"Tina, Eric's on line one," Mildred said. Tina had been a script consultant at Alphaville for only a couple of years but had done well enough in this relatively short period of time to have her own small, but private, office. She and another junior executive shared Mildred, a very competent secretary.

"Thanks, Mildred," Tina said and released the intercom button. She picked up the phone and punched the appropriate button.

"Good morning," she said forcing herself to sound enthusiastic.

"How's your morning, honey?" Eric asked.

After Tina assured him that her morning was great, he continued, "Bette Porter called me this morning and said she had found an earring at the gallery. She thinks it's yours."

She confirmed the fact that she had indeed lost an earring and Eric said he could pick it up. Tina told him that she had to run an errand near the gallery and could easily get it.

When he countered that he could pick it up, Tina said logically, "Well, it might not be mine and you probably wouldn't know if it were mine or not." Eric reluctantly agreed and gave Tina the gallery number. He didn't know that she already had the number from the brochure. She had planned to phone the gallery this afternoon about the earring.

Tina tried not to betray any emotion when she said she would be glad to retrieve the earring. But when she hung up she hissed, "Fuck. Fuck. Fuck."

Why hadn't Bette called her? Why had she called Eric? If she had any interest and resourcefulness, she could have gotten Tina's number. After all, Tina had been interested enough and resourceful enough to leave the earring. And Ms. Porter was certainly resourceful, so she must not be interested.

Tina opened her purse, pulled out her billfold and looked at Bette's picture. She had brought the brochure to the office that morning, had scanned Bette's picture, and had printed several sizes of the photo for herself. After cutting them out of the photo paper, she had carefully put a small sized one in her billfold. Now she looked at it and tried to think what she should do next. She had thought for a second, earlier in the morning, that she would not approach Bette again, but once she looked at the picture she changed her mind.

She decided she would call about 10:30. That way if Bette were there, she could go over and suggest that she and Bette have lunch together. But when she phoned, she found out that Bette would not be back at the gallery until about 4:00. Maybe I can catch her for supper, Tina thought.

And she did.

------------------------------------------------

When Bette returned to the gallery that afternoon, her assistant Carolyn, gave her a stack of phone messages.

"Who's Tina Kennard?" Bette asked when she saw her name on one of the notes. She mispronounced it KENnard with the accent on the first syllable.

"KenNARD," corrected Carolyn with the accent on the last syllable. "Remember, Eric's girlfriend? The one who lost the earring. She's going to call back."

"Yeah, the klutz," said Bette as she disappeared into her office. Thirty minutes later Carolyn stepped into Bette's office. "Tina Kennard is on the phone---about the earring. I told her that I would check and see if you were back."

"Put her through."

And that was how Bette and Tina had their first dinner together.

-------------------------------------

But first, Tina showed up at Bette's office about 5:30. She had to take a deep breath before she opened the door to the gallery. The first time she had walked into the gallery, she had been taken with the beauty and dramatic dcor and art; now she just thought of Bette. She walked back toward where she had seen Bette kissing the redhead's hand (the thought still rankled her) and that was where the offices were located.

The secretary must have gone home, Tina thought, because one of the doors was closed. Bette's door was open and she was sitting sideways to the desk, reading something. Tina felt an ache in her lower gut and watched for a moment before she announced herself.

Bette's hair was down -- like in the photograph. Tina liked her better this way--warmer, softer, more accessible. In fact, Bette took Tina's breath away. She wondered, "What am I thinking?" But the honest part of Tina knew exactly what she thinking. She was enormously attracted to the gallery owner

"Hi."

Bette turned and smiled--not the high wattage smile Tina had seen last night, but still very impressive. "Here's your earring," Bette said as she stood and picked up an envelope marked "Eric." Tina almost winced when she saw Eric's name. Bette was so uninterested in her that she hadn't even put "Tina" on the envelope.

Tina pulled out the earring, identified it as hers and smiled. She was so delighted that she had asked Bette on the phone if she was interested in a early dinner, and she said yes!

Bette had accepted because she had no other engagement and it wouldn't hurt to be gracious to the girlfriend of a client. But truth be told, she was also curious to know if Alice was correct. Was this girl interested in her? As successful a lover as Bette was, it was always gratifying to see someone attracted to hereven if she did not plan to pursue.

Bette gestured for Tina to sit down for a moment so she could straightened up her desk before they went to eat. Bette realized while she was doing this that Tina watched her every move. For the first time, she considered the possibility that Alice could have been correctthat Tina was attracted to her.

She finished organizing her desk and looked at Tina. "OK, let's do it." Bette was instantly sorry that she had said that. It had such sexual overtones and she just meant, "Let's go to dinner." When Tina's face turned red, Bette knew two things. She was now even more sorry for what she had said--and--Alice was looking more and more correct.

Bette looked at Tina carefully for the first time and thought that Tina had all the attributes that Alice had cataloged. She was pretty, very pretty, with great blond hair. She was stacked and Bette did like that. She couldn't see her ass but was confident that Alice had judged correctly. Alice knew asses.

But she was young and straight and the girlfriend of a good customer. Bette was curious about her, but not particularly attracted. "Let's go to dinner," Bette smiled, and Tina returned a weak smile.

They decided that it would be more convenient to go in Bette's sports car than to take two cars. Bette would drop her off at her car after dinner. Tina got into the snazzy little sports car and noticed that Bette had put on sunglasses. She hated not to see her eyes, but the glasses made her look tremendous. How could she possibly look any better? Tina took a deep breath. Bette eased the car out into traffic and drove with great confidence and control. Tina was not surprised. She knew she would never be worried to be in a car that Bette was driving.

Bette had chosen an Italian restaurant called Enrico's. It was not located in West Hollywood and Bette picked it because she thought that she wouldn't see anyone here that she knew.