Bette heaved a big sigh. “Fine, fine. We’re even.”

She shook her head at their friend as she reached for Tina’s hand while walking past Aerin, stitching her pride together. She turned on her heel as Aerin pulled the door shut. “Til next time, that is. With Harley coming soon, I have a feeling it’ll just be a matter of time before I get the upper hand on this again.”

She half-smiled and winked. “Bitch.”

Aerin chuckled and walked next to Bette. She winked at Bette also as she eyed the power couple’s joined hands. Tina asked aloud, talking past Bette, “So when did “bitch” get to be a word we could toss around?”

“Oh, we get to toss around a lot of other “nasty” words these days, Aunty Tina,” Aerin answered in a teasing tone.

“Kids,” Bette grumbled. She shot Aerin a pretend glare when their hostess dug an elbow into her ribs playfully.   Harley’s coming and I’ve got my eyes on you, she mouthed.

They heard the thumping sounds of late 70s disco echo down the hallway as they rounded the corner.

“Nobody’s as committed to her brand as Shane is,” Tina said drily as she pointed at the passel of women dancing with a grooving Shane, working hard to give each one attention as they shimmied around her. She was lifting her cellphone up to try to snap a group selfie. “I betcha she insta’s that whole scene or posts it to snapchat before the night’s done.”

“What?” Bette asked loudly as she leaned closer.

“I said nobody’s as committed to …. never mind,” Tina tried again in a louder voice, giving up when a whoop went up from the crowd.

Shane – still the playah. Bette was chuckling as she saw a tall blonde stop dancing and pick her way through the crowd, heading for the opposite hall. Just when she turned to ask Aerin about the tall blonde, the DJ spoke into the mic, “so how does everything sound so far?”

“Whooo!” the crowd responded.

“Okay, I’ll be taking you on a musical tour through Cindy’s and Cris’ lives, starting with this cool 70s shit that both Cindy and Cris grooved to, while growing up on opposite ends of the earth. Turns out they liked exactly the same songs. So sing with me: Capricorns, Leos, Sagittarians…”