Once Tina got inside of the art center, she turned around to watch Bette pull off. She saw Bette sit there for an exra minute or so with a look of pleasant disbelief on her face, and if Tina’s notion was correct, then she could say that she felt the same way. It was almost unbelievable that coincedentally, Bette showed up like that, and how it was a meeting that Tina had hoped for for the longest but just never admitted to it before now.
Just then, as Bette’s excitement radiated throughout her face, she pulled off. Tina smiled and looked down as she took a moment to let all of the previous events soak in, but as she was doing so, she was abruptly interrupted. Helena had come up behind her and put her hands on her shoulders.
Helena: Hey sweety, are you ready to go and eat out? (She said as a joke.)
Tina laughed slightly. Jokes like that seemed to lose something when they weren’t coming from Bette.
Tina: Yeah. I am positively starved. I’ve definately worked up a pretty substantial appetite.
Helena: Oh yeah? Why, what’d you do today? Did you go running or something?
Tina: Sure, something like that. Hey have you checked your voicmail?
Helena: No I havn’t, I havn’t really had the time to actually. Why, did you leave me a dirty message?
Tina: No.
Tina was now noticing how clueless Helena truly was and how compatible her and Bette were together. Bette would’ve been able to just glimpse at her face and find out that she’d had a terrible day. She GOT Tina, she understood her, she could tell apart the most minute differences in Tina’s emotions. Such as: whether or not she was disheartened or disappointed, or, invigorated or exhilarated. (There is a difference)
Tina: I did leave you a message though, but now it’s really unimportant, so it wouldn’t make a difference if you checked it or not.
Helena: Okay, well I’ll be sure not to waste time with it then. You ready babe?
“Man she really does know all of the right things to say to make a girl feel extremely loved.”, Tina thought sarcastically to herself.
Tina: Yeah, I’m ready.
%%%Later%%%
Tina and Helena were finally settling down at the restaurant, getting ready to order as they were having a dead end conversation.
Tina: So, how was your day?
Helena: Oh baby, it was sooo *****, I don’t even think that you would be able to begin to understand.
Tina: Oh yeah? Try me. I think that I might have an idea as to what a “*****” day is, you might be suprised.
Helena: Okay, well basically, it was just a bunch of business issues that had to be taken care of. So most of my day had to be spent making phone calls from my office when I usually get to do field or scout work, you know, like booking new talent and artists and stuff. I hated being couped up in there and sitting on my ***** all day, I would’ve prefered to be more active than I was today that’s all.
Tina: That’s funny, because you could say that I did some field work today.
Helena: Hun, do you know what you’re getting yet?
Tina had wondered if Helena had been listening to anything that she’d been saying, not understanding why she couldn’t seem to pick up the hints that she was dropping about the events that occured throughout the course of her day.
Tina: Yeah I do, are you not just a little curious about what happened to me today? (She said in a slightly fustrated manner.)
Helena: You told me I thought. You went to The Planet to see your friends and you went running. There’s more to your days than that?
Tina: You know Helena, you’re absolutely right, I have nothing better to do than to lounge at the local cafe and run around all day.
Helena: I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have assumed that that’s always the norm. It’s just that since we’ve been together, you havn’t really been doing much of anything so can you blame me for thinking that that was still the case?
Tina didn’t respond to that out of line comment, she just sat back with her arms folded and looked at Helena as though she was trying to convey to her with her facial expressions that she felt that that was low.
Helena: Okay well I apologize anyway. I didn’t mean to make you upset. Forgive me?
Begrudgingly, Tina did so.
Tina: So do you or don’t you want to hear what happened, or do you care?
Helena: Yeah baby, of course I care, go ahead.
Tina: Okay, well it’s a long story. It started after I got to The Planet and we were all having this stupid conversation about…(Helena interrupts.)
Helena: Hun, sorry to cut you off, but can you make a long story short, I’m sure that the waiter will be here soon. So why don’t you skip the uneventful parts, like what “stupid conversations” you had earlier, and get to the meaty part of your story.
Tina was so thrown off by Helena’s interjection, requesting that she condense her story. She’d gotten the roles completely backwards, assuming that she would need to shorten her story in order for Bette to want to listen to it and to think that, her current partner, would be the one willing to listen to the elaborate version, when indeed, it turned out to be the other way around. Irritated, Tina answered.
Tina: Well the “gist” is, my car was towed and so with the only money that I had on me, I called you and you didn’t answer. And so, I left you a message explaining where I was and my situation and where, if you had gotten the message, you could pick me up from if you were able to manage to pull yourself away from work.
Helena: Is that sarcasm that I hear in your voice?
Tina: A little bit, yes.
Helena: Well it shouldn’t be, you know that I would’ve come and got you, whether I was working or not. But wow, your car was towed? What did you do then?
Tina: Well with no money and no transportation, I was forced to start walking down the PCH.
Helena: Are you serious!? Aww sweety, I wish I would’ve known. (Tina rolled her eyes.) I so would’ve been on my way.
Tina: Yeah, okay.
Helena: Wait a second, you do know that don’t you?
Tina: You know Helena, I’m not so sure about that anymore, actually…I’m not sure about alot of things. I’ve just lost my appetite, can I use your phone so that I can call a cab?
Helena: Sure, but I thought you didn’t have any money on you?
Tina: I’ll manage.
Helena gave Tina her phone, and she went outside to make her phone call.
The reason why Tina could “manage”, is because she knew that she wasn’t calling a cab, well not exactly, it could’ve been similar because after all, she did refer to it as, “Porter Transit.”