Tina’s hawk-eye gaze followed as the couple made their exit. Her eyes blazed a fiery red when the mayor’s wife slipped a card into Bette’s hands. It was discreet, but Tina was watching, and she balked at it.

Her attention returned to her companions. The men were carrying on inconsequential chatter, eliciting a disgruntled groan from Tina. Not surprisingly, the main talking point focused on certain features of the female anatomy.

“I’m a fucking idiot for giving up women for this,” she mumbled before finishing her drink in a gulp. “Hey guys, I’m heading out. It was nice seeing you again.”

The supposed leader of the pack, a lawyer who worked with Alphaville on occasion, stepped forward. “I think the pleasure was all ours.”

Despite her annoyance, she had laughed out loud. “Always the charmer, Mike?”

His answering smile brought her annoyance back to full force. She had seen that smile before and she loathed it. Couldn’t they see how in love she is with Bette?

Plastering a fake smile, Tina quickly moved away from the group. She tracked down the mayor’s wife, congratulating her on a successful event and the work she was doing for the women’s shelter.

By the time she had gotten into her car in the adjacent parking lot, thirty minutes had gone by. She pulled out of the garage, mentally hoping there would be little traffic. Tina longed to see her daughter. After spending the entire night watching Bette with another woman, her energy was sapped.

The next day at work, Tina contemplated on the previous evening. While they had met once, she still pretended as though she had not met the former senator. It was petty, a behavior she would chide under normal circumstances. But she knew. This was anything but normal.

“Tina?” her assistant hesitated at the door. Her boss clearly shouldn’t be disturbed, but the phone had been ringing off the hook even before Tina came in to work. She walked into the office slowly, gently setting the message slips on the desk. “Tina?”

She frowned at the interruption; she was trying to forget the news article on today’s newspaper front page and the constant airtime the TV and radio networks were dedicating to the latest D.C. happenings. “What?”