“I’m sorry.”

“Damnit Tina, how could you be so stu…” Her words trailed off as someone joined us at the bar

“Hey finally found you, sorry, the line for the bathroom is huge. Who’s this?” Kate said eyeing Porter.

“Bette Porter,” she said holding out her hand to Kate, “And you are?”

“Kate Arden” Kate replied dismissing the handshake “Am I interrupting something?” Kate asked finally looking at me.

“Just chatting”

Without letting me finish Miss Porter pulled me to the side away from Kate, “Excuse us for a minute, yeah?”

“Well, that was rude,” I said as I was dragged out of earshot of Kate.

“We’re leaving, you’ve got two minutes to ditch the munchkin, I am going to explain things to my friends, and I will meet you back at the bar.”

“But…”

“No, no buts, I am making sure you make it home safely.”

At that, she entered the crowd presumably to find her friends and I went back to Kate to try and smooth over the events of the last few minutes.

“So, I have to head out now,” I said rather sheepishly “but I had fun tonight.”

“You’re leaving? Why? Because Trunchbull over there said so? Who is she anyway?”

“Just a friend,” I said, not knowing any way to explain this without someone, mainly me, getting into a whole heap of trouble.

Kate threw her arm around my shoulders, suddenly seeming a lot more possessive than she had all night. “Come on babe, the night is still young.” I was very quickly feeling out of my depth, and the ‘babe’ just reminded me far too much of Eric, so this time I welcomed the interruption of one Miss Bette Porter.

“You ready Tina?” she asked from behind me

“Yes”, “No” Kate and I replied at the same time.

“Why’s she gotta listen to you? Are you an ex or something?” The next thing I knew Kate was being dragged away from me, watching from a distance, I wondered what Porter could be saying to her because suddenly Kate was backing away looked at me once, turned, and disappeared into the crowd.

“Come on let’s go.” She said while leading the way to the exit.

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