As Tina broke away from Bette and looked into her smiling eyes, the momentary lapse of ‘what is going on here?!’ vanished.  All she could do was look into Bette’s eyes and be completely lost.  When Bette grinned at her with the most endearing, gentle smile, Tina could not help but smile back at the tenderness of the moment.  She could tell that Bette knew the softness this new feeling required.  Never before had Tina kissed a woman, and yet all she could do was think about it since their hands first touched days before.  As Tina was standing at the painting admiring its beauty and subtle messages, she felt a presence next to her – one of warmth and happiness.  Her immediate reaction was to think it was Eric, but as she turned she saw it was her beautiful hostess.  Tina smiled, in spite of herself as Bette asked if she was coming to sit down.  Tina broke eye contact only briefly with Bette as she was having trouble finding her voice.  Finally, she said weakly, “Yeah, I just really like this one.”  Bette turned and saw that Tina was admiring one of her own favorite works in the gallery; one that she had often stood in front of and lost herself in.  Bette silently smiled to herself as she briefly turned to look at the painting with Tina.  Immediately, her gaze returned to Tina, just to catch a glimpse of her once again.  She looked briefly at her features, trying to memorize everything as she wasn’t sure when she would see the beautiful Ms. Kennard again.  Any excuse was good enough to see her; she hadn’t stopped thinking of her since they met at the Katherine Opie exhibit.  Just as she began to memorize the curls of Tina’s hair, she realized Tina had lost her earring among the blonde locks.  Smiling and releasing a small breath of relief at the contact that would soon occur between them, Bette reached over and smilingly said, “Oh, you’ve lost you’re earring” and she finally was able to touch the soft, delicate hair surrounding the beautiful face that had never left her thoughts.  As Bette reached for the earring, Tina’s heart skipped a beat at the sudden nearness to this beautiful woman that for some reason had captured her attention in a way she couldn’t understand.  As she felt Bette’s hand in her hair, she quickly inhaled, and wasn’t sure if Bette had noticed.  She looked into her eyes, lost for a moment, and then smiled as Bette returned the same intense stare.  “What’s going on?” both women thought, and yet were happy just to be living in this moment.  They then turned back to the table, still standing side by side and overlooking the beautiful table arrangements and the many interesting and talkative people surrounding the table.  Everyone was involved in separate conversations, and Tina just took a deep breath and smiled overlooking the scene.  Bette smiled, pleased with herself at how smoothly the night had been going.  After moments of standing together smiling at the sight before them, Bette said, “Well, I guess we should both sit down” as she placed her right hand on the small of Tina’s lower back.  Tina inhaled deeply as butterflies filled her stomach as though she was a young child on the first day of school.  She looked at Bette who was already looking at her smiling.  Tina smiled back, not breaking eye contact, and said, “Yes, I guess we should.  Everything looks so great, you’ve really done a wonderful job.”  After a brief pause just looking into Bette’s smiling eyes, she continued, as she looked back at the table, “So, is there assigned seating here, or do I just sit wherever is open?”  Bette looked only briefly at the table then returned back to looking at Tina.  “It’s generally assigned seating only because” and she trailed off lightly, leaning into Tina to finish her sentence, whispering not in her ear, but close enough that Tina could feel warm breath on her cheek,  “certain artists and critics would rather not sit near each other” and then leaned back and smiled at Tina and slightly rolled her eyes playfully.  Tina smiled, lightly laughed, and said, “I guess that’s understandable.  So where does that put me?  I’m neither an artist nor a critic.”  Bette smiled and said, “Well, you’re the best kind of guest, because anywhere you sit, you should be safe and able to enamor any of your neighbors.”  Tina softly blushed and looked back to the full table.  “But, since Eric seems to be such a huge fan of Katherine Opie, I thought placing you two at the head of the table with me and Katherine would be best.  We’re right over here.”  Bette then placed her hand again lightly on Tina’s back, showing her the way to their seats.  While walking, Tina subtly slowed down so Bette’s hand made more contact with her back.  As she did it, she thought “what am I doing!?” but then Bette turned and smiled – not a knowing smile of their contact, but one of genuine happiness, and Tina immediately stopped her worrying.