I paused. “Uh, have you met me?”

That almost got a smile, and at least she seemed to relax a little. She brushed away a lock of hair that was hanging in her eyes, which relieved me a little since I’d been aching to do the exact same thing. Swallowing, I added, “Of course I’ll be honest.”

Bette let out a breath. “Am I do you think I’m incapable of-no, I’ll reword it-am I self-involved?”

“Yes,” I said without thinking, and then made a face because I wasn’t sure that was what she wanted right now.

Bette was smiling a little at this point, that absorbed smirk that I had now learned was often just a product of about a million thoughts running through her head and a stubborn contentment to keep them there. “I thought I was,” she said quietly. “I don’t mean to be, I just am.”

“Uh-huh,” I agreed, not sure where this was going. “I wouldn’t call it a flaw. Just a character trait.” I blame that comment on the whole thing where it was 2:00 in the morning and I wasn’t thinking straight.

She looked down and then sighed, blowing her bangs out of her face. I waited. “I’m sorry,” she said. “You were right about Kit.”

I hadn’t expected that.

“I was?”

She nodded. “I should have-we both made mistakes-I’m not-she’s not-” She broke off, seemingly unable to articulate whatever it was that the Porter sisters were exactly.

“It’s okay,” I told her.

“I’ve just been walking around for hours,” she said. “I can’t think straight.”

“Because of Kit?” I asked, bewildered.

She looked at me like I had fifteen heads. “No.”

“Because of…”

“I think that I… *****.”

At the rate she was going, it’d be light outside before she got anywhere. “What?”

“I love her.”

I shrugged. “That’s pretty obvious. You just don’t know how to show it because she’s let you down so many times.”

Bette shook her head. “She’s never let me down.”

“But-”

“Who are you talking about?”

I bit my lip. “Kit?”

“Why are you talking about-look, will you forget about Kit?” I watched her swallow hard and turn on the couch, facing away from me. She put her feet up on the coffee table. “Tina. I’m in love with her.”