Gia laughed, “Marissa, seriously.  Of course people came.  You called.  People came!  Why do you wonder….?”

Marissa and Tina exchanged a smile.  Tina asked with a tease, “Coming out more publicly?”

“For charity,” Marissa laughed a little, knowing what Tina was referring to.  “So, which one…”

“Bette’s a supporter of the one supporting research into kidney diseases and the one on raising awareness about asthma,” Tina answered Marissa’s unspoken question quickly.

Marissa nodded her head, “Those aren’t the ones I’ve been invited to chair, but I should give more to those causes. You and Bette are right to support them.”

Unconsciously, they all looked in Bette’s direction, who stood with her back to them, clearly regaling the small group surrounding her with a story, as they all looked at her in rapt attention.

Gia leaned her head towards Tina, as she kept her gaze on Bette, saying, “Well, I’m glad to have finally met you Tina.”

Really?

“Bette told me so much about you,” the auburn stunner continued, as she took a long sip of her drink, then turned to smile at Tina.  Marissa looked at Tina also, a question on her face.

“When?,” Tina asked, with a slight edge.  She flagged a waiter down, “Can I have a gin and tonic, please?  And can you please make it a double?”

“I bumped into her in Mexico City several years ago, I think, one early spring, late March.  She’d just flown in from New York,” Gia drawled, then finished her drink.  She signaled for another one when the waiter came by with Tina’s drink, and got Gia’s glass.

She casually added, as Tina noticeably gripped her glass hard as the blonde took a long swig of her drink, “I believe you and she had just broken up?”

Marissa dropped her mouth and turned to Tina, then took a drink from the glass of sparkling water that she’d been holding, deciding not to say anything.

“We hung out for almost a month, did she tell you?,” Gia continued, smiling her thanks at the waiter, casually dropping another bomb on Tina.  She laughed with a melodious laugh, “We’d been friends a long time in LA.  And we had always enjoyed each other’s company.  So after bumping into her in Mexico City, I dragged her to go with me to Acapulco, where I had a tournament, seeing she was just so out of sorts when I saw her.  Never saw her like that before.  In Acapulco we got hold of a super-yacht of one of those Mexican billionaires, which had a couple of speedboats attached to it. Bette just had a ball blasting around in that speedboat.  She took us on pretty wild rides.  Aahhhh, she’s such an expert with those boats, huh?  And Acapulco’s a great party town, all around anyway, right Marissa?”