“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!”