“Yes.”

A month later.

My relationship with Tina had grown a lot since we first met. We had hung out quite a few times and she came to The Planet with us for margarita nights on Fridays and had a lot of fun. Slowly the girls and I were pulling her out of her shell, Eric always joked about our girls nights. But when it came to Jodi, she always steered clear, and I don’t know if Jodi was giving her a bad vibe, but she always avoided the subject of Jodi or just avoided her altogether.

As bad as it sounds, I too tried to avoid Jodi as much as possible. She had been taking me to a few of her artist dinners and I hated them. She never thought much about my art and when asked by other artists, I always “doodled” and wasn’t a serious artist. It really hurt that she would belittle me in front of her guests and that I couldn’t have my own voice. Although the one good thing about dating Jodi was the fact that she reignited my love and passion for art. I hadn’t painted in a while and I used it as a creative release for my Tina obsession.

“How are things with Jodi,” Alice asked.

“Eh, it’s alright I guess.”

“Uh oh, that doesn’t sound good,” Shane said, biting her sandwich.

“Yeah, I’m not really into this relationship. She was a distraction that I needed, but it isn’t working,” I said sighing, as I saw Tina reach the cash register, she smiled and waved, I waved back.

“Oi, you really need to get that out of your head,” Alice said, “it’s not gonna happen.”

“She’s right, don’t do this to yourself,” Shane said.

“I know, but I just can’t.”

“What are we talking about,” Tina said, sitting next to me.

“Jodi,” Shane said.

“Oh,” Tina said, sounding a little disappointed, “how is that going?”

“Oh not so well.”

“Why is that?”

“Well, I umm,” I stammered.

“She’s hung up on someone,” Alice said.

“Ohhh, anyone we know,” Tina asked gleefully and looked at me, Shane choked on her water.

“Shane,” I said and then my phone went off, “P.T. this is Bette.”

“Bette I need you on four, we have a new admin I need you to see.”