Bette:  So, what time does it arrive?

Tina:  Just after noon, Pacific Coast time. That’s just after 3:00 East Coast time. So, we will be eating about 3 hours later than what our stomachs are accustomed to.

Bette:  Sounds okay to me. We start getting back on Pacific Coast time the moment we land. Are we taking a cab home, or do you have a car meeting us?

Tina: I had planned on a cab, but I can arrange for a car to meet us.

Bette: Well, the construction should be complete on the garage. That means there will be a gate, and we won’t have a code, nor do we have an opener. So, it really doesn’t matter.

Tina:  I’m ready to go home. I’m ready to be in our bed and our bathroom, and our house. This just doesn’t feel like home to me.  Is that not strange?

Bette:  Truthfully Tina.  It did not appear that you spent a whole lot of time in this apartment. It was comfortable enough and had the essentials, but it lacked a feel that this was Tina’s oasis, her retreat where you spent time being Tina.

Tina: The truth is I didn’t spend a whole lot of time just being with myself. I spent most of my time at work doing my job. I only spent time at home to shower and sleep and to spend time with Carrie. And my time with Carrie was rather limited. Come to think of it, it seems strange for me to admit, but it’s like the past three years were just a blur.  I really had so little control of my life. I lived to work and then, Carrie kept me company from time to time. And for that, I gave up you and Angie. Pathetic, isn’t it?

Bette: Tina, I’m not going to pass judgement on your choices and the way you lived your life when we were separated. There was a period of my life that I went through some of the same things. And I lost you as a result. But we did find our way back together and we did promise each other that we would not allow that to happen again. Yet it did happen again. Only this time it was you who got caught up in your career and who you were. Now we have both been through it and we both know how badly it can damage our relationship. I hope that we both know what happens when we put our careers above our relationship. I hope we both understand what happens when we stop talking to each other and expressing not just our hopes and dreams, but our fears and disappointments. And we both have to come to each other without fear that the other will be judgmental or use what we know as a club to diminish the other. We have to put the past into the past and move forward Tina. We have both fucked up badly. But we have to let that go. We cannot change what we did. I want you in my life Tina despite the pain and the hurt that I have been through. I want you back despite the risk that it is possible it could happen again. I simply want you back more than I fear the pain. I have no more anger about any of this Tina. It happened and there is nothing we can do to erase it.  I love you, Tina.  I wish there were better words or a better way to show you that I love you more than I do as a mere mortal.  You are my one and only, Tina. You are my last and forever. I just hope that you feel the same about me.