“You’re not her type,” laughed Lara.  “That isn’t a jib, just…  You like being monogamous, right?”

            “Yeah,” said Carmen with a hint of sarcasm in her voice.

            “Sami doesn’t,” said Lara.  “I mean, the women she brought home…,” whistled Lara with a smile.

            “Really?  I’d have thought that CJ… I mean, she looks just like Jayden right?”

            “I think CJ was prettier, and hotter, more comfortable with her sexuality,” admitted Lara.  “But, no, it was CJ’s rule, but Sam would bring home the most gorgeous women…,” began Lara, going on to recount a story about Sam and two other women.  Neither women realizing how late it was getting, moving onto their second beer, and then their third, the night waning into dawn.

***** 

            “If you don’t want to go back to your house, I’m sure things can be arranged for you to stay at a safe house…,” began Marty, who was sitting in a chair by Tina’s bed. 

            Tina waved a bruised hand, “I don’t need a safe house, the asshole is dead,” said Tina softly.  “I just…  fuck, why did this happen?  I just wanted a family and love.  Instead I get… I fuck everything up.”

            “Things of this nature always take people by surprise, but I can see that you have a wonderful support group,” smiled Marty.  The burly man said, rubbing his beard, his sharp blue eyes peering into Tina’s soul.

            “I do, I have Alice, I have Carmen, Helena, I’m sure Peggy will be by sometime tomorrow,” chuckled Tina happy that she could still do that, laugh.

            “Bette, and her girlfriend Jo.  Also Sam…,” said Marty.

            “Sam, my savior, god, without her I’d be dead, I swear…  she’s like an angel…”

            “Sam is many things, but an angel?  Nope, known her too long to say that Samantha Vance is angel,” chuckled Marty as he leaned back in his chair.

            “Really?”  said Tina instantly intrigued that he’d known Sam for a long time.  “Do tell?”

            “We are here to talk about you, not about Samantha.”

            “We’ve talked about me for a long enough, yes, I’ve taken a hell of a beating and I’m sure that I’ll have to see you once a week for the next twenty years about it…,” joked Tina getting an amused look from Marty.  “But I’m tuckered out, so why don’t you tell me about Sam not being an angel?”