“Deal.”

Tina closed her eyes and leaned back as Shane did her work.

“Shane this feels amazing.”

“So… tell me Tina…Men?”

Tina continued to keep her eyes closed and giggled.

“Well Shane, for your information, I had more than my share of women…but you know any port in a storm…Nah, men were easier…and when I was with women…you know it wasn’t  always so easy to forget.  I’d think of her and Shit Shane…it still hurt so much…”

“Does it still hurt?”

“Yes… and no…It definitely feels better being with you guys, I mean it brings things to mind, but for some reason I can feel myself letting go of the pain.  I just want to feel whole again…Ya know?”  How’s it going up there?”

“Good, I’m just about ready to do the color.  We’re going to have to be very careful not to let any color near the stitches on your eye.   I think we should cover it with the patch and I brought a bunch of cotton and we have towels so if we go really slow we should be fine.”

Shane applied the dye and Tina sat back and enjoyed the pampering.  After a while, Tina whispered.

“How is she Shane?”

“Tina…she’s better now than she was for a long time…she lost her job at the CAC…and eventually starting doing some consulting work at seems to do okay, but she’s not the same…she…she paints now…she paints a lot.”

 “She’s painting again?”

“Yeah, I didn’t know she painted…Shit…When did she paint? 

“She always painted.  When she was young, when she was in college and when we were first together.  We’d hang some of her paintings but she made me promise to never tell they were hers.”

Tina stared into space and after a few minutes she quietly spoke.

“Is she with anyone…Candace?”

“Tina, are you sure you want to talk about this?”

“Shane, I have to fill in the gaps.  Apparently, from what Alice told me some of my assumptions were wrong.”

“Well in that case…as far as I know, she hasn’t been with anyone since that day at the Planet.  She was really obsessed with finding you….She really fell apart after her trip to North Carolina and she pretty much keeps to herself.  I mean we all visit and she’ll stop at the Planet for coffee when she’s working.  Kit spends a lot of time at the house.”

“Oh, Shane…we really fucked up didn’t we?”

“Tina, you know I don’t have too many great memories of my mom, or growing up, but before my mom lost her battle with life and became an addict she was a fighter and I always remember her saying…God doesn’t give us more than we can handle.  And you know as crazy as this sounds…if my mom didn’t get hooked on the drugs, she could have handled anything…anything…”

They were both silent for a few minutes and then Tina asked.

“So how is Kit anyway?  Has she been staying sober?”

Shane smiled.

“That’s right, you don’t know that Kit‘s Marina’s partner now.”

“You are kidding.  That is amazing.  How did she manage that?  Wait what happened with Francesca?”

“Well let’s see…Marina and Francesca broke up – nasty and Marina was up against the wall.  She had to find a partner fast.  Kit had gotten a recording deal and she did pretty well so when she heard about the opportunity she jumped at it.  She was able to come up with most of the money and Bette co signed a loan for the rest.  Kit’s really been doing great she’s sober and the Planet has never been done better.”

“That’s so amazing Shane, Kit really deserves some happiness in her life.  She’s such a good person.  I can’t wait to see her.”

“I’m sure the feeling is mutual, Tina.  Okay, time to rinse.  Are you ready?”

The rest of the afternoon was spent finishing Tina’s makeover, cooking, laughing and even some tears, but fewer than the day before.  By 4:00 Tina was sound asleep so Shane and Alice sat down and talked about their plans.

Later in the evening, they had a wonderful dinner and climbed into the bed to watch a movie.  Tina fell asleep 10 minutes into the movie and Shane and Alice were soon to follow.