“Bette?  Why are you here?  Not that I mind, but I just didn’t expect you.” Helena said as she stepped aside and let the taller brunette enter her apartment.

“I was bored and thinking of you, so here I am.  I hope you don’t mind.”

“Of course not.  Have a seat.” Bette took a seat on the couch and Helena sat beside her, “Can I offer you anything?”

“Just your attention and conversation is enough.” Helena sat down quickly beside Bette.

“How’d you get into the building?”

“This very kind older woman was walking into the building and I told her I wanted to surprise a friend and didn’t want to ring her.  So, she allowed me to walk in behind her.”

“You probably didn’t have to ask.”

“I don’t know, Helena.  She had a cane and she looked ready to use it.” Helena giggled like a school girl at the notion that an older woman would beat Bette up.

“Where’s my little pecan?” She said, in reference to Angelica.

“With her Auntie Shane.”

“Oh, that’s nice.  Shane seems to love being around Angelica, but who doesn’t?  I know Tina must miss her.  She’s such a darling little girl.” After a slight pause, “If you don’t mind me intruding, why did you choose to have a biracial child?”

“We wanted our child to reflect who we were, or at least I did.”

“What do you mean?”

“Not that I think Tina is racist or that she loves Angelica any less than I do, but she’s misguided.  She’s afraid to be too different.  Being a lesbian is one thing, but she didn’t want to put ‘otherness’ on the child.  I’m sure she doesn’t see how that makes me feel.”

“Well, that makes no sense, Bette.  She dated you and you’re biracial.”

“That never came up as an issue for us, until the baby.  I think she saw what she wanted to see—which was someone who could prove to be an excursion away from her boring life.  Then I turned into that boring life she wanted to escape, the moment we moved in together and she began sharing my life with me.  I became granola instead of caviar.”