Tina waited patiently under the awning of the George V hotel.  Although it was a beautiful early summer day, the weather felt more like late spring time in Paris, likely due to the unseasonable but welcome cool breeze that occasionally blew through sleepy city streets.

She inhaled a lungful of fresh air.  Perfect. Just perfect, she thought, slowly exhaling while looking up at the blue sky, dotted with wispy clouds floating overhead. She checked the weather app on her mobile for the nth time that morning, and it cheerily reported back (again) that the rains of the previous past few days had eased, while washing out the usual city grime. Paris was in for simply gorgeous weather today, confirming the report the weather station tweeted to Tina 10 minutes ago.  Tina smiled, absentmindedly tossed her blonde hair back as a slight wind blew some hair across her face, and then nervously began tapping her fingers on her thigh.

Finally, she saw Bette gliding down the lobby.  Her hazel eyes followed the brunette’s progress towards her with barely contained excitement, as Bette moved gracefully through the doors held open for her by the uniformed porters.  Bette was sniffing the single pink rose Tina thoughtfully left on her pillow, next to the note Tina scribbled that morning, when she’d invited the brunette to join the blonde on a stroll around Paris.

When Tina had checked in on Bette that morning, upon returning from an early morning jog, she’d been bothered by an inexplicable feeling of being kept at a distance by the brunette all of a sudden.  There had been a strange series of miscommunications between them over the last day and a half, but neither of them had a clear sense of what was amiss.  As she shut the door to the main bedroom, resting her head on the door for a second, she’d been moved by a burst of inspiration to invite Bette outside. The sunshine she’d seen spilling into their hotel suite that morning seemed to her to promise a much-needed change of pace to the dreariness weighing on them.  

In the note, she’d suggested a carefree day of exploring Paris together, in case Bette hadn’t been scheduled for a meeting or any other pressing matters that day.   Until she’d seen Bette crossing the lobby, though, Tina hadn’t been sure whether the brunette would show up.  So Tina was bothered about what could happen if Bette had decided she wasn’t in the mood to join Tina for a carefree tour of the city, as the blonde had suggested in the note.