She took a deep breath, Fuck, Jodie. Still trying to mess with me after all these years.

“You know what I’m saying, Bette,” Jodie answered verbally, her voice dripping with sarcasm. She gave Bette a thin smile, and then continued in sign language, You know as well as I do that you can’t ever trust those bi-bitches…

Bette shook her head, and blew a breath out. Jodie had always been one of those lesbians who’d viewed bi-sexuals with a jaundiced eye.

Bette looked up at the sky, seeking inspiration from the stars twinkling overhead. But now she was slinging mud at Tina, to get to her. The passage about the equivalents of blackholes that scientists had reported seeing in the South Atlantic floated randomly to her thoughts.   She’d been reading to Angelica portions of a scientific article she’d first read about ten months ago. The article had opened quoting Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Maelstrom.” It described a black hole by quoting Poe “… a smooth, shining, and jet-black wall of water … sending forth to the winds an appalling voice, half shriek, half roar …”

The article had gone on to explain that the black holes in space formed a region where gravity was so strong that it caused light to travel in an orbit around it, such that photons remained in precarious balance, neither falling into the hole nor escaping it. Scientists reported finding something similar happening from time to time in parts of the ocean in the South Atlantic.

Bette decided, Well, I am walking away from this human black hole.   My life is no longer in that precarious balance, and I am tired of the push-me, pull-me bullshit games Jodie likes to play. I found out long ago that her gravity wasn’t that strong after all. It used to be, but I’d managed to pull away. Then Tina came into my life and I fell for her.   She is the sun around whom I orbit, now.

With a final, sad shake of her head at Jodie, she turned and walked away. She took a deep breath, and was congratulating herself on her maturity when she heard Jodie snicker.

After taking a few steps more, a thought flashed to Bette’s mind.  Forget about this.   She turned on her heel, and lasered Jodie with a glare. Jodie looked back at her, startled by the new, aggressive stance the brunette had suddenly assumed. The air between them thickened. Even her partner now viewed Bette with some anxiety.