Our Love Affair (B&T romance), Ch. 1

Characters (in no particular order):

Bette Porter – Director of the CAC, single, 34, spends all her free time at work or at the Planet, helping her sister Kit Porter to manage the café, has no personal life whatsoever.

Tina Kennard – Yale graduate in Art History, 28, she was offered a curator position with a Whitney Museum in New York after a few shows that she handle while working for them as an intern but she turned it down to move to Los Angeles for personal reasons, works at CAC in the Art Restoration and Appraisal Department.

Alice Pieszecki – Bette’s witty secretary, 29, knows everything about everyone at CAC and in WeHo. Has a girlfriend, Dana Fairbanks, a tennis champion, but their relationship has been on and off since Dana began traveling a lot and also occasionally seeing Lara Perkins, the Planet’s chef.

Dana Fairbanks – Alice’s girlfriend, tennis player, 28, she’s traveling a lot and her relationship with Alice is done mostly through the phone conversations.

Shane McCutcheon – Yale graduate in Art History where she met Tina and they became best friends, 28, head of the Art restoration and Appraisal Department of the CAC, female Casanova and won’t have it any other way.

Carmen de la Pica Morales – accountant at the CAC but rarely spends her time in her workplace because she likes to be involved in different fundraisers and in gossiping with Alice, 25, in love with Shane but thinks she has no chances with her.

Helena Peabody – hot, sexy, rich Brit and a new member of the Board of Directors, 30, knows Tina from the times when she used to be involved with the Peabody Foundation while working in New York, recently moved to LA and bought an ocean view mansion on the Malibu beach.

Dylan Moreland – a young uprising artist, 25, she’s preparing for her first show at the CAC and also works there as an intern, fell in love with Helena but kept it a secret…until now.

Jennifer Schecter – writer and art critic wanna-be, 25, didn’t get good reviews on her first book and now works at the CAC as a night janitor while freelancing for LA Magazine. Enough said.

Franklin Phillips – member of the Board of Directors at the CAC, 61, not important to the story really but needs to be mentioned here because he might appear a few times.

Other characters might make their appearances at some point as well and if they will, their names will be mentioned as an addition to the character list.

Time: present, year 2007

Place: Los Angeles, California.

All events are taking place mostly at the CAC with a rare exception of characters’ homes, the Planet and other areas around WeHo, which will be mentioned beforehand.

Prologue:

“Hello, my name is Alice Pieszecki and for the next few months I will be your guide into a wonderful world of art, love, friendship and sex. I want to tell you a story about my friends, Bette Porter and Tina Kennard. Well, they weren’t always my friends. Bette was my boss before she became a friend and Tina was…well, Tina was just Tina until one day she became the best friend I’ve ever had. They’ll probably kill me if they knew I was telling you how they met and fell in love and then realized that…um…I think I’d better start from the beginning, even if they will kill me later. Since I played a big part in Bette and Tina story…the most important part, anyway…I will let the story speak for itself.”

“It all began one beautiful September morning when Tina…”

Chapter 1: We were strangers starting out on our journey

…Tina looked out the window that had the view of a very busy street and sighed. Life was hard but she loved Los Angeles and never regretted moving here from New York. She learned to love LA, it was her home now and it became her favorite city in the world for more than one reason.

After her graduation Tina was offered a great position with the Whitney Museum and she almost accepted it but as we all know, life doesn’t always go as planned. Tina had to follow her heart and leave her dream life and her boyfriend to be where she was now. Maybe it wasn’t a life she dreamed about but she was living it now and she was happy…almost.

When Tina moved to LA two years ago, she immediately applied for several galleries and museums. With her extended Art degree from Yale and an impressive resume, Tina was offered a few positions but finally accepted the CAC invitation to head their Art Restoration and Appraisal Department because her best friend Shane was already working there.

She needed that job, though she wanted to do something else at the gallery but she was happy to have this position. After two years she began to love her job and she always believed that without art life will lose some of its beauty. Besides, it paid the bills and helped them to survive, because after Lisa’s accident, all the insurance money went to pay for her medical bills and she couldn’t work…

Tina heard loud screams upstairs in the twins’ bedroom and shook her head to come out of her daydreaming so she could finish dressing. She put on her new purple t-shirt and her favorite pair of jeans and went to check on the two very energetic 6 years-old boys to help them get ready for their school. She had already fed them breakfast that as usual ended in the cheerios fight and now she had to hurry or she would be late for work.

After the boys were good and ready to go, she stopped by the master bedroom. “How are you feeling this morning, honey?” she asked a half-asleep woman, who was still in bed.

“Much better, Tina,” the woman smiled warmly.

“Well, I’m off to work. I’ll take the twins to school and Karen will bring them back at 3 pm. I’m off work at 5, so do you think you can handle the boys on your own for two hours?” Tina asked with concern, looking at the pale skin and a slight perspiration on the woman’s forehead.

“Of course…at least I can walk now.”

“Thank goodness for that,” Tina patted her hand, “Oh, I forgot to tell you that the nurse is coming later this afternoon to check up on you. I think the hospital will be ready for your final tests this week and I really hope for some good news.”

“Me too, darling…Tina, I can’t thank you enough for everything. You left New York and Eric for me…I will never…” the woman began crying softly as Tina placed her finger on her lips and replied gently, “You don’t have to thank me…I love you, Lisa. You and the boys are the most important thing in my life right now. There’s no other place I’d rather be.”