“Have you talked to Tina yet?” Kit asked, taking dishes from the cabinet and bringing them over to the dining room table.

Bette shook her head. “What would I say to her?”

“How about, ‘I’m sorry?’ That might be nice.”

Bette practically scoffed at Kit’s suggestion. “Wordsthey can’t even begin to describe’I’m sorry’ isn’t going to cut it.”

Kit nodded in agreement. “No it won’t. But you have to start somewhere baby sis. Apologizing isn’t going to fix everything, we both know that, but it’s a start. That’s what counts.”

Bette looked up at Kit as she began to dump some Chinese food on her plate. “It’s too soon.”

“It’s been almost a week Bette.”

“It’s been four days.”

“And I don’t know what you’re waiting for. If it were me, I’d be kicking down doors to get to the one I loved.”

Bette just sighed as she bit into a piece of chicken. Bette wondered why she was so hesitant about the whole thing. She was a take-charge kind of gal. She had fucking gone to talk to Peggy Peabody herself to get the “Provocations” exhibit for the C.A.C. If that didn’t take balls, Bette didn’t know what did. Bette always had a soft spot for Tina though, and even though she did control a lot, Tina had complete control over her heart; she had captured it the moment Bette had taken her hand at her gallery. She shivered at the memory of the electric energy that flowed through her when she made contact with Tina that night. That had never happened with any other woman beforewith the new exception of Candace.

Bette knew that the spark she felt when she felt Candace’s lips on her own was nowhere near as powerfulbut it was there.

When they lost the baby, Bette began to feel like Tina was pulling away from her. Tina had thrown herself into her volunteer work and had little time for her wife on most days. First, it had been some light work down at the center, two or three days a week, a couple of hours a day. They would get up together, possibly shower together, and eat breakfast together. Tina would kiss Bette goodbye in the morning and have dinner ready when Bette got home. They would eat together and go to bed together. At first, Bette had been ecstatic that Tina found something she enjoyed. Tina had been so depressed those first few weeks after the miscarriage that Bette was starting to worry. Volunteering down at the center seemed to bring Tina out of her funk; she would excitedly tell Bette all that she had done in the day with a bright smile on her face. And Bette would happily listen, finding solace in hearing Tina’s voice after a long day down at the C.A.C.