“Bette darling,” Helena says as she approaches the table, Bette gets up and kisses her on the cheek.

“You look wonderful.”

“Oh Bette, you’re too nice, I’m having a dreadfully bad hair day. It’s used to the New York weather, not this bright and sunny L.A. weather.”

“You always look stunning to me.”

“You’re too sweet,” Helena said and grinned, “so where’s this space you wanted to show me?”

“Oh, it’s right around the corner. I have the realtor waiting so he can show us around.”

“Wonderful, are you two ready?”

As Bette and Helena made their way over to the building they made small talk about family. Helena had two children Wilson, who was carried by her ex, Winnie, and Jung Yin whom they adopted. Wilson was six and Jung Yin was eight. Helena had followed Winnie here to Los Angeles to stay closer to her children. Even though she hated that Winnie had the children seventy-five percent of the time, she was very grateful for her twenty-five percent. They went through a horrible break up, which consisted of Helena forking over a lot of money to keep Winnie happy and from taking their kids away from her permanently, seeing how Helena did not have legal parental rights. Bette then realized why she wanted to invest in her gallery, for her kids. So her kids will know she’s done something great in her life so they can be proud of their other mother, despite what Winnie may say.

“Well, here we are,” the realtor announced as he opened the door. They walked around at the huge empty space, “it’s about sixteen thousand square feet with plenty space to remodel to your liking. There’s also a second floor that could be used as office space. The back receiving area was recently remodeled to current building code standards and the fire system has also been updated. Ms. Porter had informed me that she’d love to use the space to open an art museum and this would be an amazing place to do so. It has room to fit about a couple thousand people on any particular day and I’ve done my research. Ms. Porter you’re very talented and you’d have no problem using this space as it was meant to be used.”

“Brilliant,” Helena said, smiling, “we’ll take it.”

“What,” Bette asked, shocked, “we haven’t talked about it. That’s millions of dollars you’re just gonna invest.”

“Pish posh,” she said throwing her hands up, “look at this place. Sixteen thousand square feet of wonder. Think of how many people you can bring here, how many artists would grasp at the chance to show their work here. This space is bigger than the CAC and you’d have so much to work with and shove in their face.”

“Well, yeah that is an idea. But I also wanted to offer art classes, beginners to advanced, even start my own private school, offer degrees and apprenticeships.”

“See? Your innovativeness and progressive style is what’s going to put this place on the map. Everyone knows that you’re the best, now it’s time to put that to the test.”

Bette couldn’t believe it but Helena had just convinced her to get the space. Helena made a deal with the realtor and he was just as shocked as she. He didn’t realize he’d get rid of the space so easily. He thought he’d have to do a song and dance before they decided to take it. But there they were, standing in the place where they would definitely make things happen. Bette was overwhelmed with gratitude towards Helena and happiness that she was making her dream come true, again.