“Bette?” Alice called, “Bette, come here …”

Bette wandered through, chuckling because the tone of their voices made it sound like they’d seen a spider or a snake,

“What’s …” she stopped as soon as she saw Helena, stood under the porch light with a bottle of gin in her hands and wearing a somewhat revealing party dress and sexy knee high boots,

“We’ll be going then …” Alice mumbled hurriedly, both of them rushing past and making a hasty retreat, Alice turned back and pointed exaggeratedly at Helena’s legs, mouthing ‘great boots!’

Bette smiled at Helena, surprised to see her, so late and so formally dressed, evidently thinking there was nothing amiss in the late hour of her arrival time.

“Great party,” said Helena, fixing them both gin and tonics that were heaviest on the gin,

Bette stood to the side, waiting, searching for a sign to let her know if Helena was being sarcastic or not,

Helena turned back and smiled, chinking her glass against Bette’s, “Cheers,”

They sat on the sofas again, Bette’s lounge exactly back to how it had been before the party. Helena kicked off her heels and downed her first drink, rapidly fixing herself a second.

“Slow down,” Bette mumbled, “there’s no one here to play catch up with,”

Helena sat down beside her again, “No?”

Cryptic answers, no clues, she smiled across at Bette and started laughing, grabbing both Bette’s hands as she pulled her to sit on the floor, “Let’s have some fun!”

They sat playing concentration, Helena’s replies getting faster and faster as the alcohol they both knocked back only seemed to make her sharper where it made Bette slow. Until all of a sudden she leant across and kissed her,

Bette pulled away, “I … er?”

“Don’t you want to kiss me Bette? … I want to kiss you,”

Bette stared back at her, her mind swimming, “Helena, I don’t know anything about you,”

“Ask me anything you like,” Helena replied, exuberantly, “anything you want,”

Bette smirked “Anything?”

“Sure …” Helena toyed with the bracelet on her left arm, staring at it thoughtfully, “none of it’s real anyway,”

“None of what’s real?”

Helena looked up and smiled at her, both of them sat cross-legged on the floor, “Anything I answer,” Helena replied, “I could tell you I’m a model or a writer or an astronaut even, or related to the fucking Queen of England, how would you know?”

Bette chuckled, “I guess I wouldn’t,”

“I’m a writer,” Helena stated, “I write screenplays,”

“I didn’t ask,” Bette pointed out,

“I know.”

“Have I seen anything you’ve written then?” Bette asked, after a moment’s awkward pause,

Helena shrugged, “Dream Islands … Long Road to Nowhere … Southern States … a few others,”

“Southern States?” Bette repeated, “that was you?”

Helena nodded, smiling as she did so, a smile that took over Bette’s gaze and made her rethink her reaction to the kiss,

“I’m gay,” Bette blurted out, thinking it best to get those things out of the way early on,

Helena chuckled and leant over towards her, taking Bette’s glass from her hand as she crept forwards to kiss her again, wondering if Bette would pull away this time or find some bravery to stick around.

Bette sighed, as Helena kissed her like it meant everything, with such a force and a passion she had to struggle to reign in her brain and remember that ‘she’ was supposed to be the self assured one, the charmer, the player, the lover who was all of those and more.

Helena touched her cheek softly as she pulled away, “I should go,”

“Don’t …” Bette answered quickly, “don’t … please …” she paused, “you go … and then I don’t see you for days,”

Helena smiled and kissed her again, brushing the hair from Bette’s cheek,

Then just as Bette predicted she was gone.

tbc …