Bette Porter: (The night before meeting Eli)

Why do I keep doing this to myself. I’m a successful gallery owner, I have the best friends (to be honest I’m lucky that they’ve stayed with me and helped me get through one of the most difficult times in my life), and after countless therapy sessions I’m finally at a place where I like myself again. I have a great life but in a lot of ways I feel like I’ve taken a step back in my personal life. For the longest time I couldn’t bear to be with anyone, I would purposely set out to find their flaws and when they didn’t seem to have any I’d make that their flaw. My love life consisted of meaningless flings and after awhile Alice stopped trying to push me into a new relationship. I stopped dating for awhile and after a lot of talks with Kit and the rest of the family I decided to start going through therapy. I have to say it helped me get to a better place with myself, but I still can’t find someone who I’m willing to spend my life with. So I’ve had a few relationships last a couple of months (seven months is the record so far) and they were great women but I knew they’d want more (but I’m not willing to give them all of me) so I go on lots of dates hoping for something…

"…so Bette what do you think would you like to go to the gallery opening with me tomorrow…I know this shows nothing compared to the shows you put on but I can’t get out of it I promised my friend I’d go."

I have to stop spacing out on dates "I don’t know Sheryl I don’t think I’ll be able to make it, I’ve had a pretty long week and I was hoping to catch up on some stuff at home..."

"You know I don’t really have to go to the opening my friend will understand, maybe we can do something at your house, eat in maybe." I know I said I stopped looking for flaws but someone who’s willing to bail on their friends for someone they’ve only known for a little over a week isn’t something I’m looking for.

After letting Sheryl down gently I decide to call it a night. It’s still early enough to catch the girls and get a couple of drinks but it actually has been a long week (I’ll catch up with them over the weekend). Oh I have to start looking for painters to repaint the old house, and call the gardener to fix up the plants in the backyard. The old tenants left the house in pretty good condition but I’ll probably get the house rented quicker after a few touch-ups. I really do have a lot to do over the weekend.

I better check my messages Kit’s been on me lately about spending too much time at work, and not enough time with the family (to tell you the truth I do feel a little guilty about missing the last family dinner to work, I better straighten up before they do another one of those damn interventions). There’s a message from Shane, "Hey Bette it’s 7:30 guess I just missed you, if you’re interested you can come meet us after work…(Alice) Shane she’s going out with Sheryl tonight tell her to meet us after the date she should be home early…(Shane) maybe we could catch up this weekend…bye." A few from Alice, "Bette it is 7:32 and you don’t seem to be answering your cell phone so when you get this message ignore Shane’s message and come out with us after your date, we’ll be expecting you…oww Shane why’d you hit me, fine…me and Dana will be, shit Dana not you to…whatever Bette I’ll be expecting…(Shane) Hey Bette it’s Shane ignore the pushy blond we’ll see you over the weekend, fine Alice you can say bye…(Alice) So as I was saying we’ll see you this weekend, and if you don’t Dana and Shane should be the prime suspects in my disappearance, see ya bye." Alice certainly makes life more interesting, I don’t know what I’d do without those three. Next message "Hey Bette it’s Alice again we’re at the club and surprise, surprise I ran into Marcy you know Sheryl’s friend, well she just told me that Sheryl called her and told her you two just broke up. I have to tell you, you just won me drinks for the night see Dana thought you guys would last a bit longer…something about Sheryl being a fellow cat lover, or something. So now that you’re single again why don’t come down and have a couple of drinks on me…I have to go Dana and Shane are coming back and I don’t want them to confiscate me cell phone, come down here, bye." To this day I don’t know how Alice manages to find everything out, information just seems to gravitate towards her. The last message is a little harder to make out on account of Alice’s drunken slurring, "Bette, I have ordered you several drinks but since you weren’t here I had to drink them for you…also I may have accidentally let it slip to Stacy that you were back on the market…I blame it on that last shot, before that I was completely lucid…anyway I’ll call you if psycho Stacy leaves, what did you see in her in the first place, I mean she’s really hot but she’s definitely a freak and not the good kind…I have to go Shane’s looking for her phone, bye." It’s just like Alice to forget that she’s the one that introduced me to Stacy, I don’t know what possessed me to go out with anyone that Alice tries to set me up with. Good thing I didn’t meet the girls, not that I couldn’t handle Stacy but I rather not have to go through that drama tonight.

After a couple of glasses of wine I’m still a little restless, one of the drawbacks to my new house is that I don’t have my friends living next door. A couple of laps in the pool and now I’m ready to pass out I hope tomorrow’s a lot more relaxing.

TBC