It was late in the afternoon and the sun’s golden shade deepened into a swirl of tangerine and crimson, as it slowly sank its way into the horizon. Alice yawned audibly and stretched her arms, she had been sitting in Bette’s car for what seemed like an eternity and to be quite honest she was getting a little claustrophobic.

“Tell me what we’re doing here again… she asked, sounding impatient.

“Shhh…” Bette hissed, “she’s coming…”

Alice let out a deep sigh to show Bette her disapproval, but Bette ignored her and fixed her eyes instead upon the one thing she’s been looking forward to everyday for the past week:

Tina Kennard walked out of her office building completely engrossed in a conversation with a couple of her colleagues. One of them was talking animatedly at her and Bette saw Tina burst into laughter. ‘God I love it when she”‘ but before Bette could finish her thought, she heard Alice’s words cut in.

“Bette this has got to stop. It’s getting pathetic!”

“What?”

“If you like her so much then find some way to be with her…”

“You say that as if it’s easy… she’s straight for crying out loud!” said Bette whose eyes were still decidedly fixed on Tina.

“Like that has ever stopped you…”

Bette acted as if she didn’t hear. Alice shook her head knowing that it would take a lot more than just that to hinder Bette from trying, and then the realization hit her:

“Oh my God! You’re scared aren’t you?”

Bette turned to Alice, “I AM not!” she said a little too defensively, knowing full well that her voice had just betrayed her in more ways than one.

“You like her that much huh? Wow… and you’ve only met her twice!” Alice said letting a sly smile spread across her face as she saw Bette’s cheeks turn into a telling shade of red.

“Maybe it’s just an infatuation…” Bette suggested.

But Alice shot her back with, “I wouldn’t call stalking an infatuation.”

“Alice you’re exaggerating!”

“Am I? Well what else would you call staking out in your car, this late in the afternoon… waiting for some girl you barely even know to come home from work? I mean come on Bette, I’ve never seen you act this way before.”

Bette was silent at first, she didn’t really know what to say, instead she just let her eyes fall on Tina one last time until she saw her get into her car and drive away.

“Bette!? Hello? Are you still with me?”

“Yeah… yeah I am.” Bette replied absent-mindedly.

“This isn’t healthy Porter.”

Bette slowly faced Alice, “I know Al, it’s just that I don’t know how I’m supposed to see her again…”

Alice observed Bette’s perplexed expression, she really wasn’t used to seeing the cool, poised and perfect, Bette “I’m going to conquer the world one day” Porter behaving in such a defeated manner. ‘She’s got it bad! No matter what she says!’ she concluded, quietly trying to hatch a plan for her problem-ridden friend.

“Didn’t you just find her earring two days ago?”

“Yeah… so?

“Call her office dumb-dumb… and tell her she should come over and pick it up, see where it goes from there.”

“Who are you calling a dumb-dumb, dumb-dumb?” Bette jokingly retorted, forcing a little chuckle out of Alice.

“Seriously Bette, do it and get it over with, so we can all move on with our lives.”

“Fine I’ll do it in the morning…”

“Good! I was beginning to think that I was gonna have to spend the rest of my afternoons sitting here with you having stale doughnuts and bad coffee for dinner.”

Bette playfully punched Alice in the arm before sheepishly saying, “Come on let’s go.”
_____________________________________

Tina leaned forward, tuning her car radio, trying to find a decent station to listen to on her way home.

“There we go.” she said, thinking out loud. She started rapping her fingers on the steering wheel, moving them to the beat of the song that was playing in the background.

Work had taken its toll on her and she knew that she had a lot on her mind. Eric, her boyfriend, never missed pointing that out to her, why just the other night he couldn’t resist picking a fight with her:

“So did you enjoy dinner babe?” Eric asked. “Tina?”

Tina was looking out of Eric’s car window when she realized that he was asking her a question, “Huh?”

“Did you enjoy dinner?”

“Uh… Yeah of course I did.”

“What’s wrong you?” Eric asked trying to get Tina to open up.

Tina flashed him a half-hearted smile and answered, “Nothing…”

“It doesn’t sound like nothing babe…” Eric’s voice pleaded and gradually started to fade. When Tina didn’t respond to him he finally lost his composure and came up with, “Jesus Tina, it’s like you’re some place else…”

“Just drive me back to my apartment Eric…” Tina said obviously upset over another date ruined for no particularly good reason.

The night ended with both of them sitting in silence as Eric drove Tina back to her place. Tina knew that though they were only a few inches away from each other they were worlds apart.

‘God he can be such a pain sometimes.’ Tina thought, drifting back to the present as she sat alone in her car waiting through traffic. ‘Actually nowadays he’s more of a pain than he is a boyfriend.’

Tina let her thoughts drift even further, she kept searching for a recent memory of her and Eric actually enjoying themselves. ‘The Gallery.’ she thought, quietly replaying the events that occurred that faithful night, well over a week ago. ‘The art was so beautiful.’ she reminded herself, then suddenly her mind sidetracked her into thoughts of something even more exquisite, ‘Bette Porter.’ she thought, thinking of how breathtakingly gorgeous and elegant Bette was that night, almost to the point that it intimidated her. She touched her right earlobe, and felt the smile she’d been wearing all throughout her recollection slightly fade.

“I wish I hadn’t lost my earring though…”