Bette pulled back the paper and there were a pair of deep cherry-brown cowboy boots. Bette looked at the boots and saw the intricate vine and leaf designs running up the leg and the beautiful shine on the new leather. She picked up the boot and scoffed, she was puzzled as to why Tina would give her something like this. “Uhh, what are these for?”

“I was hoping that I could persuade you to come to Montana with a new pair of boots, but since you’ve agreed to come anyway, consider these icing on this potentially disastrous cake.” Tina smiled using Bette’s exacts words from earlier.

“Tee… I don’t…” though the boots were beautiful, Bette just couldn’t see herself wearing them at all.

“I know that you’ve already agreed to go, but you’re still going to need them. Tennis shoes aren’t going to get you through the day.”

“Through the day? What will we be doing that I’m going to need boots?”

Tina didn’t answer right away which lead Bette to lean into her space to coax an answer out of her. Again Tina looked further away. “Tee?”

“Maybe just a few things around the place, you know, here and there.”

“There is no ‘here and there’, am I going to Montana to meet your family or am I going to just to be a field hand?”

“A field hand? No, you are going to meet people in my life who are very important to me. But they also have a lot of land that they live off of, so off days are nearly non-existent.”

“I knew it.” Bette shook her head. She was already nervous about meeting her girlfriend’s former in-laws but now they were going to be criticizing her work as a rancher.

“Babe you’re going to be fine. Just stick with me and I’ll get you through it. I promise.” Tina’s sincere look into Bette’s eyes was impactful.

Bette continued to shake her head as she now looked down to the boots. Trying to remain optimistic for Tina’s sake she was unwilling to let more doubts cloud the clarity she found in her decision to accompany Tina and Angie “When should I start wearing these?” Bette picked up one boot and began to inspect it, they were stiff and pristine, surely they needed to be broken in somehow.