BETTE-  "Not that long really.   I'm not sure who haunts my heart more, as you put it, my once life partner or my child."

LILY-  "Ouch.  But I don't understand, isn't your child still a part of your life?"

BETTE-  "II don'tI don't know"

LILY-  "Excuse me?"

BETTE-  "She's with her mother, who's dating a man and sort of living with him."

LILY-  "Ok, I've died and gone to lesbian hellwhat are you talking about?"

BETTE-  "What do you mean?"

LILY-  "BetteI don't understand.  As I recall, you were together for several years"

BETTE-  "Over eight years."

LILY-  "Ya.  And you had a daughter, born about a year ago.  You split up recently.  So, I don't understand.  How is this little girl not a part of your life anymore?"

BETTE-  "She withdrew the adoption petition.  I was going to sue for sole custody.  She halted the adoption.  Custody isn't very clear anymore."

LILY-  "Hold the phone 'custody isn't clear anymore?'  'I don't know'?  OkElizabeth dearI'm trying hard to follow this sordid taledo you mean to tell me that you're living and working in New York now, indefinitely, and your daughter is three thousand miles away and that's just it?  'Custody isn't clear anymore?'  What are you doing here?"

BETTE-  (Deep down, in her heart somewhere, she knew what Lily was really asking, and she was starting to wonder whether she really had an answer or if her answers to Kit that night really made any sense.  But now she focused instead on the irrelevant part of the question)  "I'm the new director of the Whitneyyou know, the Whitney?"

LILY-  (Sarcastically)  "Well isn't that just fantasticyou're the director of the Whitneyhow fickle."

BETTE-  "I really don't think you have any right to judge"

LILY-  "Judge?  You've totally shattered my image of you.  You're such a pussy."

BETTE-  "Excuse me?!"

LILY-  (She speaks calmly but intensely)  "Are you listening to yourself, madam museum director?  And here I am thinking as I looked into those enticing brown orbs how delicate though a powerful heart you possess, how hurt you must be, how devastatingbut how sad and pathetic.  You don't even know whether she's in your life anymore?  Bettewake up, smell the powerful coffee I've made for youwhat the fuck are you doing?  I thought at least you'd say you made frequent trips back or that you were going to bring them out here to maybe work things out or at least arrange custody so she could be with you as frequently as possiblebut 'custody isn't very clear anymore'?  And you 'don't know'?  Your daughter is with your partner and a man she's kind of living with?  So what?  I guess you thought you'd just have an easier time of it in New Yorkwell ok then, that's settled"

BETTE-  "That's neither fair nor accurate.  You barely know me, you don't know who I am, or what I've been through"

LILY-  "Not fair?  Not accurate?  Well please correct me, because there's nothing I'd like more than to stand corrected on this issuetell meI'm listening."

BETTE-  (Bette was staring at her coffee and wouldn't look up.)  "Lily, I "  (Lily interrupts the pending explanationthe one that Bette gave Kit that night she told her she was leaving...)

LILY-  "I'm sorry.  You're right.  I barely know you, so I'm hardly in a position to be assuming such a tone with you.  Nonetheless, life is short and I don't believe in getting caught up in protocol or niceties.  I feel as though I've known you for ages, I really like you, so forgive my lack of propriety.  Look, I've never been lucky enough to have a long term relationship like yours, and I've certainly not been a parent like you have, so I'm hardly qualified to be spewing angry platitudes and lectures at you.  But I was a child once, and here my psychoses are laid baremy mother sort of left us behind when Justin and I were young.  She was a bit of a jetsetter and, welllet's just say that I harbor some resentment.  Sometimes I forget just how much.  But Bette, my new, beautiful, gorgeous, downright stunning and elegant friendthink about what you're doing.  The way I'm seeing it it's all really very simple.  Unless I'm missing something and you don't love this child or never really bonded with her or whatever psychological terminology applies, I see it in black and white, as Justin accuses me of doing so frequentlybut it is for meblack and whiteif you love her, as I suspect you do, I just don't understand.  She's out there in west coast la la land and you're here, the most amazing city in the world, but it's the worst place you'll ever be if you're away from your love, your childit's really that simple for me.  I'm sorry if I'm way off the mark or out of line or whatever, but there you have it.  I'll stop talking nowthe cacophony is over"  (They both sit there in silence.  Bette is fighting her emotions.  In hearing Lily's words it's as though she's standing outside herself and getting a view of herself and her life from another angle- she's becoming very conflicted in viewing the sight she beholds.  She doesn't want to lose her composure in front of an almost stranger, a stranger who has gone beyond proper social boundaries and protocol by talking to her as though she had some right to do so, as though they were longtime friends, as though they were sistersand then, just then, she thought of Kit's e-mail and imagined in her minds eye the little girl crying in Kit's arms.  She looks depleted and her eyes are reddened.  Lily gets a little nervous at having reduced her new friend to almost tears.  She reaches out with her right hand and puts it on top of Bette's left, on the table.)  "A thousand pardons my ladyI'm sorryI'm a little obnoxious as well as ostentatious, not to mention stubborn and brazen."

BETTE-  (She smiles a little and nods mildly to communicate acceptance of the odd apology.)

LILY-  "Can I get you some water?"  (Bette shakes her head.)  "Oh dear, I've really messed up haven't I?"  (Bette smirks, wipes her face and finally looks up.)  "Look, I can't say I understandand I don't mean to cut you apart, but it all sounds so offensive to me for some reason.  I don't know whether to smack you or prostrate myself before you for your forgiveness of my brashness" 

BETTE-  "You're nuts, you know that?"

LILY-  (Using some over dramatic tones)  "Oh I was diagnosed years ago, so yes I'm well informed of my apparent condition."  (Bette chuckles a bit.)  "My therapist thinks I'm crazy too.  She does even hesitate telling me 'Lily, you're really quite insane' she says to me.  'Well, doctor,' I reply, 'What can you do for me?'  'Short of putting you away Lily, perhaps we can just focus on increasing your moments of lucidity,' she invariably exclaims."

BETTE-  "Oh you're pulling my leg"

LILY-  "Well yes, I am, but when left to last resort I tend to meander into fantasy...it's my only hope really."  (She smiles at Bette, who then finally starts to smile a bit more.)  "Shall I play something for you on my violin?"

BETTE-  "PLEASE don't"

LILY-  "AAAhhhhh!  Now I really know what to do when I want to torture you!  I'm really quite good though, you shouldn't dismiss it so quickly."

BETTE- "I'm sure you are, I just don't want to hear the lamenting sounds right now.  I'm not much of a morning person either."

LILY-  "Fair enough.  Listen, if you want to talk about anything, I'm really good with the auditory skills, so don't be afraid to impose, but you have to be open to my honesty as well."

BETTE- "Thanks.  I appreciate the thought, but you've come close to facing the Porter wrath - I'm not known for having a demure or sensitive disposition.  You really should be more sensitive.  You really don't know how I feel or the history behind my recent life, the one I painfully left behind.