***

Since resigning her job it had become routine for Tina to meet up with friends every morning for breakfast at the Planet; a neighborhood café owned by Marina Ferrer. When Bette had time she would drop Tina off at the café on her way to work and grab a coffee to go. Unlike their friends the demands of Bette’s career didn’t allow her a lot of leisure time to sit around for hours chitchatting and gossiping.

Alice Pieszecki was Bette and Tina’s closest friend and the biggest gossip of them all. She and Bette had dated briefly before Bette met Tina, but unlike her failed relationship with Jodi Lerner Bette had remained friends with Alice. Alice was a freelance journalist. She identified as bi-sexual and had dated Sean Heaney for a short time. Now she was in a committed lesbian relationship with Dana Fairbanks, a professional tennis player who had recently come out. Contrary to Alice and Bette’s relationship; Dana and Alice were best friends first then they became lovers.

Shane McCutchen was the lothario of the group. She didn’t believe in long-term relationships for herself but she envied what Bette and Tina had. Shane was one of Bette’s artistic discoveries. She lived next door to the Kennard-Porters; was a hair dresser by trade but she had an incredible eye for photographic expression. Bette convinced Shane to turn her shutter bug hobby into a profession and now her photos were shown and sold exclusively at the Porter Art Gallery.

The newest member of the group was Jenny Schecter. She was Shane’s housemate and Marina’s girlfriend. Jenny was a fiction writer currently working on the screenplay for one of her novels. Tina had offered her services as an independent consultant to facilitate the transaction for Shaolin Studios to buy the movie rights to the book.

As you can imagine this was a very incestuous group of women that felt more like family than friends. Most mornings you could find them all sitting at their favorite table at the Planet having a leisurely breakfast and talking trash. This particular morning was no different. After a quick kiss on the lips and a tender squeeze to Tina’s shoulder Bette grabbed her coffee from Marina and left for her meeting. Marina went back to serving her customers while the gang sat down to breakfast and shared their gossip. After breakfast Jenny left to work on her writing. Shane had a new client and Dana had practice so that left Alice to keep Tina’s company until Bette got back.