“It’s a toy party. You know, like a Tupperware party.” Bette sipped from her iced tea. She smiled to herself, knowing that Tina didn’t know where she was leading her.

They were enjoying a quiet afternoon alone at Bette’s pool, relaxing in the sun.  Bette hadn’t asked Tina if she wanted to come to Alice’s party until this moment.

“I don’t understand?  Why is Alice having a toy party?  Is it for a magazine article?”

“There’s always a magazine article opportunity as far as Alice is concerned.  But the primary purpose is to meet women.”

“Lesbians who want to buy toys?”

Bette turned to look at her with a smirk on her face, knowing that Tina didn’t have any idea what she was talking about.  “Tina—it’s a party to sell sex toys.”

Tina stared at Bette and flushed.  “Sex toys? You want to go to a sex toy party?”

“Well, it’s not that I want to go—it’s just that Al will harass me until I tell her that we’ll come. Do you have a problem with this?” Bette was having fun with this conversation.

Tina wasn’t sure if she had a problem but felt somewhat disconcerted at the thought of being around Bette’s friends as they checked out sex toys. 

“Bette?”

“Yes?”

“Do you…um…have you…I mean, is this something...Well—you haven’t exactly brought this up before and I guess I haven’t really given any thought to…” 

Bette watched Tina stumble around her questions, trying not to smile.

“Tina?”

“Yes?”

“Are you trying to ask me something?”

“I guess I just need to know if there is something that you want…well, if there is something that you think is missing, if you know what I mean?”

“Missing?”

“I know that we haven’t been together very long and I know that I’m kind of new at this…but…well, I guess I just thought that we were pretty OK in that arena.”

“We are OK in that arena. Toys are for….enhancement.” 

Tina’s swung her head around to stare at Bette and her voice went up in pitch.

“Enhancement?”

Bette gave her the Porter grin.  “There’s always potential for enhancement, Tina.”

        *****************************************************

Alice made arrangements with Marina to take over the Planet for the party since the number of women who called to RSVP had become unmanageable.  Stephanie, the owner of the sex toys party franchise, came to set up with her assistant and even Alice was awed at all the different products.  Women started drifting in and walking around the tables.

“Wow—this is amazing!  What do you call this?”  Alice held up the device. 

“We call it the Venus Butterfly.  It’s for clitoral stimulation—you can wear it under your clothes and control it with this remote device.  Or, your lover can control it and surprise you with the different levels of stimulation.”

“Oh, I like that idea!” She noticed Bette and Tina walking in and, waving the Butterfly in the air, shouted out, “Bette, come here…you have to check this out!”

Tina reached for Bette’s hand as they walked over to Alice.

“Look at this! You wear it right up against your clit…” Alice demonstrated by pulling the Butterfly over her shorts and pushing it between her legs.  “and you turn it on and off with the remote.“  They all heard a faint buzz as Alice’s eyes widened.  “Wow—it really works!  And you can turn it up…”  The noise increased incrementally.

Tina stared at Alice and began to turn away, letting go of Bette’s hand.  “I have to go to the ladies room.” She moved quickly away from the demonstration.

“Alice—take that thing off!” Bette shook her head at her friend. 

“Did I embarrass her?  Come on, Bette, you have to try this!”

Bette grabbed the remote from her and turned it off and dragged Alice over to the corner.  “You know she’s embarrassed by this – stop making it worse.”

“Well, if she’s going to join our team, she better get used to our ways, Bette.”

“Stop it—not everyone needs toys, Alice. I don’t remember you ever complaining.” Bette’s voice was a low hiss.

“Well, we never got far enough to really…”

“Stop right there.  Do not go any further.”  Bette walked away to look for Tina. She began to think that she had made a big mistake in bringing her.

                                             **********************

Bette went up to the bar and found Shane ordering a beer.  Her surprise at seeing Bette was very obvious.  “Hey, I didn’t expect to see you here.  Is Tina with you?”

“Yeah—she went to the ladies’ room. “ Bette leaned over the bar to swipe an olive and ordered a martini for herself and a Cosmo for Tina.

“How are things going with you two?  How long has it been now…like six months?”

Bette turned to Shane, “Yeah, almost.” She swung her head around to look out over the crowd of women.  “There are a lot of women here.  You’ll have to fight them off tonight, Shane.”  Her eye caught sight of Tina walking toward her and she waved her over to the bar.

“Miss it?” Shane asked.

“Nope. Not at all.  This woman is all I need.” Bette replied as Tina walked over to them.

“Hi Shane.”  Tina pecked Shane’s cheek and reached for her Cosmo that sat waiting for her on the bar.  “Thanks, baby.”

They finished their drinks at the bar and Shane moved on with another beer.

“Do you want to leave?” Bette asked.