When they arrived at the little apartment of the Kennards, Tina had spent the whole ride panicking.
Bette jumped off the motor and saw the pale-faced girl. She frowned. “Are you okay? Did I ride too fast?”
“No. I… just don’t feel very good. Bette, maybe you can, uh, stop by later? I can look at your homework tomorrow morning.” She almost pleaded, wishing the brunette would not go to her father this soon.
“No, forget about the homework. You look sick. Go upstairs and rest.” She reached out to help the girl get down.
Tina felt guilty. She had been feeling that way a lot lately. “I’m sorry Bette. I’ll just go lie down. You should head back when it’s still bright out. I don’t want you ride in the dark.”
“At least I walk you up.” The brunette beamed a gentle smile.
Tina nodded slowly and went up open the building gate. The dim light and slightly damp air in the hallway made the blonde even more self-conscious about her living environment. She bet her born-with-a-silver-spoon-in-the-mouth girlfriend had never set foot into an apartment construction like this. Visibly, her shoulders slumped as she sighed.
“Hmm, this is a nice neighborhood, yes?” Bette regarded the surrounding with interest. She was even a bit surprised that the place did not repel her. But since the blonde girl lived there, it gave her a positive vibe from the start. Although there were graffiti and rude remarks all over the walls, probably hives of little creatures of the dark, even stash in the corner hidden by the street kids, she was cool with it. This could be a nice place with just a bit of remodeling.
One of the doors in front of them cracked open and an old lady took out a trash bag. Her tiny grey eyes lit up seeing Tina walking up stairs. “Oh, little Christie, how was your day?”
Tina smiled faintly at the old woman and politely replied. “Fine, thanks Ms. Heminger. How are you?”
“Good! Good.” Came the cheerful response. “I see you brought friend? Such a pretty girl! I’m Sue.”
“Bette Porter.” Bette smiled at Ms. Heminger. She felt good about this friendly old lady.
Some stumping appeared from inside Sue’s apartment. A teenage boy, roughly around 16, ran out and made an abrupt stop at the door. He was wearing a Wal-Mart stock boy uniform with his name tag on. Bette squinted at the hurried boy and read his name. “Steven”.
“Hi, Tina.” The boy reddened like a tomato while he tried to sound casual as if he only carelessly ran into the girl. And when he saw the tall brunette, he got more nervous. “I… I’m Steven… Steven Heminger.”
“The beautiful young lady is Bette. Bette, my grandson.” Sue gestured to the boy and then turned to the kid. “Steven, why don’t you invite little Christie and her friend for a cup of coffee?”
“But… but grandma… I have to…” Steven just changed for his night shift.
“Oh, it’s okay, Sue. I’m just taking Tina home.” Bette could see the boy had a huge crush on the blonde. So she flashed a seemingly harmless smile and brushed off the invitation. But she made eye contact with Steven, telling him to back off or she’d stuck her foot in his ass.
Steven avoided any further conversation with them by sailing down to work. And the girls said goodbye to Sue.
Bette was certainly amused by the neighbors. She never had a nice old woman and a blushing teenage boy as neighbors and she found them extremely affable. Walking behind the blonde, she smirked asking the nickname given by Sue. “Little Christie?”
“There’re two Christinas in our unit. Christie Harper lives in 402.” Tina smiled as she explained.
“So everybody knows everybody in this place? Hmm… I think that’s cute.” Bette commented. She stopped her step after the blonde at the third floor.
“Well, this is me.” Tina searched for her keys in her bag. The hallway felt smaller with the brunette in here.
Bette started to say something when the door flew open. There stood a middle aged man with light colored hair and small greenish eyes.
“Dad.” Tina’s voice broke seeing her father. Bette widened her eyes seeing him.
Sam stared at his daughter for a while. “I heard you at the door.” But he stopped talking immediately at the sight of the brunette. “Port—I mean… Ms. Porter?” He asked with a little disbelief.
Bette was taken aback by the recognition. She nodded and reached to shake hands with Sam. It should be a proper greeting at the first meeting with her girlfriend’s father. She wondered if Tina’s family knew she was gay. “Good evening, sir. I’m taking Tina home from our dinner.”
The man shook her hand with some kind of eagerness. “Come in, come in to our humble home.”
“Actually I’m just leaving since Tina’s not feeling too well.” Bette let go of his big hand and took a step back.
It earned the blonde a glare from her father.
“Nonsense. Do come in and have some coffee, Ms. Porter.” Sam leaned aside so they could pass the small door frame.
Bette arched an eye brow and decided talk to him since she seemed to have to stay for a while. She looked over to the blonde. “Is this okay?”
Tina shrugged. Now there was no way she could get the brunette going anyway. “Um… I guess. Don’t worry I’m getting better now.”
As Sam wandered off to make drinks, the blonde took Bette for a little tour about their apartment. It had two bedrooms, a small living room, a tiny bathroom, and a kitchen where Sam had occupied. The place was neat, needless to say, and the simple decorations were soothing. Bette could sense that Tina had put a lot of effort in it to make it comfortable and there was this beauty in everything she surrounded herself with. The familiarity had become something that the brunette had grown a deeply fond of.
Sam reemerged from the kitchen with hot boiling coffee. He courteously asked about her day and interests and gradually moved on to her family business.
Bette just flew with it. She tactically arrived at the topic she needed to talk about. Tina sat beside her, fascinated by the way she handled the conversation like a pro. Maybe after all, it wasn’t a bad idea to let the two talk.
“So, Mr. Kennard, I have a suggestion for you. Tina’s working way too hard on weekends. I believe she could do a really good job assisting me at my company instead of waiting on people and working at the language training center. I want her work with me and you don’t have to worry about the salary. I’ll manage to match twice as her old jobs.” She didn’t know how much Tina made but she’d never be petty on her girlfriend. “What do you think?”
The man had his eyes nearly bulged out his skull hearing this proposal. He let his mind process the new information for a little while, then slowly tipped the corner of his lips and nodded fiercely. “Of course, Ms. Porter! It’s so nice of you to think of that!” He nearly broke into tears because of the joy. “And trust me, my daughter’s gonna be a great help to you.” He laid his giant bear hand on Tina’s back and patted some.
The blonde was a little embarrassed. She secretively rolled her eyes and made a face to Bette, who quickly looked down to her hands to contain a laugh.
Sam seemed content. He asked the brunette to finish the coffee even though Tina whispered to him that Bette only drank Naga Xuefei and Blue Mountain. But to please the father of her lovely girlfriend, the brunette drank up anyway.
When it was time to leave, Sam intentionally let his daughter sent Bette out. So in the hallway when the brunette thought he was not looking, she kissed Tina softly and mouthed “good night”.
Sue Heminger, coming back from her walk, saw the exchange of a kiss between the two girls. The old lady developed a great curiosity in their relationship and sighed loudly as she realized that her grandson didn’t stand a chance with “little Christie”. ‘Oh, what the heck, it’s California! Girls can do whatever they want.’ She cheerfully thought and even yelled “you go, girls!” at the couple.
Bette said goodnight to them both and went down to get her motor. With an easy click, the monster machine roared and set out of the neighborhood, leaving the reverberation bounce a little bit behind.
Tina braced herself by the window and watched her take off. The night breeze embraced her and helped her red skin cool down after the sweet goodbye kiss. She smiled, feeling a leaden fatigue in her body, so she dragged her feet back to their apartment.
Her father was sitting on the couch smirking. “I can’t believe who just sat in my living room! Elizabeth. Fvcking. Porter!” He cursed but not stopped beaming. “That girl’s got some charm uh. Thinks herself is such a smooth talker, doesn’t she?”
“Dad…” Sam’s words struck the blonde. She thought maybe it was a chance for her father to see what a nice person Bette was. But at the moment, she just growled inwardly with disappointment.
“Awww, my little pumpkin. Come here give your old man a hug.” Sam was in a great mood. He opened his large arms and wrapped the slender girl into his feature.
The blonde relaxed a bit leaning against her father’s heavy-built figure. “Dad, I really think Bette’s a good person.”
“Of course you do. Now, you’ll just have to build your relationship slowly and patiently.”
“I don’t want to build our relationship on a lie, dad. Can’t you see?” Tina struggled out of the man’s arms.
Sam frowned at his little girl. He did not plan for this to happen. He thought he made it quite clear that falling in love with the Porter kid was forbidden. “Well you can’t tell her now, can you? If you want to keep her, you gotta think clever.” He pointed his thick finger to the blonde girl. “Now go to sleep.”
For sure it was a sleepless night for Tina. She pondered and pondered. How was she going to choose between her own dad, and the girl she wanted to fell in love with? In love, she thought. She wanted to love and be loved, and she wanted Bette.