this is dedicated to all my wonderful commenters: Amanda(Hotpepper), Amazed, angelak, asrai, Becky, Bette&TinaForever, booTeeful, Burlesque, bvhall, c, gently streaming, gina, Just Once, Kabby, karen, Ladytron, Lenab41, leogrrl2, Lyn, mc, Meiji, Nina, Pats, Phoenix, Revolution, rondayvue, S, Seahurst, searchin, Tamaratag, techgal, Tee, trecelovinit, vw, wo~wo, z. (Sincere apologies if anyone was inadvertently left off the list; I believe it was currrent as of the time of posting this story.)

To you and all who have enjoyed this series, thank you for the opportunity to share.

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When It All Became 7


“You didn’t.” Dana’s eyes narrowed. She leaned forward, challenging her friend.

Alice didn’t flinch. “I did. I totally did.”

“Did what?” The other women had motioned Jenny over to the table, and she found herself entering mid-conversation.

“We’re talking about embarrassing dates,” offered Dana.

“Yeah,” Alice quickly interjected. “But embarrassing for other people.” She gave a broad smile. “It’s more fun that way.”

Jenny gave a wistful smile. “I don’t think I’d like to reflect on my embarrassing dates.”

“See.” Alice looked to Dana, and motioned towards Jenny. “She agrees.”

“But,” Jenny interjected, “I’m not sure I want to talk about other people, either.”

Now it was Dana’s turn to motion towards Alice, using gestures to punctuate her point.

“Sure ya do,” Alice barreled on, ignoring Dana. “You’re a writer. You love talking about other people.” Alice gave that thought a nanosecond to sink in before continuing. “So, most embarrassing party moment.”

Jenny set down her coffee cup. “I thought this was most embarrassing date?”

“People who are at parties,” Alice spoke slowly, as if this should make as perfect sense to the rest of the world as it did to her, “as a couple, are also on a date.”

“But what if it’s just two friends going together?” Dana’s face kept a look of innocence, but she knew she was getting to her friend.

And she did. “Let me just tell the story,” Alice snapped out the words. Then, with silence established, she took a deep breath. The smile and slow pacing returned.

“Ok,” Alice started, looking around the table at the other women to see if there would be any more challenges to the topic. “I was having this party because it was a day ending a in ‘y,’ or something.”

“Don’t they all?” Jenny started. She let the words fade under Alice’s semi-serious stare.

“And I’d invited just a few friends who, of course, invited the rest of West Hollywood.” Alice swiveled towards Jenny. “People love my parties.”

With her head turned, Alice totally missed Dana’s mocking pantomime of the words. Dana had heard them many times before, and still wasn’t sure she believed them. Not to the extent Alice did, anyway.

Dana did have the presence to paste a quick smile on her face as Alice swiveled her look towards her friend. She knew that Alice knew that she was up to something. But here, like on the court, if it wasn’t seen it didn’t happen.

“Anyway, the place was packed. Of course, that meant I needed more chairs, since there was an impromptu game of Mystery Date starting in the living room.”

Jenny’s look returned to one of confusion. “Mystery Date?”

“It’s a board game,” Dana explained. “An old game.”

“It’s a hoot, we’ll play sometime. Anyway”

“Anyway,” Dana parroted.

“I needed more chairs, so I thought I had some stashed in the bedroom closet. You know, the foldy kind.”

“A foldy closet?” Jenny gave Dana a wink.

Dana smiled, glad to see the other woman had finally realized that half the fun of a story with Alice was making Alice work to tell the story.

“No,” and Alice again gave Dana a look, showing where she was placing blame for any interruptions.

Dana held up her hands as if innocent, but Alice’s eyes narrowed. She wasn’t buying it.

Alice took another deep breath. “Foldy chairs. So, I open up the closet, and what do I find?”

It was silent at the table. Alice motioned to the others, indicating that this time she actually did want audience participation.

Still silent.

Alice pointed to Jenny. “Chairs?”

Shaking her head ‘no’, she indicated it was Dana’s turn. “Your mystery date?”

“No. I found people.”

“People who came out of the closet?” Dana waited for a reaction. Her face fell as she got none from that clunker.

“Technically, they were already out of the closet. One was, at least.” Alice leaned closer to the table and lowered her voice. “It was Bette and Tina.”

Jenny was clearly confused. “I thought both were already out of the closet.”

“Bette was, but Tina. Let’s just say that back then, Tina was kind of like you. We didn’t know which side of the fence she’d be riding.”

Alice looked back at Dana. “And you’ll never believe what they were doing.”

Dana met Alice’s stare. “Playing twister?”

Alice chose to ignore her friend. “It.” She leaned towards Jenny, who had clearly been her best audience. ‘They were doing ‘it.’”

“It.” Jenny repeated the word, as if it should have special meaning.

“They were having *****,” Alice hissed. “I busted them.”

Jenny kept a pensive look. “That’s sad.”

“The fact that your guests hide in closets, I think it kind of says something about your parties, Al.”

Alice remained undeterred. “At the time, trust me. It was funny.”

“What was funny?”

Alice could feel a warmth rising on her face. She knew that voice. Her most recent ex-rooommate. “Hi, Tina.”

“Alice was just telling us –” Jenny started.

“I was telling them about my most embarrassing date,” Alice rushed in. She didn’t know what Jenny might spill, but just in case.

“Oh?” Tina sat herself at the table and took a sip of tea. “We’re not going back to any of the Lisa incidents, are we?”

Alice’s blush continued. “No, we’ll go over Lisa another time.” She took a deep breath. “No, I meant one-time dates.”

“Like the guy who wanted to take me to a tractor pull,” Dana interjected.

Alice almost shut her friend down, but realized that the interruption was for her benefit.

“That doesn’t sound embarrassing, Dana.”

Dana put on a pout. “I was embarrassed to be there. Especially with a guy.”

“Did you have any embarrassing dates, Tina?”

Alice couldn’t believe she’d heard Jenny’s words. The last thing she wanted to do was remind Tina of dating. Or relationships.

And, as expected, she saw a look of pain flash through her friend’s eyes. But she was surprised to find it followed by a smile. “I did do one really stupid thing.”

Tina looked up and saw that she had the other women’s attention.

How much of this to tell, she wondered and gazed down towards the tabletop. “Well, it was one in the early days of Bette and I. We went back to my place. I put on some music, to set the mood. My standard collection.”

“I had a few things that I liked. And we were getting,” Tina cleared her throat, “closer. When, all of a sudden, Bette stops. She goes totally cold.”

“What happened?” Jenny’s eyes widened.

Tina again gave a slight smile. “My standard collection included the best of Kit Porter.”

Alice tried, really. For about three seconds she totally held it in, and then she burst out laughing. Her laughter was joined by Dana and Jenny, and finally by Tina.

“It’s a common last name.” Tina shrugged. “How was I supposed to know?”

The women sat for a moment in a comfortable silence. Free, for a change, from much of the tension that typically accompanied Tina.

Dana glanced at her watch. “I have to go. I’m due on the court.” She gave everyone a quick glance, and trudged off, slinging her bag over her shoulder.

“And I have to go to work.” Jenny gave a small wave. “Bye.” With that she exited.

Alice started getting up. “I have to go, also.”

“You were telling the closet story, weren’t you.”

Talk about busted. Alice returned to her seat, a cowed look on her face.

“It’s ok.” Tina let out a breath. “I’m so tired of people being on eggshells around me.” Besides, she thought, maybe if others can laugh at the relationship, it was at least good for something.

“I think you have more shells coming your way.” Alice’s eyes hit upon Tina’s belly, currently festooned with an out-of-season wrap.

“I suppose you’re right.”

Tina took in a slug of coffee, and decided to press on with a question. “Did you really?”

“Hmm?” Tina wasn’t sure what the other woman was asking.

“Did you really put on Kit Porter music?”

Tina smiled. “I really did.”

The version she told was the one she considered edited for family listening. Tina let her thoughts drift back to the real version, which she considered far worse. It happened when Tina and Bette hadn’t been seeing each other that long. Tina was still in the awkward state of living in Eric’s guest room.

The two women had gone for dinner. Tina hadn’t exactly planned on inviting Bette up, but they’d had tapas at this Spanish place that was the current rage. Feeling emboldened by the sangria she’d consumed, Tina couldn’t stop herself.

Besides, she was quickly coming to understand that dating a woman, while in some ways, like dating a man. In other ways, it was very different. Like with *****. With Eric, or any of the other men, Tina had always let the man be the initiator, and the aggressor. That’s what she believed, how she was raised.

With Bette, she’d again fallen into the role of letting her partner initiate. Partially because she was unfamiliar with how a woman would be with another woman. But also, it was a role she was comfortable with.

Somewhere between the lobby and the third floor, that changed for Tina. She took in a long look at Bette Porter and knew not only that she wanted this woman, but that she was going to show her just how much she wanted her.

It took little to get Bette into the bedroom. Once there, Tina flicked on the stereo. She captured Bette’s lips, and backed the other woman towards the bed.

Bette let her surprise show, but did nothing to stop Tina’s advances. The two of them had been intimate enough that Tina could tell that Bette was enjoying her advances.

And things did advance. Fast. Clothes off. On the bed. Tina explored Bette’s mouth with her own. Then she moved on to Bette’s *****. Bette’s responses were a total turn-on for Tina, driving her lower on her lover’s body.

Tina had pleasured Bette before using her hand, but not this time. This time, Tina told herself, she was going down on the other woman. And to the surprise of both of them, she worked her way down to the junction of Bette’s legs. Then, as Bette had often teased her, she kissed the woman’s inner thighs, letting the anticipation build.

Finally, Tina unfolded Bette before her, and plunged in, delicately, with her tongue. Only to have Bette leap from the bed as if she’d been stabbed.

Tina didn’t know what she’d done wrong, but she knew it must have been something horrible with such a reaction. She sat on the floor and pulled the sheet off the bed, around herself.

Bette was hopping around towards the stereo. She hit probably every button, and finally the music stopped.

While Tina noticed the end of the music, she didn’t really respond. She was too worried about how great of a fool she must have just made of herself. And now, she knew Bette would be throwing her clothes on as quickly as they came off, and this would be the last she’d see of Bette Porter.

Until Bette sat on the floor behind Tina, and worked her fingers free of the sheet so that she could pull it around both of them. She sat behind Tina, holding her close, the two of them cocooned.

Bette started by apologizing, but Tina thought she was only doing it to be kind. Then she moved on to saying how much she enjoyed what Tina had been doing, punctuating this part by small kisses, and how turned on she was.

Tina couldn’t help but blurt out that if this were all true, why did Bette run from her.

It was then that Tina learned that Bette had a sister. A half-sister, anyway, named Kit. And the last thing she on her mind while having ***** with another woman, Tina recalled that Bette added something about a woman she found most attractive. The last thing she wanted to think of at that time was her big sister.

With that admission, Tina let out the breath she was holding. Along with that came a flood of tears of relief and embarrassment.

The two of them moved back to the bed. Tina let Bette resume the lead, and Bette quickly showed Tina that she had nothing to be embarrassed about.

Now, when it all became obvious how absurd the situation had been, it was almost funny. And Tina let herself smile again.

Maybe recalling a few the good memories would make it all a little easier. Would make it easier to transition on to whatever was going to happen next.

Tina felt Alice’s hand on hers, giving her a squeeze. “She really misses you, you know.”

“Alice.” Although Tina opened herself up for this one, she wasn’t ready, necessarily, to hear it.

“I wasn’t sure. At first, anyway. But trust me. She does.”

Tina just nodded. She really missed Bette, too. In so many ways. But she was fairly certain that the Bette Porter she was always thinking of no longer existed.

But maybe neither did the Tina Kennard.

Tina couldn’t help but think that if they could be new people, or at least changed, people, then that could give her what she needed most. Hope.

(the end)