“Sorry, I didn’t… Hi. Is Bette home?” She smiles shyly at Tina. Tina’s face is hard.

“You must be Kelly. Yeah, I’ll go wake her.” Tina’s tone is cold and impatient. She unlocks her door and walks back inside. She throws her stuff on the chair and marches up the steps to their bedroom, anger and jealousy are raging through her. Is this who her girlfriend spends her days with? A fierce, heavy heat is crushing her, making it hard to breath.

“Bette. You have a visitor.” Tina’s tone is filled with fury.

“What? Who?”

“Kelly. She’s downstairs. You could at least wait till I leave.” Tina turns quickly to walk out.

“Tina, wait!” Bette takes a cleansing breath, grateful that Tina actually stopped. “What is going on?” She is completely confused.

“Are you having an affair with her?”

“No! Absolutely not!” Bette jumps out of bed and grabs her robe. She takes Tina’s hand in hers.

“T. Talk to me, baby. What is it? You’ve been so angry and impatient. You’re so stressed out.” Bette’s voice is gentle and loving.

“I’m just tired and I have a lot to do today.” Tina slumps her shoulder. She feels ready to collapse.

“You need to relax. Take the day off. Spend today with me.” Bette pleads, trying to pull Tina in for a hug. Tina resists.

“I can’t.”

“Tina, please.”

“I can’t Bette. I have to go to work and you apparently have to go surfing. Too bad you don’t get paid for it.” Tina raises her voice. She pulls away sharply and storms out. She wipes the tears running down her face as she storms past Kelly and out into the cold morning. The clouds are dark grey and the ocean waves are fitful.

*******

Tina’s morning has been horrendous. Anything that could go wrong does. Her set is in shambles. The lead actors are at each other’s throats because the director is sleeping with a costar and giving her more camera time then the others. The screenwriters are in a tizzy over the director’s miss-interpretation of their scenes. They are behind schedule and over budget. Her meeting with the board was just as bad, giving her no help at all. Tina is pulling at her hair and her stomach is in knots. Any other day she would have come up with a genius contingency plan for both the budget and her overbearing actors. But today, she feels like firing everyone. She wishes she could have stayed in bed with Bette, but even that part of her life is shit right now.