Reunion Challenge: You are the best I ever had

Unofficial JLBT challenge #1 – Part 4A

Los Angeles, 2006

“Tina, you have to snap out of it…it has been seven months since Bette left and I don’t see you smiling or even grinning anymore. Come to the Planet with me and Dylan tonight…you know how long it has been for us to go out on a date because of the kids and work.”

“I don’t think I’ll be a good company today,” Tina replied, regretting answering the phone. Helena was trying to get her out of the house for months now and Tina knew her friend wouldn’t give up.

“It’s Thursday, darling…Marina’s throwing a Wild Women’s Party tonight. We just want to have fun for one night and we need our best friend with us to make it perfect,” Helena could hear herself whining on the phone but it was the only way she could persuade Tina come out of her shell.

“I know it seems crazy but I miss Bette so much and I just don’t feel like partying,” Tina knew that she sounded pathetic but couldn’t help herself. She missed Bette and wasn’t going to lie about it.

“I know you miss her, darling but you talk on the phone every day.”

“It’s not the same, Helena, and you know it,” Tina replied somewhat harshly. “Sorry…”

“Don’t apologize, Tina,” Helena sighed. “I know it’s not the same but at least it something. Why don’t you fly to Chicago for a few days and visit her?”

“I offered but Bette told me that her father is too weak and sleeps most of the time because of his medication. She spends all her days in the hospital so she won’t miss those brief times when he’s awake and this is not Bette’s idea of entertaining a guest.”

“Just go and surprise her. I’m sure Bette doesn’t want to make you feel obligated or uncomfortable but I think she will be happy to see you,” Helena suggested, hoping that some action might help Tina to get out of her melancholy phase. “Come to the Planet with us tonight and we concoct a plan.”

“Helena, you sound so devious,” Tina laughed despite her gloomy mood. “Okay, I will go only because you and Dylan are my best friends and because you asked nicely…but don’t expect me to be wild.”

Marina was a very good friend of Tina and always kept a special table for her and her friends. Tina was really grateful for this gesture, especially tonight because the place was packed for the party. The music was loud but they were seated far enough from the DJ’s area and the stage and could enjoy their drinks and a conversation.

“Did you tell Bette about Jenny?” Helena inquired when they ordered the second round of drinks. She was absently rubbing Dylan’s back with one hand while her partner kept her free hand on Helena’s thigh.

Tina looked at her friends and sighed, envious of the love and affection she always saw between them. ‘Why can’t I find something like this?’ she pondered miserably, sipping her drink. ‘Why am I so hopelessly in love with Bette Porter?’

“Tina?” she was startled by Helena’s voice that suddenly sounded too close and very loud.

“What? I’m sorry…I was thinking…”

“About Bette, I imagine,” Helena sat back down on her chair after screaming into Tina’s ear and resumed caressing Dylan’s back.

“Well…” Tina stumbled, unsure what to say.

“Tina, it’s perfectly fine,” Dylan smiled at her and looked at her lover with frown, “Helena, be nice…Tina is in love and we’re here to help her, not to make her feel worse about it.”

“Oh, I know, sweetheart…that’s why I’m trying to persuade Tina to talk to Bette and tell her the truth about her feelings. I can’t stand to see my best friend being so miserable.”

“What if we’re not meant to be? Every time we meet, one of us is involved with someone else,” Tina said, desperately hoping to be wrong.

“But not now, honey…you’re single and the last I’ve heard, she hasn’t been dating anyone since she moved to L.A. She was busy hanging out with you.”

“I will talk to her, Helena, I promise,” Tina replied, suddenly feeling very tired and pathetic in her constant lusting after Bette. “What did you ask me about Jenny?”

“Does Bette know that Jenny left you? Did you tell her?”

“No,” Tina shook her head and finished her drink, motioning to the waitress to bring another round. “I don’t think it’s a phone conversation.”

“Why not?” Helena was genuinely surprised. “As long as you’re telling her personally and not leaving her a message on her answering machine, I think it’s an acceptable topic for a conversation.”

“And what would I say to her?” Tina asked brusquely. “Hey, Bette…I’m sorry your father is dying and you’re busy right now but Jenny left me and I’m finally single now and I’m lonely…fancy a fuck?”

“Well, something like that but maybe not in exact same words…”

“I don’t want her pity, Helena. I love her…I know I’m desperately in love with her but she never actually told me that she loved me.”

“Hello…where were you? Anyone who saw you two together could see that she is crazy in love with you. Every time you walked into the Planet, I swear, time stood still for Bette. Her smile could be seen across the ocean and it was so radiant and bright that it could serve as a light beacon to all lost at sea…”

“Are you quoting that stupid script you gave me to read this week? Some romantic crap…” Tina laughed, feeling the effects of the drinks she consumed already.

“Don’t tell me you don’t believe in love and romance, Tina because you are the biggest romantic I know,” Helena smiled at Tina affectionately, glad to see Tina was relaxing a little. “But it’s true…that script was a piece of crap.”

“Yes, I’m such a hopeless romantic,” Tina conceded with a sigh. “No wonder my own love life is non-existent because this great everlasting first-last-and-forever love only happens in movies and romantic novels…it doesn’t happen in real life and it doesn’t happen to me.”

“And what about us?” Helena asked, raising her eyebrows. “I think Dylan and I live in a romantic novel…we’re crazy in love, we’ve been together for almost six years and we have a wonderful family…and sex is still incredible and mind-blowing after all these years.”

“Helena…” Dylan blushed but couldn’t hide her happy smile.

They all toasted to a happy romantic love and Tina got up, feeling a little unsteady. “Maybe it’s time for me to get wild,” she winked at her friends on her way to the bar to get more drinks.

“What do you think, honey?” Helena asked when Tina was gone.

“She’s hopeless,” Dylan replied seriously. “She needs Bette and I think you should order her to go to Chicago…you’re her boss after all.”

“You’re so smart and so unbelievably hot and that’s why I love you,” Helena smiled seductively and leaned for a kiss.

“Well, I do have a brain for business and a body for sex,” Dylan laughed when they came out for breath.

“And that’s why we are a match made in heaven,” Helena replied as she moved closer for another kiss. 

“Get a room…” Tina laughed when she returned to the table and saw them kissing.

“Tina, may I ask you a question?” Dylan said after Tina settled down and passed the drinks around.

“Sure…”

“You told us that you couldn’t stop thinking and dreaming about Bette the moment you saw her in San Francisco and you fell in love with her after you saw her the second time…why did you chose to be with Jenny if you were in love with someone else? Jenny is so different from Bette…they are like heaven and earth…”

“Oh, I know…I was asking myself the same question. When I saw her for that one day, she was all I wanted. After Bette left I was dating a lot…well, I had a lot of first dates and I was looking for Bette in every woman I’d met because she was unavailable. It took me awhile to realize that there’s no one like Bette and never will be. After that, it was easier to be with someone I knew wasn’t Bette than to be constantly disappointed and feel miserable.”

“Well, I hate to admit but Jenny was good for you while it lasted, though now I hate the sight of her,” Helena said angrily. She still couldn’t believe what a lunatic Jenny turned out to be. “How could she blame you for her failure and then leave you like you never mattered to her?”

Tina knew it was a rhetoric question so she chose to drink instead of answering. After she finished another beer, Tina said pensively, “When you start talking to yourself and then realize that you’re answering your own questions, does it mean you’re crazy?”

“No, Tina…it means that you are just extremely lonely,” Helena placed her hand on Tina’s shoulder. “You’re shaking…are you okay?”

“I think I’m getting a flu or something,” Tina shrugged and then smiled weakly, “Maybe I’m under the influence of a Porter Effect and it’s incurable. I feel like I’m going crazy without her.”

“Tina…go to Bette and let her know how you feel…and for god’s sakes, tell her about Jenny,” Helena finished her martini and glared at the blonde. “If you won’t go, I will send you there on a business trip.”