I had been living my West Hollywood life for a good amount of time, had known Bette longer than I had known anyone else in my life (aside from Father Joe), and was quite comfortable by that point in my life to casually and openly refer to these women as my family. Tina started getting highly involved in her job, which was good for her to a point that she also started looking overly stressed. Bette was fairly high strung herself, so the two of them together was an interesting balancing act sometimes. Tina started mood swinging over a couple weeks, and while everyone else didn’t really notice it, and neither of them were saying anything, I knew enough about my pharmaceuticals to know she was testing out different drugs. I only hoped she found one that worked for her soon and could manage her stress and anxiety levels. Bette, at least, had finally had enough time to not only sort through the mess her predecessor had left behind, but to also start making her own agenda at the CAC, at least lowering her stress levels enough to be there for Tina. I often found myself during this time sitting back and just watching them.

While I never looked at Bette or Tina as parents, I did look up to them. They were the closest thing to a working relationship I had ever witnessed. I regularly caught myself looking at them with awe, wondering how they managed to stay in love and together for multiple years now. When Tina told me she was going to move in with Bette that day in the car when we drove from my first apartment to Bette’s, I gave them a month, tops, before I thought they would have been at each other’s throats and it all ended. Yet here they were, after all this time, still together, loving each other, supporting each other… It almost was enough to make someone like me think that maybe, just maybe, unconditional love did exist out there…

Alice and I were parked at our usual table at The Planet. I was flipping through a local rag while she went on about what people were wearing at Milk the night before. Dana came in and joined us, still cooling down from her training session. As her protein smoothie was placed in front of her, Kit slid into the remaining chair at our table.