, and disentangled themselves.
‘Oh, hey, honey!’ Tina waved.
Angie smiled at her parents wryly, indulgently; in a way that was inconceivable a week ago, to all of them.
‘Coffee?’ asked Bette.
‘Thanks,’ said Angie, sitting at the island.
Voices floated in from the courtyard, laughter, the baby’s chatter, Joan Didion’s little wuffs.
‘Mom, can I talk to you later about something?’
This was directed at Tina. She glanced at Bette before replying, ‘Sure.’
‘It’s just about the hydro,’ Angie went on. ‘I had an idea.’
‘What’s the idea?’ Bette asked, placing Angie’s coffee in front of her.
‘Well, I was just thinking that, if my advisor agreed, I could ask to take research leave this year. Stay here and use the hydro as a base to help me shape a better proposal.’
Tina’s jaw slackened in surprise. Bette’s eyes sparkled with pride.
‘I think I need to go a different route for a while,’ said Angie.
‘You’d be here for a whole year?’
Tina was overjoyed.
‘If I get it,’ Angie cautioned.
‘You’ll get it,’ said Bette. And she went round the island and drew her daughter into her arms. ‘Smart move, boo. Very smart move.’
Tina went round the other side and hugged them both. Then they went outside and joined the others in discussing all their various schemes and plans.
Dani, Artie and Alice were returning to LA after breakfast. Alice had one more week leave-of-absence and she wanted to get settled in to her rental before she went back to work, and contacted Joyce about her rights. Shane was hanging around till lunch then heading up to Idyllwild. Bette knew she had a tough decision to make about Hannah, and a move to BC, and Shane had promised to keep in close touch about it.
Peggy, meanwhile, had not got her hour with Bette yesterday.
‘Bette, darling,’ she said. ‘Come walk with me to the pavilion.’
Helena raised her eyebrows; Bette pulled a ‘search me’ face, kissed Tina, then followed Peggy.
‘How much longer are you staying?’ she asked.
‘Trying to get rid of me?’
‘Of course not.’
Peggy leaned into the slope. She was in her eighties but she had several people who kept her limber and strong.
‘I’m shaking things up,’ she said. ‘You know the Swedes have this thing they call “death cleaning”?’
‘I’ve heard of it.’
‘I had a man explain it to me. I don’t think he knew who I was.’ Peggy chuckled. ‘He came to my suite at the Plaza and thought I had some crockery and the odd necklace to dispose of.’
Presently, they reached the pavilion entrance and Bette put her pass code into the lock. Inside, the space was warm and still. The atrium, through which the olive tree received the sun, flooded the space with bright yellow light.
‘I love this,’ said Peggy, touching a leaf.
‘It works better than even I had hoped,’ said Bette.
Peggy walked around the tree, examining its grey, gnarled trunk, more than a century old.
‘Peabodys began collecting art in the 1700s,’ she said, almost absently. ‘A few Canalettos, from someone’s Great Tour, no doubt. Then, after the Revolution, it was all Copley and West, anything in the Grand Manner. Gilbert Stuart, was he one around then?’
‘Yes,’ said Bette.
‘Yes. And then the Gilded Age. Europe was looted!’
‘Shall we skip over that?’
Peggy laughed. ‘No, dear, you can’t, but . . .’ She turned to Bette, her incredible sky-blue eyes filmed with tears. ‘You can give it away for me.’
When Bette and Peggy came back to the courtyard, Tina could see something huge had gone down.
‘I’ll tell you later,’ Bette said, kissing her wife’s hand.
‘Mom,’ said Angie, coming out of House 2, ‘this has been going off.’
She handed Bette her phone, then went to talk to Dani. A minute later, Alice crouched down beside Tina’s chair and leaned into her space.
‘Hey,’ she said quietly. ‘Look.’
Tina looked where Alice was indicating – at Helena, Dylan, Bette, Shane, Dani, Angie and Peggy all sitting around talking, laughing, drinking coffee. Then she laughed.
‘It’s a Monday morning check-in!’
Alice beamed. Monday did indeed get a bad rap.
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Hey pal
I was so surprised when I received the notification that you had posted an update & then received several more as the next chapters were posted on the site. Welcome back & thanks so much for the updates on our fav couple & framily!
Seems like forever since Tibette was on & still miss them a ton.
Glad to see you haven’t forgotten about them either.
So, I decided to read through all the chapters you recently posted before I commented.
Was shocked about Dani & her baby!! Where, oh where did that come from??? Is there another mama in the picture???
Angie was a bit of a surprise too – didn’t expect her to be floundering in grad school. But I can understand the reaction to her proposal being denied. Find another way which she seems to have discovered at the end of chpt 5.
Seems that Shane & Alice are still very much the same – unsettled & unhinged to a degree. Can’t see things working out in BC for Shane & you know my thoughts & feelings about anything Alice.
Peggy as always was full of surprises , just a tad sad that like us, she’s getting older too & accessing what’s left of her life & legacy.
I don’t like the chef either & if she wasn’t soooo critical to Tibette’s business success, I would have given her the boot like TK did. What a bitch!! She needs to go though in the future – like near future! Ha, ha!
I thought it strange that the chef had to rely on Tibette for supplies, etc – yet I get that funds/finances are stretched as it is. They really do need to hire that souz chef & get Tibette some breathing room.
Lastly Tibette themselves. Very familiar actions, reactions as they first seemed to have fallen back into old habits & avoidance.. Thought the check in with Wendy was helpful if not acknowledged at first, but then the light bulbs seemed to go on for Bette finally.
Supre happy they were able to work through the tension & realize that they indeed are the most important to one another & to make the time for each other. By the end they seemed to be back on track & supporting one another.
So so happy that you posted. It’s been some time since I read a Tibette story.
Now, you must have to update the Real Tibette novel as well!!
Take care of yourself & remain safe over your way. Hopefully, this crazy country of mine will make some progress in the near future for the better.
All the best for the upcoming holiday season.
Hiya mate *waves*
Great to see you again and thank you for reading this story!
I’m doing fine and hope you are too? I moved house about a year ago, about five minutes up the road from where I was before but a better setup for various reasons. Really happy here, although it took many months to get settled as it was a downsize too and had to dispose of a lot of furniture and ‘stuff’. My band has also taken a lot of time this year, but a few months ago I just got this fanfic itch…
I must’ve started writing an Another Left Turn update about four times before settling on this one. It’s hard (for me) to find Tibette vs The World plots but I also had to go back and read ALT to get back into that storyworld and not confuse it with Real Tibette.
As to your comments, yes, they’re a bit stuck with Karolina, I think – but there’s maybe some comedy value in her? The dining side of Amistad is trying to be field-to-table, plant-based food, which is why they use produce from the hydroponicum. They don’t have to, but it promotes interest in sustainable food production, which my Bette is passionate about – and of course Tina has been a gardener since the L Word pilot episode!
Dani’s baby was one of those things that you just start typing, not knowing where it came from, and then I really liked it. Tibette get to have a little grandma energy, haha. As you say about Peggy, they’re all getting older.
Thank you, as ever, for the encouragement and the welcome back. I hope you are still writing or might do a little in future?
I hope also that your midterms do what is needed, for all our sakes.
Stay well,
Largo
I was beyond thrilled to find this story updated. I have read everything you’ve written. Huge fan of the real Tibette stuff of course but of this story as well. I am going to have to reread this one as it is so dense. So well researched. You paint such a detailed picture It almost feels like I am living in that house right along with them. Can’t wait for more.
Hello again! *waves* How great to see you and thank you for reading this and taking the time to comment. Thank you too for reading all my writing – that is so appreciated and means a lot to me. :-)
I did do a lot of research, so thank you for noticing, haha. It’s quite fascinating to learn what goes into a glass of delicious California wine (not that i drink much, but i like a nice glass now and then). I was actually quite hard on myself in the editing, cutting a lot of detail about the house that only really I needed to know.
I’ll post again before Christmas and as soon as I can. Thank you for reading and have a good autumn!
Largo
More stories yay! I adore your take on them. All your iterations of them feel like the couple they should have become. I’ve read too many fics where I can barely recognize either one of them. So know that I appreciate you and your dedication to Tibette. Good writing takes time and effort. So thanks a million
aw, thank you, my friend, that means a lot to me that you get my version of B&T. When I’m writing them I often stop and imagine JB and LuH delivering a line or making a gesture and if it doesn’t feel right, I change it till it does.
with many thanks,
L
It’s great to find you’ve been writing Tibette again. Great idea to go back to “Another left turn”. I’d love to read how thier business will take off and do just fine. And without an arrogant-full-of.herself chef like Karonlina. Someone who fits in better to the business, the group, to the family. Hopefully you’ll write some more chapter to the story, even if it could perfectly be left like this. Mayby a little more Helena interaction with Tina & Bette, Angie of course. What’s with Peggy’s plan to sell up her business – or her art at least? I couldn’t quite get what Alice’s probs were but I really don’t care for her storyline anyhow.
Thanks for sharing this with us!
Hello to you! *waves* Hope you’re well? Thank you so much for reading this story and taking the time to drop a comment. It is so appreciated.
I’m picking up that you’re not a fan of Karolina?? lol Yeah, she’s a lot, isn’t she? But Tina was a tad brattish also, I think. I liked writing Tibette’s argument, heehee. And Bette falling into her old ‘doctor work’ ways.
I also wanted more Helena but the story was taking ages to get finished so I’ll pick her up next time. The Peggy storyline has potential to be very interesting, so I think that’s where we’ll be heading. Sorry you don’t care for Alice. Ah, well.
But thank you!! It’s lovely to see you here and readers like you guys are what give us writers wings. Hope you have a lovely autumn
Largo
Thanks, Largo, I’m doing okay. We’ve all been around this space for quite some time, haven’t we? 8-) It’s so nice to see that some of us “goldies” – readers and writers – still come back here. Add to that some newer fans of the show and of ff. :) I still discover stories which I didn’t read before. That reminds me that I wanted to post a link to your new story as well as to the first part of Another left turn on the (formerly) chirping bird. Hope that’s okay with you. ReadBestsellers
Dang! You noticed that I’m not very fond of Karolina? What gave me away?! LOL! ;)
But I understand that she’s the means for you to show Bette falling back into her old, habbits, her single focus on her goal, on the success of the business. And everyone has to fall in line. Tina’s reaction and harsh words for me feels like the entirety of all the things Bette should have told K before. Anyway the situation created tension between T&B and I love when a story has its ups and downs! Way more interesting to read – if there is a happy end :-)
Looking forward to read what you have in store for our favourite couple.
Yes, let’s hope we can enjoy many golden autumn days before we have to retreat to our caves for wintertime and wait for the days to get longer again. Enjoy the last weeks of the year and stay safe.
kiwi
hiya pal – yes, it’s fine to link to any of my writing anywhere, and thank you for doing so :-)
You’re dead right about Karolina being the person who acts as a repository for some of Tibette’s hardwired tendencies – Bette’s workaholism, tunnel vision and bulldozing; Tina’s passive aggression and not saying what she wants. I like that they are still waylaid by these flaws, it makes them more 3D? Ups and downs…. no story without a few of them, haha
Thanks, as ever, for reading and commenting. I quite like the cave months – they’re good for writing.
Stay well
L