Chapter 6

*knock, knock, knock*

"Housekeeping!"

"Huuuhhmm?" Tina stretched, immediately grabbing her throbbing head, "Who?"

The soft voice called again, "Housekeeping… Sorry, I can come back later Miss…"

"Sure, yes… later please" Tina said groggily as she slowly sits up, noticing she still has on all of her clothes from the night before.  Looking around the room through half lidded eyes, "Dane? Dana?…"

Tina rose to her feet in search of her friend.  Pushing open the bathroom door she sees Dana laying prone on the floor, next to the toilet, wearing only her jeans and her bra.

Tina gently kicks Dana’s feet, "Dane, get up… I need to pee!"

Dana flops over on her back and winces, "Uhhhhh… what the fuuu… Tina?  Where am I? What happened last night?"

Tina shakes her head and laughs, "We’re at my hotel and last night, my friend, you did the damn thing!"

"Oh god" Dana mumbles, "did we have fun?"

"Well if that pile of beads over there is any indicator, I’d say we had a blast!" Tina nods toward Dana’s shirt tangled with a hoard of Mardi Gras beads.

Dana looked down at her bare torso and then back to her best friend, "Beads? I didn’t? Please tell me I didn’t… " she moaned.

Tina smiled and nodded, "oh yeah… you did. You and the girls most definitely did!"

"I’m so embarrassed… I am too old for this… " Dana grumbled as she crawled out of the bathroom and into the bed

Dana fell back asleep as Tina showered and got ready for her informal lunch meeting with Bette Porter.

The thought of seeing the gallery owner again set butterflies aloft in her stomach.  In an attempt to quell her nerves she tried to minimize her feelings, ‘It’s only a business lunch, I will agree to allow her to procure my collection, we’ll have lunch, shake hands, and that’s it… she’ll go her way and I’ll go mine’.  But, deep down, she knew there was much more to the emotions she was experiencing and any effort to diminish them would prove to be futile.  

Tina chose to wear a jade green organic cotton maxi dress which tied around her neck, exposing the top half of her back; on her feet cognac brown leather strappy flat sandals;  her makeup natural pale pink hues with bare glossed lips; her golden hair hung wispily in a loose up do, and the brass antique skeleton key adorned her neck; she applied lavender oil to her pulse points before taking in her reflection in the full length mirror.  She felt feminine and sexy.