Bette waited for Tina in the shadow of the imposing statue of the Sun King, Louis XIV, outside of the main gate of the Chateau of Versailles.   The blonde had briefly walked away to get a better call signal, as she sought to clarify arrangements with the car service concerning picking up the rest of her things from her hotel and taking them to Bette’s hotel.  Bette and Tina had just finished an eventful day in the Chateau, aspects of which helped to set a poetic backdrop to their intense discussion.  Their visit to the gardens, in particular, had been blessed by continuous sunlight, and their walk through the opulent settings of the Chateau interiors had occasioned some much needed pauses.  

The day had marked a turning point in their relationship, as they’d managed to talk through several crucial issues, some painful for Tina, and one, concerning Baby Angelica, particularly joyful for both.

The call to the car service was one of the calls Tina had placed as she and Bette slowly exited the Chateau in the gathering twilight.   The first one was to the hotel Tina had been staying in, in order to check out, and to ask the butler servicing the floor her room was in to pack her things in the suitcase she had left. Tina had dealt with the butler in the past, including asking him to arrange for a bag of her things to be sent to Bette’s hotel earlier that morning.  During her conversation with the front desk to check-out, Tina had asked for a nice tip for him and the other staff who had been helpful to her in the past also.  Apart from the butler, the hotel staff knew Tina well, mainly because she had stayed in that hotel for over three weeks two years ago, after she moved out of the suite in the George V, which was where she and Bette were staying when they had gone to Paris together.

The second was to the car service, to arrange for her suitcase from the hotel, and to schedule a ride to the airport for her and Bette the following evening.  She was trying to find a way to ask the car service to pick up a few other things along the way, as a surprise for Bette that evening, but didn’t want to spoil the surprise by somehow rousing the brunette’s suspicions.  She signaled to Bette that she couldn’t hear the other party on the phone, so needed to step away.  Bette nodded, and indicated she’d wait next to the statue.