“I wouldn’t have done that Kit. I told you it wasn’t a good time. I was upset about something else.” Bette defended.

“Maybe you didn’t do it physically but walking away from me the way you did and shutting that bedroom door in my face had the same effect. I read my apologies to you through a closed-door baby sis. I was so disheartened that you wouldn’t even let me face you. I just knew I’d fucked it up again with you, but your better half” Kit said gesturing to Tina “told me I didn’t fuck up, and it wasn’t my fault. She didn’t say it then but I knew she would be my saving grace to get through to you.”

Bette remembered the night when Kit appeared in their living room. She and Tina had just come home from attending a dinner party at a neighbor’s house Tim and Jenny. The young couple was celebrating their engagement. Earlier that evening Bette had walked into their kitchen to get a drink and interrupted Jenny and a female friend standing very close. Jenny was crying but Marina’s posturing wasn’t one of comforting a friend, it was the intimacy of a lover.

Marina owned the Planet before Kit bought it. Bette and Tina frequented the café along with most of their friends so they knew Marina had a reputation as a predatory lesbian with a taste for vulnerable young women like Jenny. Granted Jenny was an adult with free will. She knew how devastating the affair would be for Tim who was under the impression they were about to embark on their beautiful life together, but Bette still felt protective. Marina could be forceful and like Helena Peabody rarely did she not get whatever she went after.

Bette confronted Marina in the bathroom and made her feelings known that whatever Jenny and Marina were doing was wrong. Marina didn’t agree that she’d done anything wrong. Bette just gave her a disapproving look and walked out. Marina finished in bathroom and followed her. When they returned to the living room that other guests were playing a game called “if you knew you only had one day to live how would you live it.” It was Jenny’s turn and she answered that she’d spend it writing until she felt like she’d left something behind that she was proud of. Tim expressed hurt that she didn’t say she would spend it with him. Marina answered that she’d spend the day lying on the beach, sipping rum and reading Borges. Bette picked up on Marina’s seductive tone and she openly mind-fucked Jenny from across the room. The café owner was a literary intellectual that had found Jenny’s weakness. As a struggling writer Jenny was attracted to books. Marina came across as a kindred spirit that shared her love of literature. It was under the guise of Jenny attending Marina’s book club meetings several nights a week that provided cover for their illicit affair and never raised Tim’s suspicions when she came home late. One evening after getting home from one these so-called book club meetings Jenny crawled into bed with Tim reeking of Marina’s essence. He snuggled up to her in a sleepy haze but he noticed the unfamiliar smell. When he questioned her, she said she was trying out a new perfume. He simply said he liked the old one better and fell back to sleep. Jenny’s guilt consumed her that night but it didn’t stop her from doing him wrong.