“She’s used to it trust me” Jenny brushed it off.

“Good morning everyone” Monique came over to the table.

“Morning” everyone said “Pull up a seat” Bette told her.

“Thanks” Monique said as looked around for an empty.  Her smile widened as she noticed Jodie pull an empty chair from an unoccupied table and placed it next to hers.

“Here you go” Jodie smiled at her “best seat in the house.”

“She’s good” Carmen whispered to Dana and Alice who only nodded in response, impressed with what they saw.

“Thank you” Monique couldn’t help the burning in her cheeks from the gesture.  This didn’t go unnoticed by Bette or Tina.

“So Monique, are you taking a date next week?” Tina tried to fish.

“Next week?” Monique was brought out of her daydream.

“Jasmine’s party” Bette reminded her.

“Oh” Monique finally remembered “no, just me and Ben.”

“Are you doing anything next week Jodie?” Tina asked.

“No” Jodie looked at Tina “nothing planned for next week” she hinted to Monique.

“The invitation said you can bring a guest” Bette informed Monique.

“Thank you, I’ll keep that in mind Bette” Monique shook her head at Bette and Tina’s not so subtle way of hooking her and Jodie up.  “What about you guys?”

“I was thinking about taking this hot brunette with me, but I guess I’ll just take Bette instead.”  Tina dodged a swat from Bette.

“Yeah looks like I’ll be settling that night as well” Bette replied.

“Oh hey Tina before I forget” Monique said “Oscar wants to have another fundraiser for the center and was wondering if you had any ideas.”

“I need a little time come up with something.”  Tina told her excited about the idea.

“Sure thing, we’ll sit down with Oscar for lunch and put some ideas together.”  Monique nodded.

“Some exciting news” Alice kissed the back of Dana’s hand “Jenny’s agent hooked Dana up with a commercial.”  Everyone at the table cheered.

“I knew they’d find something” Jenny looked up from her laptop “What did they get you?”

“It’s for a prescription called Valtrex.”  Dana proudly told them.

“Valtrex” Shane said “that sounds familiar.”  Everyone around the table tried to remember where they heard the name from.

“I think I remember seeing the commercial on TV” Carmen remembered “isn’t that the prescription for genital herpes?”

“What?!”  Alice and Dana said at the same time.

“Wow” Jenny said then went back to laptop.

“Yeah that’s right” Tina remembered “I had to order some for one of our leads.  He went to this party and came back with it.”

“What role did they say you were playing?” Jenny asked.

“They said I’d be playing a doctor” Dana told them then shyly added “who has it and is now recommending the medicine.”

“Do you have to say something like ‘Hi I’m Dr. Fairbanks and I have genital herpes’” Bette asked.

“We don’t use our real names Bette” Dana said in annoyance.

“Your character has to say that they have genital herpes and that recommend the prescription?” Helena looked from behind her paper “sounds easy enough.”

“She has to read the side effects as well” Alice added.

“Alice!” Dana scolded.

“What?  They’ll recognize your voice throughout the whole thing anyway.”  Alice tried to reason.

“It’s only a commercial Dana” Monique wanted to ease Dana’s discomfort “it’s not real.”

“But it’s forever, as long as there’s YouTube” Jodie reminded as Monique side kicked her foot under the table.

“Hey everybody” Tasha and Jamie walked in and greeted.

“Wow” Kit said from behind them “looks like ya’ll are going need a bigger table.”  She looked proudly at how big their family was getting.