Bette sat down, and joined the silence of Tina and Angelica as they both gazed at the after-sunset sky.

Bette hesitated, then turned to glance at Tina. "What happened?"

"Helena dumped me."

"What happened?"

"The inevitable." Tina replied.

Bette nodded, turning to the ocean, before turning back to Tina. "So what are you going to do now?"

"I was thinking maybe join a convent, or something." Tina quipped. "Except with the no indulgence part, I'll go insane."

"That's a good point," Bette agreed.

"So the relationship-jumping champion has dropped out of the race." Tina smiled weakly, using one of the adjectives Helena enjoyed using on her. "What about you?"

"Well, I could tramp around and use others to get over the heartbreak and disappointment of having my wedding not happen and my engagement broken, but that's not something I really feel like doing." Bette shrugged. "So I guess I'm stuck with you."

Tina glanced at her, eyebrow arched in skepticism.

"Luckily," Bette grinned at Angelica, then at Tina. "I like being here with you."

******

Alice casually sauntered up to Bette, placing a hand on her friend's shoulder, and could have sworn her friend jumped.

And might have even let out a small high-pitched sound.

Alice grinned. "You okay?"

Bette nodded. "Yes. Yes. Just..."

"Jumpy?" Alice suggested.

Bette frowned at her.

Alice smiled. "How was your date last night?"

Bette smiled, remembering last night's date, with an artist she had been fighting an attraction to for weeks already. She seemed to fail miserably not to become involved with people she had to work with. However, her thoughts were prevalent with something else that caused her smile. "I can't remember."

"How come?" Alice asked, picking up her cup of coffee, and smiled. Good to know that barista had paid attention.

"Tina was there."

Alice spit out her coffee. "That bitch!"

Bette looked at her, puzzled.

Alice saw the look, then smiled. "Premature?"

"A little." Bette nodded.

Alice shrugged. "What happened?"

Bette looked at her long-time friend, onetime lover. Trying to measure how much she could tell Alice, how much she was comfortable to share.

Alice composed herself, and took another sip of her coffee.

"She was with a woman."

Alice again lost her coffee. "That bitch!"

Bette lifted an eyebrow.

Alice frowned. "Wait. What?"

"Woman." Bette repeated.

"That bitch!" Alice declared. "Wait. Were they--"

"I think so." Bette replied, leaving out the catfight she and Tina had gotten into in the ladies' room, the bitchfest they had so willingly gotten into.

Alice paused, trying to grasp Tina's return trip to homosexuality. "How does that work?"

"I don't know. Don't care." Bette replied, then realized she was clearly lying. She had watched with undisguised horror as the night wore on, her seat giving her an unrestricted view of Tina and her redhead of a date cozying it up in their corner of the restaurant, to the point that Laura, her own date, had offered that they leave, and when that had been refused, suggested that they take a rain check on their date. That suggestion, Bette accepted.

Unfortunately, they left not soon enough to miss the lust-filled display of Tina and the redhead.

Knowing she was lucky to even have shared custody, Bette opted to leave Angelica out of her verbal sparring with Tina last night.

But this morning was a different matter altogether. It was still early, and Bette had already decided on giving Tina a call to give her a piece of her mind about last night's events.

Just because they were civil for Angelica's benefit did not mean they were above being petty and adult when it came to each other. Not at all.

Sometimes, like this instance, there was no depths they were willing to go.

Shallow? Yes. But they always recovered from whatever it was they said, and in almost the same breath arrange to meet for when they next exchanged Angelica.

Bette smiled to herself. She liked those moments when she and Tina snapped at each other and exchanged verbal attacks, knowing despite their best efforts, their lives would always be linked, because of Angelica. Sometimes, one of them would make the mistake of revealing more than they wanted the other to know, usually how much their individual actions continued to hurt.

"Hey, she smiles," Alice said, watching Bette. "Remembering anything spectacular, Porter?"

Bette shook her head. "Just something Angelica did."

Alice nodded. She'd made the mistake more than once of asking just what Angelica had done, and had been yearning to leave by the fourth story of Angelica's adorable antics. The child was cute, yes, but she also relished her freedom.