“Is that?”

“Tee’s sister Liz.” Alice let out a low whistle. “Alice.” Bette said in warning.

Alice looked up innocently. “What? I can’t comment on the fact that she’s gorgeous. Besides you have nothing to worry about. I’m spoken for.” She said unable to help the glittery smile that lit up her features.

Bette smiled. “Dana?” She smiled genuinely happy for her two friends.

“Yup. We still have somestuff, but we’ve decided to tackle it together.” Bette’s smile widened and she hugged Alice in congratulations.

“So where’s Tee?” Alice asked as she began gathering her things so that she could join Bette at her table.

Bette’s eyes darkened and flashed as she practically spat out the word “Helena.”

“What?” Alice asked as she stopped what she was doing and turned around trying to see if she had heard right. And from the look on Bette’s face right now she knew that she had. “Are you serious? What was she doing?”

“Turning my life into a very profound portrait of *****, as always. They ran into her at the mall before I got there and since Tina’s mother doesn’t know that Helena is the ***** devil, she invited her to join them. When I got there she was shamelessly cozying up to Tina’s Mother.”

“*****.” Alice said as she shook her head in amazement and followed Bette over to the table. “So how did you get away?”

“Well, I just told her that I was leaving. I think she understood not to argue. Besides it’s not like any of them acknowledged either one of us the entire time. Me and Liz were just trailing along behind them. So I decided that I would bring Liz for some coffee and let Kit visit with her niece for a while.” Bette turned to their visitor as they had just reached the table. “Liz, you remember Alice?”

Liz looked up blankly. “I had brown hair, anda boyfriend.” Alice said remembering the last time that Tina’s little sister had visited.

“Oh yeah. I remember I wanted to go to that concert with you and whatever his name was and Tina told me there was no way that she was letting me go off alone with you two.” Liz smiled and stood up to take Alice’s hand.