Bright streaks of sunlight entered a somewhat cool and calm bedroom, every single ray flowed freely through the room’s spotless windows, until finally coming to a stop when the gentle beams touched across the smooth grains of the apartment’s well-polished hardwood floors. A beautiful bed placidly stood in the middle of the room, unmoving and stagnant” until now… The faint sound of sheets moving against each other could be heard in the otherwise quiet background, as a lazy body tried to uncoil itself away from the soft cream sheets… Tina Kennard roused from her humble slumber. “What time is it?” she hoarsely mumbled with her eyes still closed and an arm limply draped over an over-sized pillow… She distinctly remembered that she turned off the alarm the night before, hoping that she could catch up on some much needed sleep… Yet judging from the drained feeling she had coursing through her whole body, she was pretty sure she wasn’t successful in her quest to find the peace and relaxation that she so badly yearned for… and due to the circumstances it seemed like the sun had other things planned for her.

Tina sluggishly sat herself on the edge of the bed, her blonde hair slightly tousled as she pulled it up into a loose ponytail. She got up and wandered around the apartment doing her usual morning routine, first recovering the paper to read, then heading into the kitchen to fix herself some coffee, before finally moving on to prepare some breakfast. Another ordinary day one might think… but not for Tina… To her the day seemed anything but plain… so much so that every single hour, minute, and second counted. They were like tiny grains of sand slipping through her fingers, except this time she had the good sense to know that each passing moment, no matter how miniscule, was still of utmost importance. Today she had to make a decision, a very important one in fact… and that’s exactly what she planned on doing” That’s if she ever got through breakfast…

It was around 6:35 when a loud ringing resounded all the way from the living room towards the kitchen, where Tina was sitting contentedly… slathering a good helping of strawberry jam over some newly toasted bread.

“What the…” Tina began questioning as she sank her butter knife into a half empty jar of jam and made her way to answer the phone.

‘Who could be calling this early in the morning?’ she wondered, her fingers now just a few inches away from the receiver. But after a few seconds of painful consideration she felt herself freeze… she knew exactly who it was… and the realization caused her to withdraw her hand from the phone as if it were a hot griddle just waiting to sear her hand.

“No.” she instructed herself settling instead to let the machine get it:

“Tina?” a familiar voice came through. “I know you’re there… pick up the phone… please?”

Tina let out an audible sigh; her conscience got the best of her.

“Hi Eric.” she said weakly.

“Hey… I knew you were there… Where have you””

“Eric we need to talk…” Tina interrupted, nervously twisting the cord in her fingers.

“Hmm? Well yeah sure… When?”

“Uhm how about lunch later…?”

“Okay… We can eat at that little bistro… You know, the place where we usually have lunch? It’s near your office so I just pick you up and drive you back when we’re done.”

“No, I can walk… I’ll just meet you there.”

“But why””

“Eric please… Don’t start.”

She heard a long pause coming from the other line.

“Fine. I’ll see you later.” Eric replied, evidently in no mood to argue. “Bye.”

“Bye.” Tina said, a heavy exhale escaping her lips before she put the receiver back onto its cradle. ‘I have to get this over with…’
______________________________________________

It was a little past twelve when a gentle tapping came from the other side of the door.

“Come in.” Bette yelled, a subtle tone of irritability present in her voice.

“Hi.” Alice said heading over to her friend, a look of concern slowly etching itself across her face.

She noticed that Bette hadn’t been herself these past few days. Just by looking at her now, it was pretty clear that she had taken it upon herself to be more demanding and bossier than usual, as if she were tasked to rid the world of hunger or something… But of course Alice just deduced Bette’s disturbing behavior to the upcoming barrage of artists that were going to be exhibiting their work within the next couple of weeks. ‘Even I would breakdown under that sort of pressure.’ she thought.

Still there was something else, something she obviously wasn’t aware of, and it killed her inside to know that she had no clue what it was… At that very moment Alice opted to let her innate journalism skills take over. ‘ What the ***** has gotten into her?’ Alice questioned, immediately hypothesizing all sorts of theories concerning Bette and how she managed to get herself into the sad state she was currently living in. Alice backtracked to the last time she saw Bette happy, which she guessed was a good two or three days ago. ‘Let’s see… we were at The Planet having coffee… and she was talking about something… Oh god what was it?’ It took a little while before the answer finally became apparent to her, ‘Oh yeah… Tina.’

Alice couldn’t get over how smitten Bette was with Tina, although she was sure that Bette would never dare admit it to her” at least not now. ‘Poor Bette.’ she thought, never once imagining that she’d be describing her friend in such a manner. In the reasonably long span of time that she had come to know her, she knew that Bette was always the strong confident type, the kind of woman who loved winning the little conquests she would set up for herself on a regular basis. ‘But what was different with this one?’ she wondered, ‘Has somebody actually managed to beat the great Bette Porter at her own game?’

“What?” Bette asked, wearing a curious smile on her fine-looking face.

“Nothing.” Alice lied.

She didn’t even realize how long she had been standing in front of Bette’s desk. ‘***** she must think I’m retarded.’ Alice thought, she tried desperatly to keep herself from smirking, thinking that Bette would be more comfortable if she kept on a serious front.

“You wanna talk about it?”

“No.” Bette answered dismissively, knowing that she didn’t have enough strength to pretend she was all right.

“Well at least tell me you’ll have lunch with me.”

Bette shook her head and focused her attention back onto the files that she was reading through a few minutes ago. When she looked up and saw that Alice didn’t budge, she hesitantly put the papers back onto the table and stood up.

“Fine you win.” she said throwing a hand in the air to signal her loss.

“Great, we can eat at that Italian restaurant I always wanted to go to.”

“Super.” Bette said with a hint of sarcasm. Alice just let the comment pass with an overly sweet smile, which she knew would make Bette even more annoyed.
_______________________________________

Bette re-adjusted her sunglasses as a sudden burst of sunlight streamed through her car’s perfectly tinted windsheild, the glint temporarily catching in her eyes. This was all too weird for her… It had been three whole days since her date with Tina ended, and still Tina hadn’t even bothered to call… Bette took this as her cue to assume that that was the end of it. All this time she had been picturing everything out in her head. She thought that by now Tina was probably in her boyfriend’s arms, being happy and living contentedly without her, never to be seen or heard from again. Yet after dismissing what happened Bette felt the indescribable urge to busy herself, convincing herself that all she wanted to do was go back to her office and bury herself with work, where she could pretend to be in control and no one would be able to bother her with the casualties that came with living in reality… But now… Now she was going to have to survive through an entire lunch with Alice.

“Here, turn left.” Alice instructed, cutting right through Bette’s thoughts as her car entered a busy commercial district. “Okay we’re here.”

“Il cibo degli Angeli” the sign read as they pulled up to a quaint little restaurant, it’s exterior painted in different shade’s of mustard and terracotta, which was deeply contrasted by the deep shade of the lush green plants scattered strategically around its entrance. The enticing smell of basil and rosemary greeted them the moment they walked through the door.

“Alice I’m not sure I’m up for this.”

“Don’t be silly Bette… Of course you are… The food’s great here. The least you could do is try to enjoy it.”

Bette gave her an unsure look, which Alice dismissed by saying, “Come on let’s get a table.”

Alice chose a nice secluded table, near the far end of the restaurant. The area offered them more privacy, given the only thing that was in their range of view was the reception desk and the main entrance. Alice sat down and browsed through the long list of dishes the place had to offer, “Hey what do you think? Should I go with the Rigatoni, or the Pasta al Forno?”

Bette shot her a look as if to say: “How should I know?” and instead she tried to occupy herself with rearranging the silverware.

“Let me guess… woman trouble?” Alice inquired, peeking up from her menu.

“It’s been three days Al, and she hasn’t called…”

“Bette, haven’t we been through this before? Why don’t you try calling her? I mean maybe she’s just waiting for you.”

“I… I can’t.”

“Why not?”

Bette shrugged her shoulders “It’s complicated.”

Alice abruptly shifted her gaze from Bette and onto the person who just walked through the restaurant’s entrance:

“Well… speaking of complications… Guess who’s by the door.”

Bette followed Alice’s eyes and felt a swell of hope rising from the pit of her stomach, she let her jaw drop just a little as soon as she saw Tina walk in, beautiful as always, looking as if she were searching for something… or someone.

TBC…Stay tuned to find out what happens next…