Brusquely, the darker woman interrupted again “…And you know I think you’re full of shit.”

“Okay, fine but can I finish one sentence?”

“You’ve finished plenty.”  Bette sternly reprimanded.  “If she wanted me she would have had opportunity to make that clear.”

Alice began another unfinished thought, “Well…”

“The first time, I came crawling back like the snake I was.  She preferred Helena over my cheating behind.  The second time I believed she wanted us to be a family and we all know how that turned out.  Both times mind you,” the university Dean recapped unnecessarily in one breath, “I would have done almost anything to just have her show the slightest inkling of really wanting me.  Wanting us.”

Bette clenched her teeth, at times she forgot how much she still remembered.   How much she still hurt. 

“Steve is a wonderful man and very creative.  Accomplished.  A nice sense of humor.  Kind.  Generous.  Driven.  Well employed.  No prior entanglements.” 

So this perfect man had a name the reporter thought to herself. 

Alice rolled her eyes behind the tinted glasses silently mouthing the inventory of positives she heard mockingly.  “Clearly there’s something wrong with him if he hasn’t even one divorce to his name.  Is he gay?”

Bette ignored her.  Instead finishing quietly,  “I don’t want her to be alone and unhappy.  Don’t belittle…”

Her effort.  Her wanting more for the woman who shared eight years as her partner and more than a decade as her friend.  She knew what it meant to be lonely and no matter what she didn’t want that for Tina.  If this is what could make her whole, even if in a way this pained her to no end; even laying question to what they shared.  If this was what Tina wanted…

“Okay,” Alice said carefully.  She positioned herself similarly with her back now against the crowd in the restaurant.  Placing her right hand on Bette’s shoulder she rubbed lightly then said cheerfully, “I’d love a banana-strawberry smoothie.”

“Get whatever you want.”  Bette mumbled, “You’re paying for our order.”

“Of course I am.” Alice agreed as if there was no other way things could have turned out.

A few minutes passed and the manufactured task was coming to a close.  Reaching for the packaged order and change she asked with lips that barely moved, “Are they still talking?”