“Me too...”

“I’m also glad you decided to tell him that you’d stay right where you were, when he went to look for Catherine...”

“He didn’t even bat an eyelid about me staying there on my own!” Tina pouted, remembering how she had watched the slimy creature sloping away at the first opportunity, leaving his girlfriend, who didn’t know a soul, to fend for herself.

“I’m sure he knew he’d left you in capable hands T!”

“If only he knew how capable those hands were...” Tina gave a wicked smile as her hands began to wander over favourite past time.

“Are they capable...?”

“Oh I think they are ever so capable, you know he warned me about you before arriving at the gallery?”

Bette laughed, although she also furrowed her brow, not liking the reminder that people talked about the reputation of Bette Porter in contexts other than her Gallery and that of the most successful art business woman in L.A.

“What was his warning about?”

“Bette, I’ve told you this a million times before...!”

“Tell me again T; you were the one who said we had to say about all the details of ‘remembering when’”

“Okay smart ass, he told me that you were the most stunning woman he had ever seen, that you always had a string of admirers lying in your wake, and they were all broken hearted because you would never keep the same woman at your side for more than five minutes!”

“Okay... now tell me what he really said...!”

Tina’s eyes sparkled at Bette’s rolling eyes, “he said that such a beautiful woman like you could only ever be a lesbian because she’d never met a man who knew exactly how to make her happy.”

Bette roared with laughter at Eric’s analogy of why she, or any woman, could possibly be gay, “why is it that 99.9% of men always come out with that?”

“You know I actually felt offended when he said that before we arrived at the show, that and the fact he warned me about spending any time alone in your company!”

“Did he think I was going to jump you behind a painting or something?”

“Well, you know I wouldn’t have minded if you had!”

“Tina!”

Tina laughed at Bette’s outburst, “you did look kind of gorgeous Bette.”

“Only kind of..., that’s nice!”

“Do you know what I remember about that very first initial contact?”

“Tell me Hun.”

“Apart from your completely mesmerising eyes and your tantalising smile, that had me melting on the spot you mean?”

Bette nodded in response, loving how Tina always became so animated when she talked about their meeting.

“Your smell...”

Bette furrowed her brow once again and laughed, “My smell?”

“You smelt absolutely divine... a smell that I have only ever smelt on you, it doesn’t matter who wears the same perfume, it will never smell the same as it does on you.  It was so subtle and yet so purely and utterly intoxicating, it felt like I couldn’t breath in enough to be able to smell it and remember it, and I’ve never forgotten that smell.”

Bette was taken aback at how deeply Tina spoke about a simple thing like how she smelt, the words reaching her eyes as she spoke making her eyes sparkle with desire, Bette leaned forward her own lips wanting and needing to reach those in front of her.

“Do you know what I remember about that evening T?”

“Tell me babe...”

“How you were so unassuming but at the same time so confident, how we stood together after Eric walked off and we just looked at one another and it wasn’t uncomfortable or awkward, I felt like I could see exactly how you were feeling though your eyes, I felt like I was being awoken from things that I never thought or even believed existed before.”

“The illusive Bette Porter being awoken by the unassuming Tina Kennard, you are kidding me right!”

“Tina, you stirred something deep inside that night, something no-one had ever before...”

“You hid it well if that’s the case!”

“T, baby, I had just been introduced to the girlfriend of a client in the middle of a gallery dinner; I had to have some restraint.”

“What did you need to restrain?”

“It was composure; I needed to compose myself in order to be the gracious hostess to the big spending clientele who were milling around the gallery T!”

“You know I felt it when you were watching me?”

“I couldn’t take my eyes off you; I wanted to look at you from every angle.”

“I saw the way you worked the room, I didn’t realise that was for my benefit.”

“From the first moment I laid eyes on you T, that was it for me, I didn’t want you out of my sight for a single second.”

“I felt it babe, I felt your eyes on me where ever I was that evening, and when you walked up behind me, my heart began to pound, it was pounding so hard I swear you were going to hear it, I just knew it was you behind me.”

Bette’s deep throaty laugh struck a chord in Tina’s chest; she felt the constricting in her throat as she remembered the intensity and how looking back on it often made her feel emotional.

Bette noticed the immediate change in Tina’s demeanor, the sudden straight face and instant glassy eyes, her own mouth drying as they spoke about the night they first laid eyes on one another.

The night two lives changed forever.

The night Tina fell in love with the notoriously illusive single woman that was Bette Porter.

The night Bette just fell in love with a woman named Tina.

“Hey, these are good memories babe, don’t be upset T.”

“I’m not upset, it just sometimes when I think back, how intense those feelings were and how overwhelming it felt, you know you made me feel like I was the only person in the room that night.”

“You were the only one in that room T, there was no one else, I fell in love with you that night, you looked into my eyes and touched a place I never thought even existed, that cold stone of a heart that Alice kept telling me I had, well that night it turned into soft warm putty in the palm of your hand and that is where it has been ever since.”

“You know babe, you touched more than one place in me that night, not only did my heart beat faster and louder than ever before, but about 15 inches south of there, something kind of took on a life of its own, and that in turn made me have the most immoral thoughts I’d ever had.”

Bette gave Tina the killer melt as the words registered in her mind, Tina had been having immoral thoughts on the night they met, “tell me how immoral…,” her eyes flashing the wickedness that was coursing through her mind.

“You are so bad…”

“I may just have to be even badder after you tell me T; you know what it does to me when you whisper those immoral thoughts to me…”

"Bette, badder isn’t a word!”

Tina was met with a squinted glance, the fiendish devilment playing across Bette’s face, knowing exactly what was meant by her play on words.

“Honey, the word ‘badder’ only exists in the TiBette bedroom world, now…, tell me your immoral thoughts baby…, whisper them to me…”

Bette’s quiet voice struck its mark as Tina’s eyes rolled closed, the hairs on the back of her neck standing to attention as the feelings moved throughout her body, her memory needing no jolting to recall the immoral thoughts of seven years ago, the very same immoral thoughts that were passing through her mind at that very moment.

Tina leaned closer, their bodies laid side by side on the unmade bed; she gently placed a kiss on Bette’s lips, before moving her head to the side, planting kisses along the fine cheekbone as she made the short journey to the perfectly formed ear, her nose nuzzling the dark curls as she began to voice the wicked thoughts that were passing through her mind. She rested her hand flat on Bette’s chest, swearing she could feel the beating of her heart under her fingertips.

Bette’s lids slid closed as she felt the warm breath on her face, the feeling of pressure still apparent on her lips, she brought her arm around Tina, pulling her body closer, closer than the full body embrace they were currently in, her hand moving up toward the blonde tresses, pulling her face closer and her other hand reached around and cupped the bottom that she so loved filling her hands with.

“You know babe, if you keep that up, I am not going to be able to utter a single immoral thought to you…”

Bette gave a low chuckle, stilling her hands, knowing that as soon as she had touched Tina’s bottom the game may have been forgotten, “what if I keep my hand still T?”

“I think I can cope with that…!”

Tina began her whispered thoughts, with her eyes closed, her nose nuzzling the dark curls, and her body nestling closely along the length of her partner, she thought how there was no where in the world she would rather be than right there, in the arms of the woman who adored her, “You know when you walked up behind me, I was looking at a picture and it was the only one that I really focused on that entire evening, and it struck me, how inspiring some work can be if you stand and stare at it, looking beyond just the colours and subject, how much an artist puts into that creation, you know babe, I was very moved by that picture and the fact that you went on to explain its origins, I’d never been moved by art before that time.”

“Mmm, I remember seeing how your eyes changed as you discovered the different elements to the painting, and the interpretation of the title and the subject, that meant so much to me T, because you took the time to look and understand and that is what art is all about, looking beyond the surface, someone who exhibits the pieces can only hope that people take the time to do that, and everyone will interpret art in different ways, and you know T, when you came back for your earring the following day, you looked again and saw things in that painting that you hadn’t the night before.”

“You know I had a lot of explaining to do when that painting arrived on my doorstep don’t you, he asked how I could possibly of afforded such a magnificent piece of artwork!”

“And he never did know that it was a gift from your favourite gallery owner!”

“I think he kind of sussed that out pretty soon, the fact I broke it off with him and then started dating you, within a very short space of time, was a really big clue babe!”

Bette laughed, remembering how her mind had became so full of thoughts of one Tina Kennard from the moment of meeting in the gallery and onward, and those thoughts had never dissipated. How she had immediately asked James to put a ‘sold’ sign on the painting that Tina had been so taken with, it had cost her a small fortune, but the look on Tina’s face when she had thanked Bette was worth so much more than any monetary value she could place on a painting, but that was a whole different ‘remember when…’, she thought of reminding herself about bringing that occasion up at another time.

“You know when you stood beside me and asked me if I was coming to sit down, the first thought that went through my mind was that I was hoping to be sat next to you, but then, I thought, if I do sit next to you I won’t be able to eat…”

Bette chuckled, remembering that she had had the very same thoughts, and she was thankful that she had managed to whisper to James that she wanted the place cards on the table changed so that Tina was in fact sitting right next to Bette.

“And then, the way you looked at me babe, oh god…” Tina’s whispered memories were coming in the slow breathy voice that she knew drove Bette wild, but as her mind was playing out the memories in her mind, she found her body reacting in the very same way it had on the night, “… and when you smiled, that combination babe, the intent look and that killer melt of a smile, I really don’t know how I was able to stand, you made my body ache with that one look, and when your fingers came close to my face, and you said those words…”

“You mean the, ‘oh you’ve lost your earring…’?”

“Mmmm, those very words, and you unhitched the earring from my hair, and you never once touched me, not even when you dropped the earring into my hand, I just knew that if you had touched me, I’d have come on the spot babe, with my heart pounding and my groin aching like its never in my life done before…, it would have been my complete undoing!”

“But what about when you came back to the gallery babe…”

“Babe, when I left the gallery that night, I felt desolate, it sounds so stupid, but I didn’t want to leave, I wanted to stay and look at you, talk to you, I wanted you to kiss me, to take me away and make love to me, I wanted to know what it would feel like to have those burgundy lips against mine, to feel those finely manicured hands on my body, I wanted you to take my hand, I just wanted you to touch me…”

“T, I did touch you, when you and Eric left, I shook your hand, and if I remember rightly our hands were joined for far longer than was appropriate for someone saying goodbye.”

“I didn’t want to let go, I never thought I would see you again Bette.”

“That wouldn’t have happened babe…!”

“But I didn’t know that, I didn’t know you were feeling things too Bette, I felt like something, I didn’t know what, but something kind of happened inside me and then suddenly I had to let it go again…”

“T, if you hadn’t of left your earring behind…”

Tina lifted her head as she heard Bette’s words, she was met with a mischievous glance as their eyes met, Bette smiled, knowing what was going through Tina’s mind.

“Okay, okay… if you hadn’t lost your earring, I would have found a way of contacting you.  You know that next morning, it was the first thing I did.  I found out your work number and had every intention of calling you, but you beat me to it…”