“For Tina, she felt the attraction to Bette was strong but she was still feeling vulnerable after Eric.  Anticipating Tina could use more friends during a vulnerable point in her life, Bette invited Tina to join the “family” barbecue that she and her friend held regularly. So Tina met Kit, Bette’s sister, as well Shane, Carmen, Alice, Dana, and Helena.  They all hit it off, and the warmth of their freely offered friendships and camaraderie had been just what Tina had needed at that point.”

Angie added, “Then Bette invited Tina to join her on a test flight of one of the newly-outfitted planes of the air service that she’d started.  The studio Tina was working for agreed to let her join Bette on the flight to Paris.  Later, while in Paris, the studio asked Tina to stay on in Paris to help the director of a film she was producing scout locations for the film.”

“Smooth!” Brad exclaimed.  “Bro, you gotta pick up on moves like that!  Wow, taking someone to Paris!”

Bailey crumpled a paper napkin and tossed it at Brad while she shook her head, and prodded Angie to continue, “So what happened in Paris, Ange?”

“After a few days, unable to hold off acting on the mutual attraction between them, Bette and Tina finally gave in to their feelings after spending a romantic day and evening together in the City of Lights.”

“Yowza!” Brad exclaimed. “Told ya! Smooth. Nothing beats Paris, bro.”

“Just the most romantic start to a love story,” Haley sighed, looking at TJ meaningfully, who looked back at her quizzically.

He picked up from his sister, still wondering about why Haley was looking at him the way she was, and continued the story, “But early the next morning, Bette was called by the team of federal agents she’d been helping break a case that we’ve never been given the full details about. It could have involved a criminal network trafficking in illegally-obtained art and sculpture.   The agents asked Bette to return to Washington immediately because they feared her involvement in the case was close to being detected by the criminal network.  So they arranged to fly her back for her own protection. At the same time, they wanted to break down the important information she’d managed to gather about this network.”