“Not that this would be a totally horrible thing, of course.” Alice appeared to be weighing the alternatives. “We could take Angelica’s to Bette’s if you want.”

“No, I don’t want.” That would be a ‘not want’ for so many reasons, not the least of which would be that she always missed her daughter whenever she was staying with Bette. “We had a little talk, a little wine. She was nice. Didn’t have issues with Angelica. I’m not just settling, am I?”

“If that’s settling, I think that phrase needs a new definition.” Alice stood up and looked at Tasha. “You ready to head back?”

“Sure.” Tasha gave Tina a quick hug. “Sorry, again, for the interruption.”

Tina walked them to the door. “Thanks again, you guys.” She gave Alice a big hug before her friend left.

After the left, Tina traced a finger around her lips. This was more than just ‘there.’ The woman had some sort of attraction, some chemistry, that she had not normally felt with women. Not with many women, anyway.

She smiled and went off to bed, letting her mind and body run through a ‘what if’ scenario before drifting off to sleep.

# # #

After dropping Angelica off at preschool, Tina headed back to The Planet to grab her morning coffee and browse the trades before heading in to the office.

As she entered, Alice joined her table. “So, any hot gossip I don’t know about?”

Not ready to give in to such a cheap ploy, Tina didn’t even look up before she responded. “Probably, Al. But it doesn’t concern me.”

“What doesn’t concern you?” Bette asked, taking a seat at the table.

“I just thought TK might be living an interesting life.”

Tina didn’t know which was worse, Alice’s quip or Bette’s scoffing laugh. Either way, she did not want to become the major point of gossip for the morning. She’d had that honor too many times already.

“Tina?” But perhaps Bette was not quite ready to have everything drop.

“Hmmm?”

“You’re bringing Angelica by tonight, right?”

That was a welcome change. A discussion that would take the table into a productive direction. “Right.”

“And then you can go home and mack on the neighbor.”

Alice received vastly different responses to that remark from her two tablemates. Bette was, without a doubt, curious over the comment’s meaning. Tina, on the other hand, was not doing much to veil her irritation.

“What?” Alice looked between the two. “Sorry, I’m just trying to make conversation.”

“Do you know what she’s talking about, Tina?”

Tina looked at Bette, and then returned her interest to the paper. “I think so, but it’s not relevant.”

The questioning look remained on Bette’s face. Neither of the other women at the table seemed willing to fill in the blanks about what was not being said.

Just as she was ready to ask, Tina started packing up her stuff.

“I’ll see you guys later.” She stood, and headed towards the door.

“Alice?”

“Uh, yeah?”

“You will tell me what that was about, right?”

“I promised I wouldn’t,” Alice explained.

“Which means, you will tell me what that was about, right?”

Unable to withstand the weight of gossip pressing against her brain, Alice crumbled. She relayed the tale of her prior night’s visit and her assessment of the neighbor.

(it’ll probably continue)