"What… Alice… no I don’t think you understand what I’m saying."

"Then what are you saying Tina?"

"… I’m saying that Jus isn’t there yet. But I know she will be."

"Ok then just do me a favor and answer this one question." Tina nodded her acceptance of a question that was going to asked whether she permitted it or not. "Do you want to be the person she gets there with, can you wait however long it takes for Justine to be what you need her to be?"

That truly was the million-dollar question that raced through Tina’s mind. Could she wait for Justine to be what she needed and wanted in a wife? Was this truly whom she was meant to be with? If so, how come everything in her body told her that waiting was not an option, and her heart was telling her there was somebody else that she wanted?

Tina took another big bite out of her snickers bar and let her emotions and her brain play Ping-Pong with her heart. Tina could not understand why these feelings came flooding back to her like a tidal wave. Maybe she was thinking about Bette like this the entire course of their relationship? Maybe she was ready for marriage and she knew that Justine wasn’t what she wanted? Maybe Justine’s proposal flushed out the fact that time was moving and these feelings weren’t?

…………………………………

"Sit down."

"Excuse me?"

"I said sit down before I make a bigger ass out of you and me!" Bette snapped.

Justine did as she was told and took her seat again. With a smug smile on her face she straightened her shirt and sat back waving her hand as if she were giving Bette the floor to speak.

"Now hear this cousin, I love you. You’re my flesh and blood and I will always love you, but I can’t allow you to continue to hurt Tina." Bette folded her arms across her chest and watched as every lick of anger danced on Justine’s face. "And the answer is yes, I am ready for a woman like Tina, in fact I have been for a long time now. But I don’t want any one like Tina, I want Tina. I love her, maybe more than she loves me, but that’s my cross to bear. Honestly Jus you can sit here and tell me she deserves this kind of treatment?"