~~~~~~~~

“Tee, how come nobody saw my paintings in that chest except for your grandma Kennard? And why it was all left behind?” Bette asked after they finished their long hot shower and were sitting in the kitchen, having breakfast.

“I don’t know…everything happened so fast when my parents died. Julie got married right away and I was already in L.A. finishing college and doing my internship at the Alphaville Studios. It had never even crossed my mind that there was something else in that chest other than old rags and papers,” Tina shrugged her shoulders, getting more fruit from the fridge. “Frankly, after I found the miniature, nothing else existed any longer.”

Bette smiled and fed Tina a piece of melon, “You got it bad.”

“I know,” Tina sighed, “I still do…I love you so much it scares me sometimes.”

“Why?” Bette was surprised.

“Because I don’t know if I can live without you,” Tina replied seriously, tearing up and taking Bette’s hand.

“Let’s hope we will never find out how it feels to live without each other,” Bette said softly, kissing Tina’s tears away.

“Hold me,” the blonde uttered and Bette pulled her into her arms, holding her tight and whispering ‘I love you’ over and over again to take away Tina’s worries.

“You know, one of my oldest friends still lives in my home town,” Tina said after she calmed down. “I’m going to ask her to check with the new owners and maybe we’ll be lucky and they still have the chest and paintings in the attic of the house.”

~~~~~~~~

While Bette was getting ready for work she heard Tina talking on a phone, so she walked into the living room to see if Tina was upset or happy with the conversation.

After Tina found out who was living in the house she had to make another phone call to a real estate lawyer she used to deal at work to find out the question of ownership, “Are you saying that because the chest was left there for almost five years with the rest of the furniture that it is now belongs to the new owner, even if we never mentioned that she could have it?”