“Hello Shane,” made her eyes fly open to see Tina standing next to Carmen.

“Hi”, Shane answered a bit startled to really see Tina after so many years. She stood up and hugged Tina in a long embrace. Bette walked up to them with drinks in hand and cleared her throat.

“Hey T,” Bette beamed at unsurprisingly seeing her there, since Carmen had mentioned meeting her.

“Hello Bette,” Tina answered a tad coldly and turned to Carmen motioning their departure.

“Cheers enjoy your. . . “Carmen waved her had over their table indicating her uncertainty as to what they were really doing.

“Cheers,” Shane and Bette smiled reluctant to let the women go. They both sank into their chairs and sighed.

After a long quenching drink at their beers, Shane settled hers and looked directly at Bette after checking out how far Tina and Carmen were.

“You know, Carmen said something very strange to me. I need protection from that woman.” Shane told Bette, forehead creased in thought. “You know,” Shane continued, “She said Tina told her what type we were.” She stopped to make sense of this to herself again. “What was Tina talking about and what is wrong with us?”

Bette just shrugged her shoulders and looked over at the women who were surely talking about them.  She knew what they were talking about by the stern way that Tina was talking and also doing her best not to look in their direction.

“Everything and nothing is wrong with us. We are single, decent and apparently unable to commit.” Bette stated, a little bit hurt at the impression Tina had given her friends of them, but it was the truth. Bette and Shane just stared t them for a while longer and looked at each other. Shane was the first to speak up.

“You know, that Carmen girl is cute in a feisty kind of way, a bit like Tina.” Shane looked at Bette who had an all to knowing grin on her face.

“Does this mean you are going to stop perving my woman? I mean Tina?” Bette asked, looking at Carmen and seeing what Shane was talking about. Though very different, there was something about the two women.