I never stopped being in love with Tina.

Bette rolled her eyes with a sigh as she moved her phone to her other ear, taking a momentary break from her makeup. “That wasn’t my fault. I had no idea Daria and Darcy were sisters”

“How didn’t you?” Alice’s laugh of disbelief crackled over the line, “They looked almost identical and they had the same last name!”

Bette couldn’t help but smirk, “Like I bothered to ask for their full names”

“The worst” Alice tsked, adoration for her friend clear in her tone. “How you managed to talk those two into a threesome, I’ll never know”

Bette shook her head with a smile and opened her mouth to reply if only to get a rise out of her best friend when she stopped suddenly, memories of her life post-Tina ruining her good mood. She’d been such a different person back then, destructive and uncaring about anyone aside from her close friends and family.

While Bette may have gotten lucky with the sisters, there were others that probably regretted crossing the brunette’s broken-hearted path. Bette had been convinced that she’d changed, grown up from that immature person she’d been but there she was prepared to break yet another heart.

She tried to rationalize the fact that breaking up with Emma had been a long time coming, that it was wrong to remain in a relationship with someone that loved you when you clearly didn’t feel the same.

Bette didn’t even want to throw her feelings for Tina into the mix, not wanting to put any of Emma’s pain on the blonde. While Bette’s love for Tina played a part, it did no more than open the brunette’s eyes to what had always been there.

Nothing she told herself was able to alleviate her guilt or take away the dread she felt at knowing what she would eventually do. As necessary as Bette felt it was, she was in no way excited to see the broken expression on Emma’s face.

“I’m going to tell her” Bette sighed, “Not tonight of course but .. soon. I can’t keep going like this and neither can Tina. It’s not fair to her-”

“What’s not fair to Tina?”

Emma walked into the room, her head tilted to the side as she put on her earring.