Brad nudged Haley, and whispered, “That’s why TJ doesn’t touch the stuff.”

”Yeah, I noticed that. He’s really different from all your other friends,” Haley whispered back.

Angie continued, “After talking through things, Bette saw that Tina was in no condition to get home on her own, so she offered to drive Tina where she wanted to go. She thought Tina would just want to head back to her apartment but Tina said she wanted to avoid going back to her own place, in case Eric would be waiting for her there. When Bette offered to put Tina up for the night, Tina took Bette up on her offer.”

“The following day, as they chatted, they simultaneously remembered that they’d encountered each other previously, in a café in Paris, when each had been there on individual business trips.  But they hadn’t actually met.  Bette had been struggling through a rough break-up herself with Jodie at that time. She and Jodie, a sculptor, had been in a relationship for several years, and it had ended badly. She and Jodie had been having a tense discussion over the phone and Tina had been in the café, working on a script while sitting on a separate table.  She couldn’t help but overhear parts of Bette’s side of the conversation, and sensed Bette’s struggles.

To afford Bette some privacy as she sought to end things with Jodie, Tina discretely made arrangements with the café owner and waiters to keep the area she and Bette were sitting in private.  She also asked that the café be kept open for as long as Bette wanted to sit in it.  She’d had to leave but had settled their bills, apart from compensating the café for allowing Bette to stay beyond closing time.”

Jason interrupted, “That was a very sweet gesture, I think.  And it’s just like your mom to do something like that.   She’s just the most generous soul, Angie.”

“I know,” Angie responded proudly, and then continued, “anyway, the chance encounter unexpectedly figured into their lives many months later when their lives intersected again, albeit not directly, over the Thanksgiving weekend months later.”

TJ picked up, “So, back to the aftermath of Tina going home with a Bette after the scene in the gallery: Bette and Tina found other reasons to stay together over the days that followed.  They each acknowledged to themselves the intense attraction they’d felt towards the other, but neither one chose to act on it.  For Bette, offering her home to Tina a “refuge” of sorts was a goodwill gesture, so she could hardly act on her attraction to Tina.”