And of course, right this very moment Eric had to come back. Bette cursed in her mind.

“I’m back,” announced Eric, sitting down.

Bette looked quizzically at Tina, raising her eyebrows.

“What did you talk about?”

“Nothing much,” Bette said. “Girlie stuff.”

She looked at Tina again, with a question “where’s the answer” written on her face.

“Okay,” she whispered.

“Did you say something, honey?” Eric asked.

“No. I did not.”

Bette was trying on the third dress when she found out she might be late if she didn’t hurry up. She kept thinking about Tina and wondering if Tina took some time to do the same. “Well, she wouldn’t go out with me if she didn’t,” Bette concluded and resumed the fashion show in front of a mirror.

There was another fashion show when Bette was sitting at their table beside the window, waiting for her date to arrive while sipping her martini and Tina finally showed up. She probably wore the very best of her dresses – it made her body even more perfect than it already was.

“Hey!”

“Hey, yourself.” Bette mumbled.

They ordered the dishes and sat there, looking at each other, smiling.

“I’m so glad you agreed to see me.”

“I think I am, too.”

“You know what, Tina? I just really want to say what I feel like saying because maybe if I don’t do it now, it’ll be too late when I feel like doing that again.”

“Okay.”

“Perhaps, you thought I was just playing around with you, finding it hot to steal a woman from a good client of mine, probably it seemed like I liked courting you and nothing else and God knows what else it looked like. I just want to say what it’s like in reality,” she took a tiny sip of wine. “You’re on my mind all the time, that’s what it’s like. And when I say all the time, I mean it. I think about you in the morning, at work during the day, at night.”

“You do?” Tina asked, eager to hear the confirmation.

“Yes! It’s awesome to be with you here right now.”

Tina smiled.

“It is,” she blushed.

“I want to say sorry again for that evening when, you know when I entered your apartment. I couldn’t control myself.”

Tina felt a rush of blood go down her body, but didn’t say anything.

“It’s not going to happen again,” Bette continued, “until you feel like it, I mean. If you do at all.”

“Good.”

“And there’s something else I want to say, Tina. God, I’m so talkative tonight!”

“I like it when you talk,” Tina said, looking at Bette’s lips.

“Oh. Well, good then!.. I wanted to say that I need to know if I can go any further with you. I mean, I need to know that I won’t get screwed. While I can prevent myself from uh having strong feelings for you at this stage, if we keep seeing each other on a regular basis, I feel I won’t be able to stop myself. I don’t want to fall in love and not be with the person I love, do you know what I mean?”

“Yes, I surely see your point.”

“I just don’t want to be the second in line.”

“Uh huh.” Tina looked pensive during the whole speech Bette pulled out, she was staring into nowhere, thinking of something Bette couldn’t guess. “Eric and I broke up”.

Bette couldn’t understand if she’d heard the words right.

“You broke up?”

“Yes, yesterday morning.”

“Oh. Oh, my!” Bette was truly flabbergasted.

“He just said he was tired of me being distant. He said I’ve been weird lately and he knows this kind of weirdness, it’s when you find someone better and yet stick to the person you’ve been dating for some time,” she sighed. “He said he doesn’t want to build castles in the air when he sees that I’m not as fond of being with him as before. He said I should be happy with the person who is able to make me happy.”