For example, at The Planet the next day, Bette spent about ten hours going on and on about how effortless kissing the straight girl had been. It was very much of an “I thought it was going to be a little more difficult” kind of thing.

“Well, I’m not really surprised,” I said. My theory was that if I gave her the pat on the back she obviously wanted, she’d shut the ***** up. “I mean, she probably walked into your office knowing exactly what was going to happen and it’s probably what she wanted.”

“Yeah,” Bette said. “That sounds about right.”

I rolled my eyes.

“So, you kissed her,” I summarized. Bette nodded. “Well, then, I guess that means this whole thing is over,” I said hopefully.

 Bette paused. “If by ‘over’, you mean that I’m seeing her tonight, then, yes.”

Ew. I felt a little bit like I was going to barf. “You’re seeing her tonight, why? Why? Why?” Maybe there were a few more whys in there. I hoped I didn’t sound crazy or desperate or anything.

“Because she said ‘When can I see you again?’ and I said ‘Tomorrow, I think’. It wasn’t a very interesting conversation.”

“Christ, Bette.” I could feel a headache coming on. “You made your point, didn’t you? Why do you have to keep seeing her?”

“Well,” Bette said thoughtfully, “I don’t know if I really made my point, if that was my point to begin with.”

“Sure you did,” I said through gritted teeth. “Straight girls swoon at the sight of Bette Porter. ***** bravo. What else could you possibly want to do with her?”

Bette’s blank stare told me that this was an extremely idiotic question. When I realized what exactly she meant, my heart decided to do this really funny thing where it seemed to stop beating and I sort of felt like I was dying or something.

*****.

“Is-isn’t, um… isn’t that a little unethical?” I said hastily. Bette frowned at me. “Well, kissing her is one thing, Bette. But that’s-I mean, she has a boyfriend.”

“Really?” Bette asked dryly. “You don’t get the feeling that Tina’s dating Eric much in the same way you were dating Max once?”