Bette sighed ”I really don’t know what I could have done better….” she said muttering

”nothing…but now you can Bette…think about it…opening your heart is not so bad…”

”are you talking about the operation or….”

Helena laughed at that joke, the times of romance and Bette’s desire to communicate were over, she always did that, as soon as she didn’t want any more pressure on her she lightened it with something witty.

”ok, shall we watch a movie?”

Bette nodded, she was calmer, she was thinking about Tina and her friend’s words

The weekend went by pretty quickly, Bette had a lot of visitors, on weekends major surgeries were almost always cancelled unless they turned into emergencies or there were major emergencies in the area. Even the residents were more relaxed.

Alice and Dana had lunch with her on Sunday telling her that the weekend before Christmas they were going to Holland, Dana had relatives there, Bette had been to Europe with her father a few times when she was little and had loved it.

Bette finally saw Alice happy, her friend from college, Alice was the opposite of Bette, outgoing, full of jokes on the tip of her tongue, nosy and a little unorganized, which Bette hated.

It was Bette who pushed her to apply to local hospitals, if it were up to Alice with her Yale degree she would have been selling hot dogs on street corners and there would have been nothing wrong with it, but Bette knew that that mind would contribute to human health.

Not a trace of Tina. It was frustrating but Bette expected it.

Monday morning was full of tests, Bette had not yet announced her decision on whether to have the surgery or not but, everyone was getting ready, let’s say that if Bette had said yes time would have been on their side with excellent tests in their hands. While Clarissa was placing a blood collection needle in her left arm Tina entered with her white coat and her usual blue uniform underneath followed by two specialists and Amelia Sheaperd who Bette knew all too well.

”good morning…” she whispered meeting Bette’s eyes and staring at them for a moment, even the brunette couldn’t look away, Tina had her hair tied up, as always at work, but Bette was ecstatic.