Tina continued to read for few more hours as they went through few more letters and consumed three more bottles of wine. Alice fell asleep half way through the reading, so Tina nudged her and gently folded the letter she just finished reading. “I need to take another break. There’s so much information in there, I need to read it again to absorb it all.”

Alice just nodded tiredly and yawned, “Good idea, I’m gonna make some coffee.”

“Should we stop for the night?” Tina looked at her friend, feeling exhaustion settling in. As much as she wanted to get through all the letters, she also wanted to savor it.

“Yep,’ Alice nodded happily. “ I don’t know about you but I can’t keep my eyes open for another minute even with coffee and my ears are ringing.”

She stifled another yawn and patted Tina’s shoulder. “Go get some rest. The letters are going to be here tomorrow.”

Three Hours Later

Tina’s eyes flew open and she took few deep breaths to calm her wildly beating heart. She hardly slept and when she did, her dreams were vivid and realistic but they felt more like nightmares. She saw images of Bette and Christina mixed with stories from Bette’s letters. None of these visions were pleasant. Waking up sweaty and disoriented didn’t help to elevate Tina’s anxiety. She gave up on sleep and went back to the kitchen and put a fresh pot of coffee on.

Alice dragged herself in a few minutes later, looking like she hadn’t slept much either.

“Rough night?” Alice’s voice was slightly hoarse. She yawned wide as she poured coffee and sat down with a sigh.

“I hardly slept,” Tina admitted. “I kept dreaming about Bette and Christina and all the time they’ve been spending together. First love often has such a strong hold, what if she’s getting under Bette’s skin?”

“Doubtful,” Alice yawned again. “I don’t see anything special in their time spending. I lived there for three months, remember? There’s nothing else to do but hang around.”

“I hope so,” Tina added more coffee to her cup and continued reading calmly…until she got to the last page of one of the letters.

“Sorry to bother you with such mundane idyllic stories but this is what my life has been for the past few weeks…”