“She has to figure out what she really wants though. It’s pretty hard to find someone to love you if you’re not prepared to come out and stand up for who you are.”

“You say that, but it’s not easy.” replied Shane, thinking that Tina was simplifying matters somewhat.

“I know, but we’re both here to support her and I just want her to be happy.”

“I know you do and wish that she would have the courage to come out too, but different people come out at different times. There’s no set rules in this.”

“I’m sorry. I know I don’t even have the right to even talk about this. It’s not as if I’m ever going to come up against this kind of issue myself.”

“It’s OK. You’re entitled to your opinion and I know that you only want the best for Dana.” said Shane, taking a big gulp of her drink.

“Shall we talk about something else?” asked Tina, wanting not to sound like she knew better than anyone else.

“Yeah, lets. We should talk about you.” said Shane, glad of the opportunity to probe Tina regarding the state of her love life.

“My love life, or the lack thereof is off limits before you even think about starting up that particular topic.”

“Come on Tina, we’ve talked about Dana behind her back we should at least talk about you for a little while.”

“What do you want to know?” asked Tina, knowing that she wasn’t going to wriggle off the hook.

“When are you going to start dating again?” replied Shane, getting straight to the point.

“I’m not.” replied Tina, definite in her assertion.

“You’re a beautiful woman Tina, you shouldn’t hide yourself away.”

“It’s not about that. I just don’t want to go through it all again. It hurts too much. All that disappointment and stripping away of hope. I just don’t want to go there again.”

“You don’t know that that’s going to happen again.” said Shane, concerned to see Tina so definitive.

“No, you see, I do know that that’s not going to happen again because I’m not going to let it happen, and the way that I’m going to do that is to not get involved.”

“I don’t believe you.” said Shane, tempting Tina into another justification of her thinking.

“Believe me or not, that’s what I’m going to do….at least for a while anyway.” smiled Tina, thinking, secretly, that it would be nice to meet someone and have that rush that comes with the first date.

“That’s more like it. Now, lets get another drink and show this place how we can drink.” said Shane, getting up from the table and heading towards the bar.