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Another Left Turn – Chapter 2
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‘Hurry up, Mama T!’ Bette had called.
‘Hurry up, Mama T!’ Angie echoed, hanging off Mama B’s arm.
Tina was leaning down at the cab window, paying the fare, and waved her hand back at her family to quit yelling.
‘Hey, Boo,’ Bette suddenly whispered, crouching down to her daughter’s level. ‘You think I should carry Mama T over the threshold?’
‘What’s a fresh hole?’ Angie asked.
‘Thresh – hold,’ corrected Bette, pointing along the bottom of the door.
‘Thresh – hold,’ Angie repeated.
‘That’s right. It’s a special tradition. When people get married, the first time they go into their new house, one of them carries the other one over the threshold.’
Angie considered this for a moment then nodded.
‘Okay,’ Bette whispered. ‘But sshhh. Don’t tell Mama.’
Bette had straightened up again and took in the view down the street. Their new neighbourhood was beautiful. Leafy, spacious, elegant. Angie’s school could be seen from where she stood; they could stroll there and back together every day across a little park with a duck pond and swings.
The cab engine growled as it moved off and then Tina was climbing the steps while fishing a set of keys out of her purse.
‘Can you believe this is where we live?’ she grinned.
‘It’s amazing!’ Bette agreed, kissing her on the lips.
‘Me, me!’ Angie shouted.
Both mothers bent down and kissed their daughter extravagantly, annoyingly, until she begged them to stop. Then Tina found the right key and turned to the door. Bette touched her arm.
‘Carry you over the threshold, ma’am?’
‘What? Oh my God, no!’ Tina laughed.
‘Why not?’
‘Because you’ll hurt yourself. I must’ve gained ten pounds in Italy.’
Bette smiled cockily. ‘I can handle you.’
Tina gave her a sly smile, and Bette shrugged like she was letting it go. Then, when the door was ajar, she suddenly said, ‘Oh, Tee. Wait a second . . .’
Tina turned, and without missing a beat Bette swooped her up off her feet and into her arms. Angie squealed with delight as Tina yelped in surprise and then made a weak-limbed display of protest before letting Bette step over the doorway and plant an emphatic kiss on her laughing lips. When they were done, Bette had to carry Angie over too (five times) . . .
Those newly-wed memories were among the happiest and most agonising in Bette’s entire life. And right now there were no circumstances she could imagine in which she’d do it again. She figured she’d have a lover when she wanted one, but not affairs. No more affairs. She liked sex – needed it – and she’d always known how to wield her affect to draw women to her. Like Shane, it wouldn’t be a problem. But now, again like Shane, her heart would stay off-limits.
‘Bette.’ Shane’s voice brought her out of her reverie.
Bette looked across at her friend with a sudden, ice-cold clarity. ‘She’s getting married again, Shane. It’s over.’
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So glad we persuaded you to continue this story and look forward to the journey.
Just need to say I am a committed TiBette fan and may not be so happy if at the end there is no TiBette :-) just saying!
Thanks for posting
SG
Thanks for commenting again. I really hope you keep reading – I don’t want to spoil the journey but trust me, I am a Tibetter to my bones :-) As Laurel is always saying, I just want them to earn it. This story has a long way to go.
Ok, your assurance on being a TiBetter will ensure my continued reading.
Look forward to more
SG
I’m still like how you writing, but –
If i honestly say – second chapter not quite i think it will be, so i hesitating for now. Tina obviously not going where i expected her to go and in that chapter ready to moving on with her Carrie, and i don’t ready to read about it. So i guess i’m skip this story until the finale and then decided if read previous chapters or not
Hi and thanks for commenting. I hope you might try the chapter – it’s got some sweet memories in it :-) But obviously I’m not forcing anybody to do anything! I’m a Tibetter. They are heading somewhere good.
i guess what confused me the most – it’s part where Tina begged Carrie to fight for their relationship. It’s not seems that she confused – if she do, she might asked for a time instead. But if she asked to fight – i don’t know, but it seems like she decided who she wants.
In this story, Tina is trying to not repeat the same mistakes she made with Bette. It’s the beginning of proper growth for her. Carrie might not be the person a truly grown-up Tina is meant to be with, though?
Largo… come sit on the couch and talk for a minute about TiBette. Because you have captured the great internal debate between them, the push pull that has become such a part of who they are (unfortunately). And hidden from us is the first left turn, the exchange… the kiss, the almost love making. I am hoping this chapter is a tease and I was certainly one of the commentators who asked for a chapter two so no complaints here but DAMN. Keep writing. I noticed subtle hints in your writing that Tina is not 100% into Carrie….. so I can reassure Zhenya that I think you are moving this towards a reconciliation but there are some small matters (Carrie) to put to rest first. …..
I love how you write them, BK, and yes, their push-pull is inherited from the (bs) canon. But like Jennifer has said, theirs is an epic love story – and what writer doesn’t love writing an epic??
The kiss was in the first chapter, and Bette is giving her reading of it when she says they could have gone further (but she’s right).
And again, I am indeed a Tibetter. They’re gonna be okay. ;-)
Hi Largo,
After reading the comments, i have decided to wait where you are heading to, I hope a Tibette reconcilation. But for now, i will wait What the end is.
My poor ???? can’t handle it for now. I need a happy Tibette at the moment.
Hi Bibi28! I hope you’ll read the story later. It’s rough at the moment, while they’re ‘earning it’. But again, thanks for commenting.
Largo, you are doing a great job with this story. You are a very talented writer and we are fortunate to have you share your talent. I have every confidence you will lead us on a journey that might be painful at first but necessary. I’m here for the long-haul. Looking forward to the next turn be it right or left.
Thank you! I’m really enjoying finally getting some of this stuff down in writing instead of just head-desking about what a dismal bunch of writers these terrific characters have to put up with on the show, lol
Another Left Turn is a long story. I’m really pleased to have you along
These two chapters were great. Looking forward to the processing and inner-reflection that these three need in order to survive the circumstances. It will be really hard for Carrie to play second fiddle. Competing with Bette is going to be an uphill battle for sure, even if Tina is adamant that it’s the only way for her to move on. You never want to be someone’s second choice, no matter how much you love them.
You’re right, Carrie is the latest in a long line of people who got embroiled in the Tibette saga. It’s interesting to me the people they choose when they’re not together.
Thanks very much for commenting. I’m really so pleased you enjoyed the writing :-)
Tina is so confused…..she wants to be honest with Carrie but she really does not know what she wants to do about Bette either. I wonder if she will tell Carrie that she really wanted Bette at the moment she kissed her? Or that she is still very much attached to and loves Bette? It had to be obvious to Carrie that Bette still loves Tina.
If I were Carrie, there would be a delay in this marriage until Tina got her mind straighten out. I would not want to be engaged to someone who was still as emotionally attached to her ex as Tina is especially if we are talking about moving to the same town to live for half the year and where she would be engaging in family activities where the ex would be present for a good part of the time. It would not be hard if Tina hated Bette, but that is just not the case. There is too much evidence that the relationship although cooled still has embers which with a good wind, could become a forest fire.
Carrie is also going to have to accept that at least for the next two years, Tina will want to increase her time with Angie and that means she will see Bette more often. And with increased time with Angie, it will mean less alone time with Carrie. Is she ready for that?
The one thing I do not see in this story and others is that there is no closure on the relationship between Tina and Bette. Tina seems to think there has been. Bette is not feeling it….And Tina is still isn’t clear what she wants for her future. She doesn’t want to hurt Carrie and but she still has a burning desire for Bette and Tina’s actions and words are not clear or decisive about either.
Let’s see some more….I want to see how the conversation between Tina and Carrie goes.
Great story….
Thanks for commenting, and for nailing the issue so clearly – without Angie, I think they’d be much more able to move on because they just wouldn’t see each other. As I said, it’s the thing where if you can easily be friends with an ex then you were never in love or you still are. Friendship will never be easy for Bette and Tina because (in my story world) their initial love affair was a sexual alchemy that happens once in a lifetime. They can’t forget it, and they can’t turn it off.
But there’s more to it than that. This story has a long way to go.
Thanks again for reading. I appreciate the encouragement!
Another great chapter! I must say, I just love Shane, and her friendship with Bette was always something I loved watching on the show. Even thought they are 2 very different people, like Bette says here, they get each other.
Carrie and Tina, I understand why Tina would try making the relationship work, even if Carrie is not the person she wants most. She probably sees this relationship as a last chance to get over Bette or let Bette get over her. I don’t think it’s very different than going to Helen in season 2 or Henry in S3, looking outside to help her feel better or complete, when she should be looking inside. It almost feels like telling Carrie about the kiss is her way of sabotaging the relationship while telling herself that she if trying to make it work.
Oh, that’s a great observation – that Tina was passing the buck to Carrie when she told her the truth about the kiss? Yes, I can see that. It’s a typical ‘old Tina’ thing to do, in a way, even though she intended it to be a sign of growth.
Gah. Relationships are tricky! Thank you for reading and commenting. x
I think you’ve got Tina’s problematic behaviour spot-on in this chapter. I have always said that it really annoys me because everyone is always quick to blame Bette and think every issue MUST somehow be her fault, purely because Bette’s problematic behaviour has always been very obvious – she’s possessive, aggressive, obsessive, workaholic, strong-willed, overbearing etc. And she knows it and their friends know it. But I have always 100% thought that Tina’s problematic behaviour is just as harmful, but hers is sooooo subtle that no one pulls her up on it. Don’t get me wrong, I love the character and TiBette, but Tina is incredibly manipulative in her own way, she’s just very subtle and practices emotional blackmail with that sunny smile. My headcanon is that because of her past (her family) she’s very good at manipulation, which I think makes her very good at her job too – a successful producer requires a LOT of manipulation, and it needs to be done in such a way that people come out of it happy about it. So by necessity, she’s learned to be very good at “managing” people and appeasing strong personalities.
This particular sentence from this chapter really brought it home for me:
“‘I don’t want to lie to you,’ she said, coming round the sofa and sitting next to her. ‘I could lie to you, to protect you, to make you not worry, but I don’t want to. I want our marriage to be real, even if’ – she stopped, a sob caught in her throat – ‘even if I lose you because I’m too fucked up.’”
This is a PERFECT example of manipulation and emotional blackmail (even though I think at this point in her life Tina does it instinctively and subconsciously).
Hi TeaAnd Denial – thanks for this great comment. I’m glad you see what i see in Tina. I know it’s complicated, and there’s certainly enough blame to go round in the Tibette breakdowns, but I agree that Tina sometimes gets away with things bc she presents differently. She can be *very* pass-agg and withholding, imo.
It’s definitely true that the interrogation tapes provide a sort of rationale for the way she is. I didn’t always feel comfortable using them, but there’s a problem for any ff writer who wants to reconcile GenQ Tibette: how do you account for Tina leaving? So I went with a deep-background issue.
Thanks again for your feedback!
Largo