Bette and Tina sat at the table sipping coffee together and enjoying the fact that Ariana had finally decided to go to sleep after what had been their longest night with the baby since they had come home from the hospital. Both women were tired and should have been catching up on their sleep while Ariana gave them a brief reprieve from their duties as new parents. They had only been sitting there for a few minutes and already Bette could feel that the silence that they were sitting in was about to turn to uneasiness as it had been for the last week. When Tina had decided to come home Bette had not thought that it would be this hard for the two of them to be together again. She had simply been happy that Tina had finally decided to forgive her. But now she was starting to understand that Tina might not have forgiven her to begin with. “I told my mom that we would be at the airport tomorrow at Three to pick them up. Is that ok?” Bette nodded absently as Tina took her turn in breaking the growing silence that seemed to always follow them when they didn’t have anything to keep them busy. Bette couldn’t count the number of times that they had been saved by the baby’s cry or a phone call from one of their friends. And when this didn’t happen one of them would think of something to say to break the silence before it threatened to drown them.

“Yeah that should be fine.” Bette turned back to her coffee and the paper and then remembered that she couldn’t go to the airport the next day. “*****. Tee I can’t go to the airport tomorrow.” Bette said apologetically.

Tina looked disappointed, “Oh. That’s fine. I just thought that it might be better if we both picked them up. You know how my mother is about when you get too busy to” Tina let her voice trail off, not wanting to start a fight with Bette so early after neither one of them had slept.

“Tee, I want to go.” Bette started when she saw the disappointment run over Tina’s face. “It’s just I have an appointment. And I don’t think that I should miss it.” Bette was speaking of her appointment with Dr. Foxworthy. She really needed to keep this appointment. The fact was that Bette was gearing herself up for a rough week. Tina’s family hated her. And in the past their visits had only been made tolerable by the fact that Tina never let them say anything that would upset Bette or make her feel like she wasn’t good enough. And then by the time the day was over, and Bette was exhausted by the tension and politeness that they had all kept up all day, Tina would wrap her arms around her and assure her that she loved Bette no matter what her family thought. Now, though, Bette didn’t now how they were going to make it through the week. And this was due to the way that her and Tina were getting along and the fact that honestly Bette had no idea where exactly she stood with Tina. It was an awful feeling, and one that Bette had never allowed herself to have before. But she still had no real idea what had made Tina decide to come home in the first place and the last thing that Bette wanted to do was scare her off again. “I’m sorry.” She said again trying to make Tina understand that she was genuinely sorry.