“You look great tonight,” Tina complimented Bette. She did think Bette looked extremely hot in her black figure hugging dress. She had never seen Bette in a dress before.

“Thank you. So do you, really.”

“Thanks. I probably better go now, people might get the wrong idea… not that it matters that much anymore. Wow, Bette. You’re graduating! Your history exam was really outstanding.”

“You helped me out a lot throughout the year, with all our conversations.”

“But you did it. And English lit was just flabbergasting – I read the exam.”

Bette blushed. “I think it’s about to start. I’ll see you later.” She just couldn’t stand this, she never knew what to say.

“Okay,” Tina smiled.

The ceremony itself was quite boring. Lots of speeches that lasted too lang, some people playing an instrument. Bette was on the edge of her seat when ms Lerner announced it was time for the prices.

“We will start with 4A. The laureate of this class is nobody else than Bette Porter!”

A loud applause broke lose and Bette was confused. She was sure that there had been a mistake – she had had an aweful hard time concentrating on her exams. Kit, who was sitting next to her, told her to stand up and go to the front of the stage to go and get her price. It was a beautiful piece of art. Bette hurried back to her seat, her hands still trembling.

The evening went on with the other winners receiving their prices and the reception.

“Baby girl!” Kit exclaimed at the reception, giving Bette a suffocating hug. “I’m so proud of you. Daddy would be too.”

“He’s in New York.”

“Don’t think about the aweful man. If you can’t even take a free evening for your own daughter’s graduation when you’ve got your own company…”

Every teacher seemed to want to talk to her and ask her all about her future plans, which made it impossible for her to talk to Tina.

She was glad when they finally had the chance to talk. It was dark by now and most people had left. Tina was talking to Tim, drinking a glass of wine, when she noticed Bette standing all by herself.

“I’m gonna go and congratulate Bette.”

“Fine,” Tim smiled. Tina had succeeded in making him believe that her feelings for Bette were over.

“Congratulations,” Tina smiled, extending her hand.

Bette shook it with a shy smile. “Thank you.”

“I told you so!”

“I know, I just didn’t think… since I had a hard time concentrating.”

“How come?”

“I’ll tell you that some other time.”

They talked a bit more, but both of them were sensing there was somewhere else they wanted to be.

“Care to join me home?” Tina finally asked.

Bette sighed in relief. “I’d love to. I’m just going to go and tell Kit.”

About twenty minutes later, Tina closed the door of her apartment behind her. She asked Bette what she wanted to drink and told her to sit down, then took a deep breath. She had prepared this, repeated the words in her head over and over again. Her nerves were almost killing her now the moment was finally there.

“Bette, there’s something I need to tell you…”