Around eleven a.m., Gail walked over to the counter where Bette sat reading, a book on Gender in American Art. 

“Excuse me.”

Looking up, Bette smiled at Gail as if she hadn’t known the woman was approaching.  She had, in fact, been staring at her all morning.  “Yeah, what’s up?  Do you need something?”

“I’m actually wondering something.”

“What’s that?”  Bette slipped a bookmark into the text and closed it.

“Whenever I’ve looked up, you’ve been looking at me.  It’s made it impossible to concentrate.”

“No, I haven’t.”

“Yeah, you have.  Maybe you don’t know it.  Look, Bette you’ve been acting different since I told you that I’m *****.  Little things, but I’ve noticed.  If you have a problem with that, if you need me to work elsewhere, I can.  I’ve pretty much finished with the letters I was reviewing here.”

“No, no, no.  No.  I certainly didn’t mean to stare at you.  I have zero problem with you being here.  I think…I think that since you told me about yourself, about being *****, I’ve just been curious.”

“Curious?”  Gail’s eyebrow arched noticeably.

“I don’t mean like curious as in I want to try it, but curious about that particular way of living.”

“Uh-huh.”

“You asked me what Ash and I do together.  I’m wondering about you with women.  What’s that like?–out of regular curiosity.”

“Like you said I asked you first.  You tell me and I’ll tell you.”

Bette glanced at the door.  No one ever came into this room, but she didn’t want to risk being overheard if someone walked in during this discussion.  “I’ll sit over at your table where we can talk privately.”

Bette came around the counter, reached and grabbed her bookbag, then followed Gail back to the large table where she had spread out her work.

“All right, what do you want to know?”  Bette figured the sooner they got started with this question and answer session, the sooner they’d finish.

“What’s it like?  I’ve heard that men just stick it in and then go in and out a couple of times and that’s it.”

Bette giggled.  “If it were just like that, more women would turn *****.  There’s more to it.”