“I’m kidding I wanted, needed to hear your voice”

Bette goofily smiled
into the phone, elated to hear Tina’s confession.

“So, how are you and
Paco is his name..?”

“Yeah. He’s okay, busy
with school as usual.” Tina nonchalantly answered.

“So, what are you
doing right now?”

“Um I am feeding
Baggins”

“Ah, how is she?”

“She’s doing well. She
ran into a skunk this morning and got stunk.”

Tina chuckled. “Your
place must be smelly.”

Bette laughed along
with her, “Yeahstinky”

Half an hour later,
the tea is finished and Bette is sitting on her balcony chair, watching the
amusing traffic on Robson and still talking to Tina. They hung up with a goofy
smile plastered on their faces. She and Bette agreed to walk Baggins together
and then grab some ice cream to sit by the beach watching the sun slowly
descending. They talked of anything and everything, enjoying each others’
company and the sea horizon that seem to pull both of them together. They went
home as two giddy schoolgirl that evening, each relishing on the memories made
that night, goofily smiling at how they acted around each other.

—

Bette is sitting at
the Renaissance caf at the UniverCity’s cornerstone building. Since its grand opening,
the caf had become her regular hang out. It had been a long day of school. She
just had a midterm and a 12 page paper due. She still has another class in the
evening so she decided to grab an Americano to keep her awake and unwind with
her non-school related book to keep her sanity.

“So, who’s the girl
that I saw you holding hands with yesterday afternoon?” She looked up from her
book and found her ever inquisitive journalistic friend, Alice.

“Hey Alice.” Bette nonchalantly replied.

“Baggins?”

“No, the other one!”

“Well, as far as I’m
concerned, at this point, Baggins is my only girl. The other one is just a
friend.” Bette tried to dodge the answer as things just getting started with
Tina and having someone else meddle with this blossoming relationship is the
last thing she needs.

“C’mon, spill it
Porter, I know you’re romancing that cute ***** blond girl. Don’t think I can’t
see you from a mile away and not tell that you’re obviously smitten by her.”

“Okay Miss
I-can’t-live-without-sticking-my-nose-into-everyone-else’s-business, there’s
nothing yet going on between us so far. I don’t want to spoil this one. She’s
different from my other dates. So, please, do me a favour, don’t scare her
away.”

“When did I ever scare
your date away?” Alice innocently asked.

Her question was
answered by Bette’s sharp look that says, ‘Alice oh Alice, you have done that more than once.’

“What? I have not! I’m
insulted of being wrongly accused of such things. All I have done was to
befriend them.”

Bette rolled her eyes
and muttered “Yeah right!”

“Alice, I thought we had agreed to be friends?” Alice nodded weakly and sunk deeper into her chair.

“Look, we had fun, we
had a blast but we both agreed that we couldn’t be more than friends. We gave
it a shot.”

“Yeah, but it doesn’t
make it easier for me to get over you”

Bette reached her
right hand across the table and grabbed Alice‘s left hand and held it. “Maybe you can start
by not being my scarecrow it might make it a little easier.”

Alice chuckled and said, “Hey, I did save you from
potential date disasters.”

Bette laughed at the
memories, “Yeah, you did. Once.”

“Oh no missy, more
than once!” Alice insisted.

Bette just shook her
head, “And I’ll introduce you to her if you promise to me to be good.”

“Scout’s honour!”

“Okay, I have to go
now. I have a class to attend. See you later.” As Bette raised and began to
gather her things.

“Hey, are you going to
the Lick this weekend?” Alice shouted.

“I don’t know yet. I
have enough on my plate for the weekend.” Bette shouted back as she exited the
coffee shop, heading for her class at the other end of the campus.