“I … guess. Yeah.”

“Hey, slap a smile on that face,” Patricia grinned, raising her wine glass. “Don’t make me do it for you.”

Just then, Bette entered with both hands on her hips. “You slap my wife, and I’m afraid you and I will have to have it out.”

Patricia laughed so hard that she had to set down her glass before finally easing back into the sofa. “Oh, you two. I love the both of you – I hope you know that.”

“Oh, we know,” Bette smiled, grabbing her own glass of wine in the kitchen as Patricia and Tina continued on with a conversation of their own.

“So … was the cable guy studly, or what? – Did he check you out?” Patricia teased, peaking over the rim of her retro glasses with a smirk. “Did you like it?”

“Hey!” Bette called out from the kitchen – ignored by both women on the couch who were giggling already.

Tina finally settled down, leaning back into the couch as she shook her head. “No. It was a girl, so no.”

“Oh, you’re right. Girls NEVER find themselves attracted to other girls. I forgot!”
Tina laughed, but corrected the assumption. “No, I mean a girl, Pat. She was pretty young, so I can’t imagine that having happened.”

“Butch?” Patricia inquired, wriggling her eyebrows for effect. “I’ve gotta say … if I were into the ladies … I think I’d go for a really butch … handyman-sort of woman.”

Tina smiled, but shook her head no. “No, femme. But weird brown hair though. Like … frizzy, but not really. I don’t know. I haven’t seen that hairstyle in like – I don’t know, never.”

“Oh my god – don’t tell me it’s her,” Patricia kidded, chuckling until she got a look from Tina. Bette walked into the conversation quite hesitantly.

What Patricia hadn’t known was that Bette never sat down to give Tina a full description of the obsessed young woman. The fear in that moment was tangible – had the stalker been in the house? Spoken with Tina, even?

“Bette – you’ve shown her that picture, haven’t you?”

But she hadn’t. She’d had it at work, and found no use in troubling Tina with the strange reminder.