As Alice was explaining to Dana what a player was, Bette excused herself from Gillian and walked across the room to the table where Shane was sitting alone. On her way to Shane she looked at Tina’s table and saw a woman persistently hitting on Tina. Bette’s eyes flashed with anger and she began to move toward Tina.

This time it was Bette who felt a powerful grip on her arm.

“Not now,” said Shane firmly and Bette stopped and took a deep breath.

“Yeah, thanks,” said Bette as she saw Val and Sue finally get rid of the woman who was bothering Tina.

“Socome and join us, my friend,” Bette said to Shane, giving her a reassuring smile. Shane allowed herself a hint of a smile and followed Bette back to the table.

“This is my friend, Shane McCutcheon.”

Shane was pleased that Bette had remembered her last name.

The women at the table greeted Shane and she joined them. Dana had been oblivious to Shane’s stopping Bette, but Alice and Gillian saw it.

Everyone at Tina’s table also saw Bette’s reaction.

“See,” said Tina, “she’s interested in me.”

Val slumped at the table, realizing that Tina just didn’t get it. Tina saw interest in Bette and Val saw nothing but sexual desire. She thought that Tina was in so much trouble and she didn’t think she could stop her. She and Bette wanted each other, for different reasons, but Tina refused to see that. So Val wondered what she could do that could help Tina the most.

“I guess I’ll just have to be around to pick up the pieces,” Val said to Sue after they had gotten back to Val’s apartment.

“She’ll need that.” Sue agreed completely with Val. Sue knew Bette a little better than Val and realized this thing with Tina was a different from Bette’s usual M.O. Bette didn’t generally go for women who were vulnerable. But this time, Bette couldn’t see the vulnerability because her desire was too strong. Sue, as well, had definitely seen the desire in Bette’s face at Milk.

“She’ll need that,” Sue repeated.

But Val and Sue were wrong about Bette, at least partially.

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Gillian’s return to LA had not helped Bette. She had spent the night with Gillian the night she had returned and they had made love, but Bette was not especially aroused. She wondered how that was possible because Jill was very beautifulred hair, green eyes, gorgeous figure. When Bette saw her naked, she was usually very aroused and couldn’t wait to be all over her and inside her. But not last night. Bette had made love skillfully and thought that the redhead wouldn’t notice the difference, but she did. It was kind of love-making by the numbers: first I do this and second I do that and third I do the other

And much to Bette’s horror, she did think of Tina as she was caressing Gillian and had to force her out of her mind. Damn that Alice, Bette thought. This would never have happened if Al hadn’t put that thought in her head.

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But Gillian was realizing that hers and Bette’s liaison had about run its course. Bette seemed to be interested in that blond woman and Gillian found that she didn’t mind too much. It was well known that one woman couldn’t keep Bette’s attention for very long and Gillian had gone into the relationship clear-eyed. On her last trip to New York she had met someone interesting, soit was time to move on.

Gillian thought she had spotted love in the blond’s eyes while she was dancing with Bette. That was too bad, Gillian thought, because being with Bette wasn’t about love.

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Tina undressed and put on her sleeping clothes. She got into bed and snuggled under the covers and turned out the light. In a few minutes, she turned the light back on, retrieved her purse from a chair in the bedroom and opened her billfold. She got back into bed looking at Bette’s picture. She propped it up against the bedside lamp because it was the last thing she wanted to see at night and the first thing she wanted to see in the morning.

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Bette was sitting on the side of her bed looking at the photo of Tina and her at the gallery..

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Cupid, Shane thought as she walked home. I hope so.