“Looking for something?” was all that Tina could recall hearing, how Bette got inside the house and ended up in front of her were still completely lost on her.

‘Oh my god, she’s caught me!’ Tina thought immediately, ‘Or has she? Tina decided against reacting too hastily, taking some time instead to analyze Bette’s demeanor. Tina’s expression softened as she saw Bette smiling at her, looking at her with so much love, Tina shuddered at the thought of taking that smile away, ‘How am I supposed to tell her I lost my ring?’

“Nothing in particular baby…” Tina decided to say, trying to hide her surprise from Bette.

“No T… You seemed like you were looking for something.” Bette took a step forward. Tina was so nervous she didn’t even notice what Bette was holding in her hand.

“Really babe, it’s nothing.” She smiled warmly, silently trying to calm her nerves.

“Fine, I just thought I’d give you this.”

Tina secretly hoped that Bette would would hand her the ring, ‘Let’s face it, she loves doing that sort of thing.’ she told herself, but to her disappointment Bette came over and gave her a beautiful bouquet of her favorite flowers.

Tina took one of Bette’s hands in hers, weaving their fingers together, “Oh Bette they’re beautiful.” she said, leaning forward and giving Bette a long and sweet kiss, hoping to get lost long enough to forget about the guilt she was feeling.
_________________________________

Shane paced outside her friend’s apartment, slowly alternating in direction every once and a while. Only a few moments ago she was persistently knocking on the apartment door, yet she decided to give it a rest when no one came to answer. Shane abruptly stopped walking back and forth, her thoughts were still on Carmen and the conversation they had twenty minutes ago. It all started innocently enough, Carmen had left a message on her voice mail saying:

“Hey Shane, this is Carmen. Listen I know I said to pick me up at 5, but things got a little crazy here at work, and I’m completely swamped… so I called to reschedule our date… I was thinking we move it to 8 o’clock tonight. Please say yes! And don’t ask me how I got your number, it’s kinda part of my job to know… anyway call me back…”

The message ended with Carmen leaving her cell number and Shane quickly thumbed the digits into her phone.

“Hey, I got your message…”

“And?” Shane heard Carmen hopefully say through the other line.

“And I think eight is fine…”

“Okay great! I’ll see you later.”

“Later.”

‘But it’s not great! At least not for me.’ Shane thought considering she made a date and completely forgot about her car being busted up, so now she continues pacing, growing more and more impatient by the moment. After realizing that knocking for the past 5 minutes wasn’t doing her any good she hoped against hope that what she was about to do next would do the trick.
_______________________________

“Alice open up!” Shane shouted desperately from the other side of the door, hoping that Alice would finally come to her senses and answer it for her.

Two minutes later she heard heavy footsteps coming from the hall, Alice opened the door for Shane. “What?” she said irritably.

“I need to borrow your car, I kinda have a date tonight.” Shane said coolly, following Alice into the apartment. Alice walked into her bedroom and made her way back into the closet, missing Shane’s request completely. Shane peeked inside and promptly asked:

“What are you doing?”

“Packing…” Alice said as she grabbed a white blouse off one its hanger.

“For what?”

“Las Vegas.”

Shane shifted her weight from one foot to another and gave Alice a questioning look.

“What’s in Vegas?” Shane crossed her arms looking a little confused.

Alice hunched over to get herself a pair of shoes.

“Dana…”

Shane finally understood. “Oh.” was all she could think of saying.

“I have to fight for her right? God, please tell me what I’m doing is right…” Alice muttered sounding more and more frantic with every syllable that came out of her mouth.

Shane leaned onto the wall before she spoke. The words “Damn straight!” effortlessly escaped her lips.

Alice stopped rummaging through her clothes for a while and gave Shane a look that conveyed how thankful she really was. Shane felt a little awkward being caught in the middle of a situation she wasn’t supposed to be part of, but nevertheless she was happy to see Alice finally give into her feelings for once. Shane took a hand and ran it through her already tumbled hair.

“Now can I borrow your car?”
_________________________________

Dana was aimlessly walking through L.A.X., it was approximately 7:08 in the evening, and she was in the middle of a conversation with Tonya on her cell phone.

“Remember honey, the plane leaves at 7:30″ Tonya nagged.

“Okay, I’ll be there on time, I promise.”

“Great sweety, the press people are gonna love you! I’ll see you in a couple of days… have fun.”

“I will baby, see you.”

Dana pressed the end call button and took a deep breath. Something in her gut was telling her that what she was about to do wasn’t quite right. She didn’t feel good about leaving Alice in the cold earlier that day. She knew that Al obviously needed to talk about something important, but due to her hectic schedule Dana knew that she couldn’t be there for her best friend tonight, no matter how hard she tried. Regardless, Dana found that the mental image of Alice looking at her as she drove away from Bette and Tina’s house that afternoon was something she couldn’t just shake away, in fact it was an image that was capable of breaking her heart into millions of tiny pieces. She looked around one more time and sadly made her way further into the boarding area to board her plane.
_________________________________

Shane and Alice were inside her car deeply conversing over what was on the agenda that night.

“So I’ll drop you off at the airport and””

“And then you can go to your precious little date! God Shane, this one must be really hot for you to go through all this trouble.”

Shane kept her eyes on the road, thankful that it was very dark out; otherwise Alice would be able to see deep shade of scarlet flushing across her cheeks. Shane decided to steer the conversation away from her love life:

“So do you know where she’s staying?”

Alice nodded, “She’s staying at the Gold Coast Hotel. That’s where the press junket thingy will be held.”

“And do you know what you’re gonna say to her?”

Alice didn’t answer but Shane got the hint.

“Listen Al, you can’t just barge into her hotel room and expect her to understand why you’re there!”

“Geez Shane cut me some slack, I know I have to say something to win her over, it’s just that I…” Alice waits a beat before continuing, “haven’t gotten around to that part yet.”

“Don’t patronize me Al, you have no idea what to say do you?”

“I haven’t got a clue…”

“Well start with something honest, something like:
Dana we’ve known each other for a while and I came here tonight to tell you something important…”

Shane’s statement came to a halt when she heard Alice snickering. Alice tried to control herself while wondering at the same time when Shane started acting like Bette and Tina.

“What?” Shane asked taking offense in Alice’s reaction.

“Nothing! It’s just that sometimes I wonder if it’s you really you in there and not Dr. Phil.”

“Either that… or I must’ve been Yoda in a past life…” Shane said smirking, as she took a left ultimately leading them into the main entrance of the airport.

“Yoda? Yeah, definitely Yoda Shane…” Alice squinted her eyes and moved both of her hands close to Shane’s face. Using her index fingers and her thumbs to form two L’s that were opposing each other. She brought them close together but barely made them touch, just like director’s do when they try to find the right angle for a nice panoramic shot. “Hmm… If you look at it from this angle you can see an almost exact resemblance…”

Shane smiled and dismissed Alice’s last comment, as she pulled up close to the airport’s entryway.

“Here we are…” Shane said.

“I can’t believe I’m going through with this!”

“You’ll be fine Al.”

Alice gave Shane a hug. “Wish me luck!”

“Good luck!”
______________________________

Shane drove away from the airport going as fast as she possibly could, not wanting to be late, barely driving under the speed limit. She only slowed down when a stroke of genius suddenly popped into her mind. ‘Flowers.’ she thought, ‘She probably likes flowers.’

She parked along a flower shop that she just happened to pass by on her way to the studio, and came out 3 minutes later taking with her a beautiful assortment of flowers. She took a quick glance at her reflection visibly showing through the shop’s glass window, before she decidedly leaving for her date.