They had their breakfast in silence – a comfortable one. They had reached a stage where words weren’t always necessary, sometimes even unwanted.

After they had loaded everything into the dishwasher, Bette took a deep breath and turned around to face Tina. “Tina – I… there’s something I need to tell you. I just don’t want to do it here, so… is it okay if I take you somewhere?”

Tina frowned her eyebrows in surprise. “Sure. I don’t have any meetings this morning anyway and the rate I’ve been working, I’m ahead of schedule.”

In reality, she had been working her ass off for the distraction. She could talk to Bette and she did, a lot, but not about everything. Not about these mixed feelings Bette gave her, not about how her skin crawled when Bette touched her arm, not how she lost her breath when they were in the pool and Bette was wearing that black bikini of hers. She didn’t really know what it all meant and she wasn’t sure if she wanted to. And the way Bette looked at her when she thought she didn’t see it… it sent chills down her spine, but she didn’t know if was in the positive or in negative way. And what if she was imagining things? It would be so embarrassing if none of it were true…

Fifteen minutes later, they were both in the car, on their way to Bette’s favourite excluded place. Tina was surprised to see Bette pull up at her gallery. She wondered why they were stopping here – maybe Bette wanted to pick up some work?

Bette got out of the car and walked to the other side and opened Tina’s door. Tina smiled at this gesture, still confused at why they were here.

“Just follow me.” Bette gave Tina a reassuring smile, trying to hide her anxiety. Bette didn’t walk to her gallery, but to the entrance of the skyscraper that was close to it – only a few buildings in between. They stepped inside and Bette made a beeline for the elevator. She pushed the button to go all the way up. There were two other guys in the elevator – one of them getting out at the twentieth floor, the other at the twenty-seventh.