Bette blew a breath out, and crossed her arms in front of her.

“Yes, she asked me to marry her, a long time ago.  No, I never said I would.  She went off to Europe to join some baron who had grown enamored of her.  After a month she flew back to LA, and begged me for weeks to take her back,” Bette recited past events to Tina tersely.

But Tina was driven by jealousy, spiked by alcohol, and was sick to her stomach with the realization that Bette, of course, had been in many other relationships before Tina came along, and probably with many beautiful women like Gia.  Did I really think that I would have been her one and only, as she was mine?       

“So if it was so over between you, what the fuck were you doing in Mexico for a month with her??,” she asked, her voice still carrying.  “It sure didn’t sound like you were just exchanging cooking recipes or some such shit.”

Her hazel eyes stabbed at Bette’s questioning brown ones, hurt, and betrayed, for some reason.  She knew that at some level her reaction was irrational, but she’d been stunned by everything Gia had said, and by how, physically, the auburn-haired beauty and Bette just seemed to fit.  Better than Bette and I?  Could I really have expected Bette to have this weird chemistry only with me?  She’s such a sensual person.  Of course she’d share some level of chemistry with others.

Bette looked around and saw that they were drawing attention.  Concerned that some of Tina’s colleagues from the film industry would see the blonde in this unseemly state in a social setting, she reached out and firmly grabbed Tina’s elbow, to pull her deeper into the hall adjoining the main ballroom, away from the staircase that led to the lobby of the grand hotel, where more people escaping the ballroom tended to gather.

“What the fuck…” Tina started to protest, trying to resist again.

“Cut it out,” Bette said coolly, “We’ll talk, but not here, where your colleagues may overhear you.”

“If you think I give a sh…” Tina began to respond, but Bette shushed her again with a piercing look.

“Even if you don’t care right now about what your colleagues think,” the brunette said icily, “I do.  And so will you, later.”