“Si, Bella.”

“Oh, god Bette it’s such a beautiful language.  I could probably just sit here and listen to you speak it all day long.”

Bette cleared her throat.  “Well, anymore questions senora?”

“Well I guess I’d really like to know when you knew you were a lesbian.  That is if it’s not too personal.”

“No, it’s okay.”  “It’s really different for everyone, but for me I guess I always knew.  I dated boys in high school, just because it was expected and at that time, to me anyway, it just didn’t seem like an option to date girls, but boy did I have crushes.   When I got to college it didn’t take long before opportunities just seemed to present themselves to me and I did a lot of ….catching up for lost time and dated, ahem quite a bit.  It felt so good to finally feel like I could live my life without hiding or being afraid.  It took me until my junior year to come out to my father.  But that’s a story for another time.”

“Wow, Bette that must have been so confusing.  Did you have anyone you could talk to?”

“No, at that time it was still too taboo.  But I was pretty good at using the Public Library.  I couldn’t have been more than 13 when I had heard the term lesbian and spent every day for a week reading every mention of the word in the whole library.  Some of it was pretty scary but it gave me enough information to make me realize I wasn’t a freak and more importantly, I wasn’t alone.”

Bette looked up at Tina as she finished her story and there she saw eyes filled with tears, eyes filled with empathy, and yes, eyes filled with…………could it be …love?

Tina merely said, “Oh Bette, I am so sorry.”

Bette let out a deep breath and said, “Alright, enough of the doom and gloom, onto lighter topics.      Okay?”

“Okay”

“You know Tina, there has been something I’ve wanted to talk to you about.  Actually I was hoping you might be able to give me some professional advice, but I didn’t want to impose.”

“You’re kidding right?  How could I possibly help you professionally?”

“You see…and please don’t feel obligated in any way.  Promise”?