Early the next morning, in the dim recesses of her sleep-addled mind, Bette thought she heard the trumpet call ringtone of their bedroom phone that Angelica had selected when she and Bette were playing in the master bedroom earlier the night before.  Bette reached over Tina sleepily, to tap the edge of the glass screen of the deskphone that sat on the nightstand next to Tina, to stop the repeated call of trumpets.  Tina shifted in her sleep to burrow her face even deeper into Bette’s neck, in response, and unconsciously threw a bare leg over the brunette’s side.  Bette heard a voice ask, “Hello, Hello?”

“Hello,” Bette answered groggily, as she adjusted the bed covers to cover Tina, whose bare back was now exposed to the cold.

“Bette?  This is Alice. Hello?”

Bette rubbed her eyes, and asked, “Alice? Umm… are you ok?  What time is it?”

“I don’t know … early.  I’m in JFK, and I was wondering if I could stay at your place tonight?,” Alice answered, then cursed at someone in the background.

Bette ran her hand through her hair, and answered groggily, “Of course, of course.  Stay as long as you want.  You’re always welcome here, you know that. What the hell are you doing in JFK at this hour?”

“Took the red-eye from LA, and I guess we caught a jetstream or something because we got in way earlier than we were supposed to,” Alice started to explain.

“Uh-huh,” Bette answered still struggling to wake.  “But what are you doing here in New York?”

She heard Alice curse somebody out, then a door slam.  “You can’t imagine how fucking rude people are in this airport,” Alice said angrily into the phone.

“Yeah, I can, actually,” Bette answered drily, rubbing her eyes.  Tina was beginning to stir awake.  Bette kissed her absentmindedly and leaned over further to lift the cordless phone from the cradle on the side of the glass screen of the deskphone.  “What are you doing here?  Everything alright, Alice?” she asked again, as she juggled the handset, once she got it out of the cradle.

To her surprise, she heard sobbing on the phone.  Bette’s eyes snapped awake at the sound.  Turning to look at whether Tina was woken yet by their conversation, she saw with relief that the blonde was still fast asleep.  She carefully lifted Tina’s head that was snuggled against her neck, to lay it on the pillow, while she simultaneously pulled her arm out from under Tina.  She also lifted Tina’s arms and legs that were wrapped around her, to lay it on the bed, taking care not to jostle the blonde awake.  “Shhh… shhhh, things will be ok, Alice,” she whispered to Alice as she extricated herself further from Tina’s sleepy embrace, and then slid out of bed.