Victoria’s face filled with relief upon hearing the news.

”Thank you so much. Thank you..Can I see her now?” Victoria asked.

”They will come out shortly and get you when they take her to her room” Tina said as Victoria reached out taking her hand and giving it a grateful shake.

”Thanks Dr. Lawson. You don’t know how relieved I am” Victoria said letting go of Tina’s hand.

”You’re welcome. If there isn’t anything else I need to get back” Tina said finding it difficult to look at the woman who was in the place she should have been.

Victoria shook her head and Tina gave her a smile as she walked back to the lockers to gather herself after seeing the woman she had loved since she met her that day at the school fountain 20 years ago.

”That should have been me but I fucked it all up. It should have been me. I’m so sorry Bette” Tina whispered through her tears.

Tina thought back to the days before her 21st birthday. She was determined to make the trip back to her childhood home in North Carolina and meet her true love at the fountain regardless of her condition. Her doctor told her traveling was out of the question due to her pregnancy being so far along. She was devastated. Because of a drunken one night encounter with her best friend and ex husband Philip Lawson, she ended up pregnant and the two got married for the sake of their son after he was born and lost any chance to be with the love of her life. Tina went into labor and delivered Kyle on her 21st birthday at the same time she was supposed to meet Bette at the fountain.

Tina and Philip tried to make it work but they were better as friends than lovers and divorced 2 years after Kyle was born. They remain best friends and do everything together as a family along with Philip’s wife Crystal, but Tina hasn’t been romantically involved with anyone else since she promised herself to Bette. And now knowing that Bette was married she felt she truly had lost any chance to be with the woman that still held her heart.

She had told her parents that she was in love with Bette after her mother found a letter Bette had written to her and one that Tina was writing back in response when she was putting some clothes in her closet and knocked them off the top shelf. Her Father William forbade her to contact or to talk to Bette and sent her to a strict boarding school in Asheville North Carolina. Her mother Joan never forgave her father for sending her away and they divorced a year later. Her mother fought to get custody of Tina but William was a highly successful attorney in the county and he won sole custody.