“Oh she put that up on the chart already,” said Alice nonchalantly, waving her hand casually.

            “Huh?” stammered Shane.

            “Yeah, like a while ago, she’s racking up quite a few hits too, she keeps going and she’s gonna be a huge hub, who knew…,” smiled Alice watching as Shane stood there, teetering on the edge of the pool.  Smiling impishly, reaching up, placing her hand on Shane’s ass and pushing her into the pool.

            Alice laughed, and Sam shook her head as Shane sputtered to the surface, wagging her finger at Alice.  “You are bad, so bad, I hate you,” laughed Shane.

            “You hate me?  Me?  I’m sooo sweet and sexy,” giggled Alice.  “You are right Sam, I’m gonna raise the roof!  I’m gonna push the envelope!”   Alice stood up, pumping a fist into the air, Shane watching her as she treaded water.

            “You are gonna sit down before you fall in,” laughed Sam.

            “Or get pulled in,” growled Shane, moving quickly, reaching up and grabbing Alice’s belt, tugging her hard, forcing her into the pool with a huge splash. 

            “Lesbians,” sighed Sam, moving to the chair she’d been in earlier, holding the bottle between her fingers and sitting back, watching  Alice and Shane splashing around din the pool, enjoying that life was moving forward again.

***** 

            Jo was perched at the top of stairs of the huge house in Washington DC where she had stayed the evening.  Reaching into her pocket, taking out her cell phone and dialing Bette’s number, after a few minutes, she got the answering machine.

            “Damn, you must be picking up Tina at the hospital…  Listen…  things didn’t end well on the phone, and I don’t want it like that…  Ummm,” paused Jo as she moved with grace down the stairs.  “…Emma told me about her email to me, I didn’t know Bette, or I’d have told you instantly.  Things here are… complicated, and we need to talk.  Really talk, you’ve been talking about moving in, and…  well….,” stopping at the bottom of the stairs, licking her lips, feeling the tears threatening.  “I’ll be back sometime next week, I have a few things to deal with and then I’m going home, to you… but we have a lot to discuss.  I’ll see you soon,” finished Jo closing the phone with longing.

            “Did you call her?” asked the woman sitting in the living room, pouring over papers and photos.

            “Yeah…,” said Jo, swallowing hard.

            “You tell her you were here?”

            “No, I’ll do that when I see her,” said Jo sitting down and grabbing a stack of files, “You find her?  In this mess?”

            “No, not yet.  I have some of my staff on it, I’ve got two weeks of my term left, and by then, I’ll do what you asked me to do, I told you that,” said Amy with a smile.

            “For a price,” said Jo, biting her lip.

            “It wasn’t that steep a price, Jo.”

            “It is,” said Jo.  “It most certainly is, Amy.”