Bette couldn’t hide a little smile forming on her lips. “Do you want to marry?”

Tina looked up and smiled as well. “Kind of. I mean, I know it’s only a ceremony and that it’s nothing official, but it would mean a lot to me. It wouldn’t change our relationship, but somehow it’d be the final touch to it.”

“Your dad would be very, very proud of you, Tina. And the day we marry, he will be up there watching us and be happy for his little girl.”

“You think?”

“I’m sure.”

>>

“And then Tina fell out of that tree in the backyard, but she wouldn’t cry. No, my girl was never someone to cry for a bruise or a broken arm.”

“Quite the tomboy then,” Bette laughed. “I wasn’t much different, but my dad really disapproved of it. Luckily for me, he wasn’t home most of the time and my mom wouldn’t tell him. She would clean me up and place me in the sofa with a book around the time he came home. He never noticed, though. If he would have paid any attention, he would have noticed his eight-year-old daughter reading George Orwell’s 1984.”

They all laughed, but Tina also realised how painful that must have been for little Bette. They shared some other stories and Tina knew that Bette probably hid a lot of not-so-nice Bette stories, and also that the brunette probably wished that she had someone who would tell those stories to embarrass her.

After dinner, Bette offered to help with the dishes. Tina wanted to protest, but to her surprise, her own mother ushered her out with the lame excuse that she needed to look where Felix, the cat, was. Nicole never worried about her cat, trusting it completely.

“Bette,” Nicole began when Tina was out of earshot. “I know you make my girl happy. I also know that my girl may have been very atypical, but in one way she was like every other girl. She would always fantasise about her perfect wedding.”

“We talked about that just two days ago. I do intend on proposing to her and give her the perfect wedding.”

“She never wanted to make a big deal out of it. She wanted to marry in a field nearby, she used to play there as a child. She wanted her closest friends, relatives and colleagues there and of course she wanted the white dress. About that – would you be wearing a suit?”

“No, I’d want a dress as well. Tina and I both thing that we shouldn’t pretend to be bride and groom when we’re both brides.”

“I see. Well, let me know if you have proposed to her and we can start planning it,” Nicole smiled. “I want to help organise my daughter’s wedding, even if it’s the last thing I do.”

“That’s a deal, then.”

>>>

Bette’s last years went by very quickly. She wanted to wait to marry Tina until she was graduated. Alex and Jack had decided that they couldn’t wait and married when they were in their third year. It was a big wedding, almost a Hollywood one. They had a great time and to Bette and Tina, it confirmed their wish of having this as well, but in a smaller version. They sealed the night with a searing kiss.