"No."
"Why not? I was the only one you were mad at."
Tina sighed. "You really want to talk about that?"
Bette paused, turning back to her job of pouring the wine, and then turned back to Tina. "Yeah. I want to know that."
Tina conceded. "If I kept in touch, with anyone, I'd feel compelled to ask about you. Or I'd miss everyone, and be tempted to come back, and I couldn't do that. And for me, if there was anyone I wanted to keep in touch with, it was going to be you."
Bette looked at her.
"So I just didn't." Tina finished. "For the most part, though, you're all easy to track down on the internet."
Bette had to smile at that.
"What?" Tina inquired.
Bette glanced at her. "I have a feeling you know more about what's happened to my life than I know about yours."
Tina smiled at her. "The Porter Gallery."
"That would be correct."
"I read that and I wondered where the 'Bette' part was."
Bette shrugged, handing her a glass. "I set it up using Daddy's money."
Tina fell silent.
Bette noticed. "What is it?"
"When I learned that your dad died, I..." Tina took a deep breath. "I almost came home."
"Why didn't you?"
Tina shrugged. "I wasn't sure if it was for the right reasons."
Bette leaned back, and examined her glass of wine. "I'm about to ask you something, and you don't have to answer right away, but I want you to know I won't hold it against you, whatever your answer will be."
"That sounds daunting," Tina noted, smiling at her.
Because Bette already made the earlier mistake of promising not to ask, and now knew better.
Bette paused, glancing at her, then at the fountain in front of them. "Come with me to Alice and Dana's wedding."
"You don't have a date?" Tina asked.
Bette chuckled. "Would I be out here with you if I had one?"
"I guess not," Tina admitted. "Bette---"
"Come on. It'll be fun."
"Bette..."
"Don't answer now," Bette said quickly, surprising both of them with the earnest tone, the subtle and underlying desperation in the brunette's voice. "You're going to answer on instinct, make the choice that will keep everything simple."
You don't get to make the easy choice, Tina.
Tina inhaled, and nodded. "I'll think about it."
Bette smiled at her. "Good. I'm glad."
Tina watched her, smiling back as they raised their glasses in a toast. She watched Bette, who was savoring her choice of wine to steal, blissfully unaware that her smile just broke Tina's heart in a million pieces.
She hesitated, then decided to lay her cards down and tell Bette why she was here. "Bette."
Bette turned to her, and was confused to find conflict in Tina's expression. "T? What is it?"
"This... This isn't going to go the way I'm going to want it to go." Tina sighed. "The way we both want it to go."
Bette still looked confused.
Tina looked at her. "I'm in love with you. I always have been. Eight years has done nothing to diminish that."
Bette had her first dose of understanding. "There's a loophole."
"I can't stay." Tina nodded. "We have our own lives now, and this isn't about reconciliation, or anything remotely close to that."
"Then why bother?" Bette asked.
Tina stood up, paced a few steps, and sighed. "Because we deserve a better ending than the one I gave us."
Bette looked up at her.
"I shouldn't have walked away. I shouldn't have left. I know that. I was just..."
"I know."
"No," Tina shook her head. "You don't. You don't know. Because I didn't stick around to explain it to anyone. Certainly not to you."
"T, you were strong enough to leave and start a new life." Bette said gently, glancing down at her wine. "I get it.
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