“I’d better go …” mumbled Lottie, “don’t want to leave Tina alone with Lisa for too long …” she added, before scuttling out of the door,

She left Bette standing there puzzled,

“Alice …” mumbled Bette to herself, “if you dare …”

The four of them were still dissecting Jenny’s magazine article when Lottie and Tina came across to say goodbye, Alice watched as Lisa made her way silently past, waiting outside the door for Tina and Lottie to join her,

Tina leant in to kiss Bette, “Bye babe … see you at five?” she added, reminding Bette to pick her up,

Bette nodded, “Will do …”

Bette watched them leave, thinking back to all those months ago when she’d suggested to Alice that maybe it wasn’t the best idea to be dating Tina’s work colleague let alone turning her, she shot Alice an annoyed glance …

“Hey …” protested Alice, her hands raised in indignation, “what was that look for …? she’s the one who dumped me … *remember*?” she added, slightly hurt,

Bette rubbed her friends shoulder affectionately, “Sorry …”

Just outside the door Lottie felt her cell phone vibrate in her pocket, she felt around for it and for her sunglasses to block out the bright light, signalling to the others that she’d catch them up,

“Hey Jo …”

“Hi …” said Jo, relieved to have caught her, “you’re not in work are you?”

“No … just on my way back from lunch …”

“Right …” Jo paused and Lottie smiled, they’d pre-arranged having this conversation to pre-arrange a ‘dinner date’ but there was something reassuring to Lottie about knowing that Jo was as nervous as she was, “was your flight okay?” Jo asked,

Lottie smiled, stifling a yawn, she lowered herself to sit on the wall outside The Planet, “Fine, but we were delayed so we didn’t get back ‘till really late …” she said, finishing the sentence in a yawn,

“So I see …” Jo teased, “think you’ll have recovered by tomorrow night?” she asked,

Lottie grinned, “Depends, what’s happening tomorrow night?” she asked, faking ignorance,

“Dinner with me at this new Thai place I’ve found …” said Jo assertively,

Lottie felt herself blush, “Sounds good,”