“Weren’t we talking about that yesterday? When Tina left her earring behind?”

Oh, good. I’d gone most of the day without thinking of the straight girl and now Bette had to go and make me lose my appetite. “Yeah,” I said shortly. “And you told me how Kit had gotten out of rehab.”

“Yes, I did.”

“But how come you didn’t tell me that she’d fallen off the wagon already?”

Bette paused, the pizza halfway to her mouth. She narrowed her eyes thoughtfully. “Have you been talking to Sunny or something?”

“Yeah, how’d you know?”

Bette shrugged. “She was the only other person there that night. Except for Daddy. And I don’t think you’ve been hanging out with him.”

“How come you didn’t tell me?”

“I-” She exhaled, hesitating. “I didn’t know that it was really your business, Al.”

“Okay,” I said, “fair enough. But you did bring up the fact that she got out of rehab, and… I mean, why’d you bring that up, then?”

Bette tossed the last of her pizza in the box and shook her head. “You have a really good memory.”

“Bette.”

“I… I thought about telling you, I guess,” she said. She played with the napkin in her hands. “I mean, that’s why I drove out to see you. Because I wanted to talk to someone about it.” She began shredding the napkin into small, tiny pieces of confetti.

“You could’ve talked to Sunny about it,” I pointed out, acknowledging the fact that she had still been dating Sunny at the time.

Bette looked up at me. “I wanted to talk to you.” She looked back down, grabbed another napkin, and started tearing it up as well.

“Why didn’t you?”

She sighed and stood up. She looked exhausted. “It just seemed ridiculous, Alice. So I didn’t.”

I stood to help her clean up. “And that’s all?”

“That’s all.”

We cleaned up in silence. Bette kept glancing at the clock. The intercom buzzed. Looking relieved, she picked the phone up. “Okay. Just wait until Alice leaves, then send her in.”

I checked my watch. “Aren’t you leaving soon?”

“Soon.” She came around the front of her desk and leaned on it, watching me for my reaction as she said carefully, “I have an earring to return.”

I studied her, tilting my head. “You don’t.”

Bette raised her eyebrows, shrugging. “She’s out there right now; you’ll see her when you leave. Which you should do now.”

“You’re kicking me out for a straight girl?”

She crossed her arms over her chest and shook her head. “I told you I was going to prove to you she wasn’t straight.”

“Yeah,” I scoffed, “I’ll see it when I believe it.”

Bette smirked. “You could hide in the closet.” She nodded toward the closet and then grinned. “No, leave. I’ll call you.”

“Yeah,” I said, suddenly feeling ten times crappier than I had a minute ago. “Sure.”

I let myself out of the office and, sure enough, the hot blonde chick was sitting there, waiting. She smiled as though she recognized me, but I pretended like I didn’t see her. Bette’s assistant nodded to her.

“Okay, you can go in now,” she said, and Tina Kennard stood up and moved past me into Bette’s office. The door closed.

There was only so long I could linger by the doorway and try to eavesdrop before I looked like a jackass, so I waved to Bette’s assistant, shoved my hands in my pockets, and left.