Bette was seriously engaged in rubbing her feet as Alice walked into the office and plopped down in one of the chairs. She noticed the wine that was left over from the exhibit and poured herself a glass. "Have some?" she asked and Bette nodded.

Alice was pouring a glass of wine for Bette when Carolyn tapped at the door. Carolyn was Bette's assistant and she had helped Bette that evening at the exhibit.

"The photographer said he would deliver the prints tomorrow before noon," Carolyn informed Bette.

"Good. We may get some good shots for subsequent advertising." Then Bette added, "How did your husband do with the exhibit?"

"Well," grinned Carolyn, "he was a little stunned at first, but he recovered quickly."

Bette and Carolyn laughed. Carolyn and her husband were an older couple who had several grown children. Bette didn't see Carolyn's husband often, but Carolyn was not just a terrific secretary, she was maternal--maternal in a way that Bette enjoyed, not realizing how much she needed it. Bette had lost her mother when she was so young that she didn't really know what a mother could mean to a child.

Carolyn said goodnight to Bette and Alice, gathered up her husband and left.

"The exhibit was a great success," Alice submitted, handing the glass of wine to Bette..

"Yeah, it was. An awfully good turnoutwith most of the people I really wanted to come. I had enough offers of purchase that it easily paid for the cost of the exhibition-- plus lots more."

Alice whistled in congratulations and Bette smiled as she continued to rub her feet. Alice stood up and put the glass of wine on the desk near Bette and sat down.

"You ought to treat yourself to something?"

"Like what?"

"Buy a sports car."

"I have a sports car."

"I guess I don't need to suggest more clothes" Alice teased.

Bette, of the huge, expensive wardrobe, smiled broadly, enjoying the give and take with Alice.

Alice was a free lance writer who did fairly well in the highly competitive climate of Los Angeles. There were scads of people in that city who thought they were writers. But many of them, fortunately for Alice, spent the bulk of their time trying to create the next great movie script. They had visions of Oscars dancing in their heads. Alice, on the other hand, did mostly magazine articles.

Bette and Alice had once been involved physically for a few weeks and although Bette enjoyed her body, she realized that she and Alice were just not that compatible. She liked Alice too much to lead her on and so they broke up. They were much more compatible as friends than lovers. They cared about each other and if Alice watched out more for Bette than Bette watched out for herwell, that was Bette. You accepted that or you simply walked away. Alice accepted it.

As she sipped the excellent wine, Alice ruminated on how gorgeous a woman Bette was--tall, elegant body with curves in all the right placesskin that was caf au lait with beautiful dark brown eyes. Her hair was also dark brown and worn up tonight. Alice liked it better down, either curly or fixed to hang straight. Her face and lips were beautiful, she had a pretty voice and a killer smile.

She had never seen a player like Bette in all of West Hollywood, and there were plenty who thought they were players. Bette was able to spot a beautiful woman in a room, approach her and go home with her before the second drink was ordered. She had all the good looks in the world and a voice that could change depending on the situation intelligent, interested, charming or sexy.

If Bette talked to someone who turned out not to be interesting, she charmingly disengaged herself and continued looking, if it was early enough. However, her radar was so unerring that she could usually tell by looking if she and the woman would enjoy each other and so did not often have to try a second time. Yeah, Bette was one of a kind.

Actually, Alice had recently met a kid who seemed to be on the edge of being a major player. She said she was 18 and had ID, but Alice was not convinced. Her clothes were pretty bad and her hairwell. She had a gorgeous face and voice, but was scrawny.

Everybody liked her and she had great luck in attracting bedmates. In most ways she wasn't like Bette at all, but she had an approach to women that appeared to be every bit as successful at Bette's. Her name was Shanesomething, and in a couple of years she might be giving Bette a run for her money as the number one West Hollywood player.

Bette was not just a woman, though, who picked up people in West Hollywood. She also met people at art shows and galleries--and these people tended to have an intellectual level which Bette liked. Her relationship with those women seemed to last a little longer than one night. Like Gillian, Alice thought.

"Where's Gillian?" Alice asked. Alice's love life was not as dependably active as Bette's and so she lived somewhat vicariously through Bette. Even though Bette usually tried to keep secrets, Alice generally found out what Bette was up to.

Al sometimes spotted Bette and her latest squeeze somewhere. Sometimes Alice learned about Bette's love life when Bette needed to talk to her. For all of Alice's chatterbox personality and love of gossip, she had a big heart and genuinely cared about Bette. And Bette knew it.

Bette continued rubbing her feet. "Jill's flying out to New York tomorrow morning, so she needed to get to sleep early." Bette seemed a little disappointed, Alice noted, but not too much.

"You don't seem too disappointed that she's leaving."

"Alice. I like her, but, I don't know, we've kind of played out our relationship."

"So she's not the love of your life?" Alice grinned.

"Alice, give up. I doubt that I'll ever have the storybook romance that you dream of for me." Bette smiled at Alice, stopped rubbing her feet and picked up the glass of Cabernet that Alice had poured for her. "That has never happened and probably won't. I'm having a good time and don't have to worry about anyone else full time. But I may be looking for a new girlfriend fairly soon."

"Well, I noticed a very pretty blond girl at the exhibit who was quite taken with you. She might be girlfriend material." Alice said casually. Alice often clandestinely watched Bette interact with women and was highly entertained by Bette's ability to seduce. If Bette's romantic skill had been a stock, Alice would have invested a lot of money.

"Huh?" Bette looked at her curiously. She pulled a chair near her and propped her feet up on it and sighed with pleasure.

"That girl with Eric what's-his-name couldn't take her eyes off you. When she met you, she looked as though she had been hit over the head. And after you took her on that little one-on-one tour, she looked at you lots more than she looked at Ericand with a lot more interest," explained Alice.

Alice was certain that Bette would have noticed the girl's interest and thought Bette was just being coy and trying to hide her feelings from Alice.. But as she carefully watched Bette she could see the wheels turning in her head and the result was genuine puzzlement. Bette was having to work to remember the girl.

Bette hadn't noticed the girl's attraction and Alice could hardly believe it. Bette usually noticed any woman who showed interest in her--especially a woman as attractive as the blond.

"I think I would have noticed it," shrugged Bette as she took another sip of wine.

"I'm surprised you didn't.