“That kind of sounds like a movie.”

            “Doesn’t it?” Jane asked. She then wiped her mouth and took a sip of her Pepsi before she continued the story. “They were perfect for each other. That was until Jodi got crazy.”

            “What happened?”

            “Jodi became overprotective. She’d call for Bette to come home, even when she knew where Bette was. Bette saw her friends less, cut back on her work hours, and spent more time with Jodi. Bette gave in, of course. Jodi moved from the East Coast just to be with her.” Jane said thoughtfully, as she picked on a grape in her fruit salad with a fork. “She shouldn’t have. And then, after everything Bette did for her, including Bette exhibiting her work in her gallery, Jodi just goes out, and the whole of West Hollywood saw everything else. It was awful.”

            “Did Jodi cheat on Bette?” Tina asked, barely believing what she was asking.

            “With the carpenter Bette hired for Jodi’s installation, yeah.” Jane said. “Jodi and the carpenter, Candace, just ran off town after Bette found out. Bette locked up in her house for two weeks, and no one could reach her, not even her sister. We were so scared for her.”

A few minutes of silence passed by between the two women as Tina pondered the events. It was one thing to lose the person you love to someone else, but it was another thing to have the person that you love do that systematically, as though he (or in this case, she) had been waiting to be caught.

“Tina, please be a good friend to Bette. You’re the only one that knows exactly how she feels. Sure, there are a few differences, but it’s the same situation.” Jane said, as she finished off her lunch. “I don’t believe in fate, or in anything else, but maybe there’s a reason why you got sent off to Bette Porter’s house instead of staying in mine. So please, Tina, be good to her.”

“I’m being a good friend to her,” Tina said quietly. “Just as she’s being good to me.”

As Tina finished the rest of her food, she thought about how she could be a good friend to one Bette Porter. Jane had rarely spoken to her seriously when the topic didn’t revolve around work, and the revelation about Bette and Jodi shocked her a little bit. She just assumed that Bette was left during the commitment ceremony, or something to that effect. She then began to understand why Bette ran to her side last Saturday, when like any other customer inside, she could have just stayed in. The situation must have resounded in Bette and pushed her to help Tina. Now that Tina was getting the chance to help Bette, she wouldn’t just let it slip by without doing anything. And that started with never mentioning the name of one Jodi Lerner.