“What did you do?”

“I got dressed and left,” Bette admitted meekly. She looked down to her lap at her clasped hands; they suddenly seemed incredibly more interesting then Alice’s shocked eyes. “Don’t look at me like that Al!”

“You just left?” Alice questioned in disbelief. “Porter, smooth move. What a smooth move.”

Bette rolled her eyes at her friend before opting to ignore her jibes. She didn’t come to the Planet to get even more frustrated; she just wanted a coffee before she went to work. Work, dammit! Bette looked down at her watch and grumbled once she realised the time. No time for coffee then.

“What? Where are you going?”

“I have to go to work Alice!”

Bette stood up and grabbed her briefcase. Before Alice could object, she leant over the table and picked up Alice’s cup of coffee. She quickly downed the warm liquid much to Alice’s annoyance.

“You owe me Porter!” Alice shouted as she watched Bette rush out of the Planet. “You owe me.”

^^^

“Any calls James?” Bette asked her assistant as she breezed past his desk. She was balancing her briefcase, a cup of coffee and her jacket in one hand while trying to find the appropriate key to open her office door in the other.

“Just one, let me check…” He typed away at his keyboard, “Ah yes. Tina Kennard? She told me to tell you to ring her back. It’s important.”

Bette, having found the key, pushed open her office door and thanked James before disappearing inside. She carefully put her stuff down and immediately grabbed the phone. She was worried now. What if something had happened to Eric?

She dialled her house number and released a deep breath, that she was unaware she was holding in, when she heard Tina’s calm voice on the other end. She contemplated just remaining silent just to listen to her voice.

“Hey Tina, it’s Bette.”

Bette could almost hear the smile in her voice.

“Hi Bette, I called ages a go, I just wanted to apologise for this morning.”

“No, it was ok,” Bette lied.

She took a seat behind her desk to get more comfortable, she was going to do her best to keep this conversation going as long as possible. As she listened to Tina apologise profusely, she opened up her laptop and signed on.