Two days later, Tina sent Eric over to Bette’s with a zucchini casserole, and was doing her best to put Bette and her social failures out of her mind. After all, it was only a chance encounter and nothing more. It was silly to obsess over it, days after the fact.

She had made other forays into the yard to work properly on her rose bushes and her herb garden. It became another chore, albeit one that she took especial pleasure in. Over the past three days she was growing more used to being outside again, at least. She could build on that, and going out would start to happen without being tied to a task. That was what she hoped for, anyway. She knew there was no solution for her grief but time.

Tina was sitting in the living room, house work for the day finished, and trying to read when there was a knock at the door that made her nearly jump out of her skin. She knew who it was, of course. Who else could it be?

She set her book aside and walked to the door and peered through its eye hole before opening it.

“Hi,” Bette said cheerily. “I’ve brought your dish back.”

“Oh.” Tina opened the door wider and took the dish from Bette. “Thanks.”

“No, thank you. It was delicious. You’ll have to give me the recipe sometime.”

“Sure,” Tina said. Bette hesitated, looking at Tina with hopeful expectancy. “Um. Would you like to come in? For tea or something?”

“Love to!” Bette said, walking through the door way as Tina stood back to let her pass.

Tina gave her a weak smile and walked into the kitchen. She gestured for Bette to sit down and set the dish in a cupboard.

“What kind of tea would you like? Or I have some lemonade made. Fresh.”

“I’ll have lemonade if you don’t mind. This is a beautiful kitchen,” Bette said. “It’s spotless.”

“Thank you,” Tina said, blushing a little for no good reason and pouring two glasses of lemonade. Inwardly she quailed. She never should have let this woman in her house. Now she was going to have to entertain her, and as nice as Bette was, it was frankly the last thing Tina wanted to do. She didn’t know how to do this sort of thing anymore.