Clearly, the women had arrived early.

A couple of them spotted Shane.  And a few spotted Bette.

The two who saw Shane came over to take the lounge chairs next to her, smiling provocatively.  The few who saw Bette decided to lie next to her, similarly removing their tops, but lying face up, to the sun.

Shane swallowed, and took a long swig from her beer.  She would have to treat Carmen to a nice meal, in a white-table clothed kind of place, and make sure the Latina was in a happy place mentally, when Shane’s story about the Maldives got to this part.  Otherwise, she may well not survive Carmen’s temper.

Later, at the lounge, the ones who took a fancy to Bette kept trying to chat her up.  They were steadily getting drunk.  Bette had smiled at their jokes, but had politely batted away their inquiries.  Shane smiled, as she observed her friend.  Still got that sex appeal, huh, Bette?

On her return to the US, Shane decided to head into New York City, while waiting for a connecting flight to LA from JFK.  She had met up with Tina, and had recounted some of the highlights of her visit with Bette.  She was careful not to disclose things that she thought would eventually come up when Tina and Bette would eventually reconnect.

But she did tell Tina about Bette’s newfound liking for taking her clothes off, including preferring to sleep naked at night.  And her friend’s continued ability to attract the interest of beautiful women.

“But you’ve got nothing to worry about, Tina.  That friend of mine is yours. Yours, forever. She is well and truly off the market, and female hearts everywhere are breaking.  I bet if you asked her one day about any of those women, you wouldn’t be able to get a description about any of them from her.”

Tina nodded.  “Her fidelity was never the problem, Shane.”

“It was my lack of it that was.”

Shane offered Tina a small smile. “I know, without you telling me, that whatever that was, did not mean anything to you.  You love Bette, Tina.  And you will always love her.  I have no doubt about that.  Something crazy happened, and now, you both will just have to  find a way to sort it out.  You’ll probably have to lead, because Bette is just making her way back to us, now.”