“So you’re telling me that there was no passionate make-up ***** into the early hours of this morning?”

“I’m not telling you anything” Bette’s tone was flat.

“Oh come on! Why are you holding out on me?”

“Well you know how it is…once you’re old and married”

“So that’s a no” Alice concluded

“Like I said it’s going to take time. ***** isn’t exactly top priority right now. After what I did I can’t expect Tina to want to be with me again right away. She has to learn to trust me and that is what matters right now”

Alice sat quietly, mulling over Bette’s words, trying to decide whether she actually believed them. They just didn’t stack up with the fiery, passionate person that Bette had always been.

“What about you Bette?”

“What I want is irrelevant” Bette looked over her shoulder toward the counter.

Alice couldn’t be sure of what Bette wasn’t saying. The reporter in her implored her to push Bette for answers but instinct directed her to drop it, not wanting to incur Bette’s wrath. A short silence fell between them, Bette’s gaze was still locked on Tina.

“I know I’m not supposed to ask more questions” Alice began and then paused for Bette’s response

“But” Bette duly replied as she turned her attention back to Alice

“Well…you got off the plane and you decided to go and see how well the Saab corners in the canyons. Then you finally rejoin civilization to find out that your flight crashed.”

Bette just nodded still wondering what Alice was getting at.

“So why the ***** didn’t you pick up your phone and call us when you heard the news? I mean surely you understood what we would be going through thinking that you were on that flight!”

“Yeah I knew” Bette agreed “I wanted to call as soon as I found out but in my haste to get off the plane my cell must have fallen out of my bag. I can’t find it anywhere. I was only about thirty minutes from home when I heard anyway”

“OK Porter, you’re off the hook”

“Oh but you’re not” Bette raised an eyebrow

“Huh?”

“I come home to find that you’ve brazenly raided my liquor cabinet and didn’t even bother to put the lid back on the tequila”

“Well it wasn’t like you were going to miss it, you were dead, remember?” Alice emphasized the word dead “Besides it was a toast to you Bette”

“Oh well that makes it OK” Bette laughed “Just so you know, the next time I die it’ll be a BYO event.”

With food in hand Tina turned back toward the table to see Alice and Bette laughing happily. She stopped and smiled as a shiver ran up her spine. Gazing at Bette’s face, then gradually moving down her graceful neck to her strong shoulders taking her in bit by bit. The rest of Bette is veiled behind Alice but Tina knows it all by heart.

Her physical strength and beauty are immediately obvious, it never takes long for people to realize that Bette Porter is in a league of her own. It is this strength and beauty that so cleverly masks a woman who possesses just as many insecurities and imperfections as the next. This was something that Tina knew she had ignored for a while now, instead choosing to believe the ever-present façade. Looking back the signs were so obvious that Bette had been crumbling but she had done nothing to help her, she had failed Bette well before Candace Jewell had ever intruded on their lives. Tina knew that she had to be more careful in future. She now realized that Bette was as flawed as she was perfect.

TBC