Bette looked questioningly at Tina.

“Ice cream.”

They sat on a bench watching the ocean as they ate their cones..

“You’re having a lot of fun with all of this, aren’t you, Bette?”

“I was never a horny adolescent.  I’m reliving a stage I missed.”

“You got through adolescence unscathed—no crushes, no unrequited love?”

“All sublimated into overachievement.”

“Then we should keep this up for a while, until you get it out of your system.”

“I’m fine with an accelerated course.  I’ll be ready to jump right into grown-up stuff after the last class session,” Bette smiled at Tina.

“We haven’t gone to Disneyland yet.  We need to get to know each other better during the Mad Hatter’s Ride.”

“Is that the one with the twirling tea cups?”

“Uh huh.”

“As long as we skip that one, we can go whenever you want.”

“Oooohh,  queasy tum tum?.”

“I’m protecting you from an unpleasant spewing.”

At the end of their evening, they had shared a few kisses, which Bette halted. 

“The next date is the fourth,”  Bette looked at Tina with such intensity that Tina almost flinched.

Tina had then cupped Bette’s face and gazed at her tenderly, “Tonight was a perfect game.”

Bette’s forehead furrowed for a second, but took her cue from Tina’s expression and gently pilled Tina’s hand to her lips and kissed her palm.

Later they spoke on the phone to say goodnight.  At the poin that the all should have ended, Tina sensed Bette wanted to say something more.

“What, Bette?”

“Um, Those baseball terms you keep using?  I have no idea what you are talking about.”

Tina snapped back to the present and .excitedly opened the box on her desk.  She dug thought the Styrofoam peanuts and found a flat rectangular box, which she opened.  Inside that box was a picture frame and in the frame was a strip of four photos. Tina realized that the photos were from an automatic photo booth of the type you would find in a mall, and she thought “Bette has probably never even been to a mall.”

The photo at the top of the four showed a pair of inflated balloons, one white with a wig of long straight blond hair.  The second balloon was tan, with long brown curly hair.  A marker had been used to draw expressions of surprise on each face as if the camera had taken the photo before they were ready.  The second photo in the strip showed the same balloons, both facing the camera but one was stacked on top of the other, each making a goofy face at the camera.   Tina had begun to chuckle as soon as she saw the first photo, and her laughter increased with each image.  The third had each of the balloon heads jutting in from a different side of the booth, smiling expressions drawn on each.  The final photo in the strip showed the two balloon heads kissing, with puckered lips.  The blond balloon had been drawn with closed eyes, while the brunette balloon had stars drawn as eyes.

Tina held the photo frame in her hand for several minutes.  Initially, she was looking back and forth at each of the four photos, laughing at each, realizing how much time the very busy gallery owner must have devoted to this latest gift.  After a few minutes, she was looking without really seeing.  .Her reverie was broken when Marilyn buzzed her intercom, alerting her to the stacked-up phone messages.

Tina slipped the photos into the credenza drawer with the teddy bear and the necklace, and began to return the phone messages in their order of importance.  Halfway through the stack, she realized that she was having trouble staying focused.  She sorted the messages again into those that needed immediate attention, and she finished those calls.  When done, she shut down her computer, stood, picked up her bag and briefcase, and started towards her office door.  As she reached for the door handle, she stopped and walked back to the credenza, retrieving the framed pictures and slipping the frame into her briefcase.

“Marilyn, today I saved Alphaville one and a half million dollars.  I’m playing hooky for the rest of the day. I am NOT checking my messages and I’ll see you tomorrow.”

As Tina headed to the parking lot, she spotted Bronwyn in the distance down the hall clearly heading for Tina’s office, probably wanting to find our how the meeting had gone. Bronwyn waved to get Tina’s attention, and Tina reluctantly stopped, her escape delayed by her friend.

“So?”

“It went well.”

“Well?  That’s great!”

“Actually, it went better than well.  Much better.  I am rewarding myself with an afternoon off.”

“You are going home to daydream about the Prince of Elusiveness.”

“Maybe,” Tina replied as she began walking away towards the lot.  She called behind her as she walked “But it’s a princess, and not so elusive.”

Bronwyn laughed then stopped in her tracks and turned but Tina had already disappeared.  Bronwyn shook her head “Shit!”