“Yeah, I am.”

“Why are you letting her do this to you?”

“She means well, we just don’t want her to now that I lost my job. She’ll freak out. So I can’t tell her that I hate Helena. Or else she might let it slip that I don’t exactly work with her anymore. But don’t worry everything is under control and If I could just have a moment I really will be fine.”

“No, Bette, not Mrs. Kennard. I’m talking about Tina. Why are you letting her do this to you?”

“Alice,” Bette said in warning. “I warned you not to get involved n my personal stuff.”

“Yeah, I know. And trust me I’m not trying to meddle. I just don’t like watching you do this to yourself. I don’t like that you’re”

“Isn’t this what I deserve, Alice?” Bette whirled around on Alice, her dark eyes flashing.

Alice looked at Bette immediately sorry for the way that she had handled things when Bette and Tina broke up. Alice hated that she had abandoned her friend when she was having as much of a hard time as Tina. Alice remembered taking Bette home and putting her to bed. She remembered the pain that had been so thick in her voice as she had apologized over and over again until she finally passed out from the alcohol. “No.” She whispered. “No you don’t. And you never did. I’m sorry Bette. I’m sorry for the way I handled everything. I should have been there. For you. I’m gonna give you your minute, but stop doing this to yourself. You can be grateful that she came back. But don’t let her make you be sorry anymore. You’ve already been sorry enough.”

Bette closed her eyes and took another deep breath trying to calm her pulse before she went back outside. Bette wondered if Alice could know how much her apology meant to her. Alice had been the one that hurt her the most out of the group. She knew how everyone else would react. She knew that Shane would try not to choose sides. She knew that Dana would be pretty much indifferent, she knew that Kit would love her anyway, but she had in no way been ready for Alice to completely abandon her. Bette shook her head, opened her eyes, gave a small smile at her reflection and walked back out to the table where she found that Tina was packing up the baby and they were getting ready to leave to go to dinner. Alice and Dana were conferring about something on the other side of the table and both of them were throwing her glances between whispers. “Hey, Bette.” Dana spoke up. “Don’t you remember that you told my parents that you would stop by and look at that piece for them? Do you want me to tell them that you can’t come?”