Do you remember when… Chapter 7

Bette gave Tina a look of mock horror, inside she was dieing to burst out laughing, but she wanted to make Tina suffer for this, “I cannot believe you, I cook for you, light candles, massage your body, wash your hair, shave your legs, hold you in the bath and you just lay there and fart!”

Tina looked mortified at the words, not realising that it would have upset Bette, but her relaxed demeanour and the curry, well, “Babe, I’m sorry… but you know the curry was pretty spicy and I was all relaxed… and …”

Bette remained cool and calm, her face belying the internal hysteria that was bubbling on the surface as she interrupted Tina’s words. “Tina, do you know what one of the best things in life is?”

Tina was confused, not quite knowing where this conversation was headed, she shook her head, not sure of what answer to give.

“Revenge…” Bette looked pointedly at Tina before looking down at the calm water between them, a string of large bubbles bursting along the surface as she erupted into a fit of laughter.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

“T, come on baby, surely you’re not still mad at me, I’ve apologised for what I said last night…”

“A little, I can’t believe you told her Bette, Alice of all people, you know sometimes…, you ever heard of the phrase ‘a time and a place’?”

Bette raised her eyebrows at Tina’s sarcasm, “I’m sorry, I don’t know what else to say, I didn’t realise it would upset you so much…”

“Bette you told her about us in the bath and me breaking wind!”

Bette smirked, “I did it too T…”

“That’s not the point…”

Bette parked the car, ready for their usual breakfast meeting with the gang at the Planet.

Both women stood on the sidewalk, looking at one another, no anger, no humour, just looking at one another.

“T… really… I’m sorry… please…”

Bette stepped closer, her arms circling Tina’s waist, she planted delicate kisses along Tina’s jaw, nuzzling her ear, the quiet, slow deliberate words warm in her ear, “last night… when Alice left T…, the relaxing evening we had…”

Tina began to smile, her mind recalling the effort Bette had made the evening before, the meal, and they did have a good time with Alice, even though she had been embarrassed, and when Alice had left…, “mmm babe, it was an amazing night…”

“When we made love in the bath T… and after…” Bette continued with the slow words, directed into Tina’s ear, as Tina’s arms had snaked around her neck, her fingers entwined in the curls of Bette’s hair.

“Mmm… after…”

“I was apologising last night babe…”

“I know, I’m sorry… I know I’m overreacting but you know what she’s like Bette…”

“T baby, please… it’s just Alice, leave her to me… okay…”

“Okay…”

“By the way T…” Bette ran her tongue along the soft fleshy lobe as they remained standing in the sidewalk.

“Mmm…”

“You tasted divine last night…”

“Fuck Bette…”

“Do you think we could make a detour… and you know…?”

Tina pulled back slightly, looking into the glazed eyes before her,        she swallowed the lump in her throat as her body began to react to the words, “how is it that after seven years you can still do that to me…?”

Bette smiled, knowing Tina was contemplating the suggestion, “do what babe…?”

“How can you still make me want you as much now as I’ve ever wanted you?”

“My infinite charm, my good looks…?” Bette replied with a smile.

“Infinite charm… I think you should prove it…” Tina replied sarcastically.

“Or maybe it’s because I love you more now than I have ever done before…”

Tina smiled at Bette’s reply, “okay you have charm, and as for the good looks, I think you are just about the hottest thing on this planet… and guess what…?”

Bette smiled at Tina’s words, “What babe?”

“You’re all mine…”

“Absolutely…” Bette leaned forward to kiss the lips of her partner, “I love you T…”

“Love you too babe, now… take me for breakfast…” Tina smiled, placing a chaste kiss on Bette lips.

As Bette and Tina stood placing their order, Bette had her hand placed on Tina’s bottom, standing close, whispering, laughing together, sharing quick kisses, the closeness between them palpable.

Shane nudged Alice, her head nodding towards the loving couple at the counter, “don’t they look great together, that weekend away they had did them so much good…”

“Yeah they do, I was around at their place last night and they were as close as I ever seen them, its really great…”

Bette and Tina approached the table hand in hand, smiling as they looked at their friends.  They sat in the two spare seats as the other occupants of the table looked at one another.

Tina looked at Bette, furrowing her brow, trying to decipher the quiet behaviour; she looked back to Alice, hoping that their conversation last night was forgotten and that she had not shared it with the others.  Tina place her hand on Bette’s thigh, smiling as she felt the muscle beneath her hand tense at the contact, she looked to Bette, smiling, knowing the reaction she had caused.

They looked back to their friends who continued with the silence.

“What…?” Bette said, “has one of us grown two heads or something?”

“No…” Alice replied, reaching below the table, “Tina… I know it’s not your birthday for another month, but I saw this and immediately thought of you…” she presented a large gift wrapped box to Tina, placing it on the table in front of her.

Tina looked to Bette, who just shrugged, “do you want me to open it now?”

“Of course…” Alice said clapping her hands together in excitement, her smile making Tina slightly nervous.

“Alice…” Bette said in warning, seeing the glint in her eye causing her mind to conjure a million thoughts as to what could be in the gift wrapped box.

“It’s a present, that’s all, nothing bad; it’s a nice present…”

Tina again looked to Bette, raising her eyebrows, a thought of ‘what the hell’ as a passing thought.  She began to unwrap the present, noticing that there was a plain cardboard box inside, with the paper discarded she placed the box in front of her, her heart pounding in wonderment, she pulled the flap back and peered inside, looking to Bette and rolling her eyes.

“What is it babe?”

“Give you one guess?”

Bette shrugged and peered into the box, looking to Tina, seeing the sparkle in Tina’s eye, knowing her annoyance had dissipated and the gift would be taken in the spirit that it had been given.

“Come on take it out the box…” Alice said excitedly, seeing the look between Bette and Tina.

Tina removed the inner box from the package, placing it on the table in front of them all.

“A bubble machine…?” Shane said looking from Alice to Tina to Bette to Dana.

Tina, Bette and Alice all burst out laughing at the gift, knowing an explanation would be needed.

Shane took in what she was being told, “so let me get this right, you guys had been going out for a while and Tina asked you to make a curry…”

“Hey Yoda, she makes a great curry, I had one last night…” Alice piped in.

“I know, I’ve had one before too…  so… you pamper her all evening, with a massage, a romantic bath for two… and it’s the first time she uh… you know… lets one drop in the bath…”

“Well yeah, but when I picked her up on it she denied it… but revenge was sweet…” Bette added.

“Actually Bette, if I remember rightly, your revenge was not in the least bit sweet…” Tina laughed, leaning whispering in her ear, “I’m sorry I was mad with you earlier babe…” she placed a kiss beside Bette’s ear before looking into her eye’s, winking at her.

“So T, did you give Bette her present last night?” Alice asked.

“Uh… no…”

“Why not?”

“We were kinda busy…”

“Busy huh…”

“Yeah, just busy, I’ll give it to her later…”

“Guys, you are looking really great, that weekend away really did you both good…” Shane said, noticing how relaxed they were both looking.

“Thanks Shane, we did have a great weekend, didn’t we babe?”  Bette said, linking her fingers with Tina’s.

“Yeah... we did, and we’ve been doing a lot of reminiscing too…”

Alice giggled, “I think that some things are maybe not worth remembering though…”

“Yes, thank you Alice, next time we decide to reminisce, remind me not to do it when you’re around!”

“At least you have a bubble machine to remind you…”

“So… guys, what have you been reminiscing about?” Shane asked, curious to know how her idol’s kept it going.

Tina looked to Bette, the silent look between them signifying that neither one had a problem talking about the game they had been playing.

“Well, we thought we would play this game called ‘Do you remember when…’ and we just talk about something we remember, an event or the first time we did something…”

“Hey I like that, I wonder if I could do an article on that…” Alice piped up; impressed with the game her friends had been playing.

“So what have you remembered?” Shane asked, even more curious now she knew the concept.

Bette looked to Tina, smiling, knowing the effect that the reminiscing had had on them.  “We remembered the first time we met, our first date, our first kiss, the first time we uh…”

“You remembered the first time you did ‘it’” Alice laughed.

“Yeah and it was amazing…”

“How long did it take you guys from meeting to sleeping together…?” Alice asked, for once in a serious tone.

Tina looked at Bette sheepishly, not knowing whether this was something they wanted to share.

Bette nodded; she leaned over and kissed Tina, “its fine…”

Tina smiled, looking at her friends, who had never heard this confession before, “four days…”

“Porter… you dog…”

“Actually Al, it was me who initiated it…”

Alice, Shane and Dana were silenced at Tina’s confession, looking from Bette to Tina, and back, seeing the couple in front of them smiling at each other, laughing at the reaction of their friends, they held hands, Bette reached her arm around Tina’s shoulder, pulling her close, whispering close to her ear, “do you realise how much I love you Tina Kennard…”

“Yeah, actually I think I do babe…” Tina placed a tender kiss on her partner’s lips, the family group around them, making them realise just how lucky they really were.

“Do you know what I remember…?”

“What…” Bette asks, smiling as she sees the far away look on Shane’s face.

“The first time you brought Tina to Milk…”

Three weeks had passed since the weekend of their first rendezvous, since the first time Tina had explored and devoured the woman she had fallen in love with, the time in that three weeks had been spent with the continued explorations, the intense intimate occasions where a kiss on the sofa had turned into an evening of making love, gently, passionately, intensely, sensually, erotically, Tina tasting the sweetest essence of her lover for the very first time,  both women experiencing the complete and utter feeling of completeness and fulfilment that neither had before had in their life.

Bette had mentioned to Tina that Alice had invited them to Milk for the evening, telling Bette that she needed to let the gang meet the woman that had put the sparkle in the Porter eye, the woman who had, unbeknown to her friends, systematically turned Bette’s life upside down, Bette had wanted to keep Tina to herself, the only time she had met anyone of the gang was the Saturday morning when Tina had arrived upset at the gallery, moments meeting Kit and the initial meeting with Alice.

Alice had been questioned by the rest of the gang about the mystery woman, known as ‘the earring lady’ that Bette was keeping to herself, the woman that Alice had briefly met at the Planet, the woman that Alice gave a knowing smile about as she saw her walk away from their table hand in hand with the Lesbian Jedi.

Bette pulled her car up in an available space near the club and they both exited the car, Bette came around to Tina and looked at her, noticing the slight hesitation about her, regardless of Bette talking to her incessantly in the car, holding her hand, but the one thing that had visibly calmed her more than anything was the gentle kiss and the words of endearment that had become so familiar to them both, the words neither had tired of hearing.

“T, baby, don’t be nervous…”

“Bette, they are going to eat me alive!”

Bette laughed at the look on Tina’s face as she whispered the words, “T, the only eating that there will be tonight is when I get you home…”

“Bette…!” Tina gave an embarrassed look at the comment; Bette pulled her into a full length embrace, her arms circling her waist, their lips meeting in a tender, lingering kiss.

“T, baby… You are the sweetest thing I have ever tasted and I will never get enough of you… and tonight… I’ll protect you…”

“Promise…” Tina quietly whispered, wondering whether her beating heart would calm anytime soon.

“I promise…” Bette placed a tender kiss on Tina’s shiny lips, the moment stood still as the kiss deepened, they stood on the pavement, arms wrapped around one another, both oblivious to the effect that one singular kiss was showing to the insular world of WeHo.

Bette broke the kiss as she felt her body reacting to this woman in her arms, the immediate reaction she had been experiencing every single time their lips had met over the course of the last three and a half weeks.

“I love you T…”

Tina looked deep into the expressive eyes before her, the simple quiet words meaning so much more to her than she could possibly say, her reply seemed so insignificant to the feelings her heart had come to tell her in the short time they had spent together, “I love you too…”

“You ready for this?" Their eyes met and they both smiled. 

"No, not really, but if I don’t do it now I never will!” Tina teased, she reached for Bette's hand and with a quick squeeze they made there way into the club. 

The club was already packed and Bette was looking around trying to find her friends, she finally saw Alice on the other side of the dance floor.  "T, let's get some drinks and then make our way over,"  

As they reached the table with Bette's friends their fingers remained entwined, neither wanting to let go, but for very different reasons. 

Tina had immediately noticed the looks she was getting, from the leering, to the inquisitive, to the interested, and unbeknown to her, all having heard that the infamous Jedi had snared herself a beauty, and this being the first time they had been seen out of an evening together, the curious glances had only just begun.

Bette had felt Tina’s grip tighten around her fingers, she too had noticed the looks, but she wasn’t going to let go, Tina was hers and nobody in this place would be laying a finger on the woman who she had fallen in love with, and if one of them even tried, then the wrath of Bette Porter would be seen and felt in all of WeHo.

Alice looked up to see her friend standing by the table with a gorgeous blonde that she had only seen twice before – the first being the gallery opening and the second three weeks previous at the Planet, she also noticed that, just like at the Planet, they were holding hands.

"Hey Jedi, well, well, well, and I see ‘the earring lady’ too, you know we were beginning to wonder if you were still alive!”

Tina felt Bette's grip tighten on her hand, the glance back over her shoulder at Tina’s face full of apology.  Tina smiled back at Bette, her eyes telling her she was okay, the pre-warning that Bette had given her about Alice had prepared her, but she had to admit to herself, she was nervous about meeting Bette’s friends, what if they didn’t like her…

"Alice, fuck off!" Bette said sharply.

"Yeah Alice, shut the fuck up will you!" both of the other residents of the table said in unison.

Bette leaned over to whisper into Tina's ear, "I'm really sorry Tina, maybe this wasn't such a good idea

after all, why don't we get out of here, go somewhere so we can be on our own?" she looked at Tina, silently but intently pleading.

Tina let go of Bette's hand and brought it around her back to pull Bette in closer, she leaned in and whispered, "Babe, its ok, we have the rest of the weekend to spend on our own, your friends are obviously missing you and I don’t want them to think I’m keeping you away from them,” she left a little kiss just beside Bette's ear and pulled back to look into Bette's eye's.

"You are one amazing lady T!"

"I know!" Tina winked back at Bette.