That is the true season of love; when we believe that we alone can love, that no one could ever have loved as much before, and that no one will ever love in the same way again. – Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749-1832) German poet, novelist and dramatist.
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Bette and Tina’s duplex six weeks later.

Shane and Alice called out, “Someone open the door, please?”

Helena jumped up from one side of Bette and Tina’s California king-sized bed where she’d been semi-lying down, back against the headboard, legs outstretched, chatting with Bette and Tina about her ride with Gold that morning.  She’d been saying Gold seemed to not be riding as hard, ever since Bette had stopped coming over.  “Joe’s convinced he’s heart-broken,” Helena said with a slight frown.

As she opened the door, she found Shane and Alice were in the middle of an argument (again), even as each had been holding a tray of food and beverages.

“… all I’m saying is you would never see that in LA,” Alice said caustically, cutting Shane off, who appeared to have been in the midst of a retort to Alice.

“Never see what?” Helena asked, in her British-accented voice.  She shut the door, trailing behind the two, who were still shooting each other looks.

Shane responded over her shoulder, “Ask Alice.  She’s the one who’s all hot and bothered about it.”

Alice had walked ahead of Shane, and laid out a napkin on the edge of the bed, which Tina had smoothened out.  “Oh, c’mon, Shane.  Who was really the one all hot and bothered?!  Me?”

She picked up a mug of rooibos-green tea as she talked, and then walked to Bette’s side, handing the mug to the brunette with one hand.  She gingerly kissed the top of her friend’s head while handing her a napkin with the other hand.

“Aww.. can you blame me, Al? With Jason Derulo talkin’ dirty blasting in the background,  and all that … umm… female anatomy on display in public.  Just begging for attention …. ay, caramba!” Shane protested, as she laid the other tray down, and began handing out small plates, after giving Tina the fruit bowl she’d carried on the tray.

Tina laughed lightly and shook her head at Shane’s silent plea for support, as she began fixing a plate of fruit for Bette.  You and Alice sort this out.

Charlotte, NC

8:05 am

Harry’s eyes were pressed against the military-grade binoculars, as he zeroed in on the cab slowly approaching the driveway of the high-rise, observing its movements from his perch on the terrace area of the top-floor restaurant that overlooked the street, and from where he had a 180-degree view of everything surrounding the high-rise.

“Somebody’s coming,” he said quietly into the microphone snug against his cheek, clipped to his earpiece.  “In a cab, just turned into the street in front of the high-rise, approaching the driveway slowly.”

“Copy that,” Tom responded from behind the security desk in the lobby of the building, as he tapped the lobby guard’s shoulder to switch the image being picked up by the cameras over the driveway from one of the little screens to the bigger central screen that they were looking at.

The cab pulled up into the short driveway from the street, slowing even further as it approached the glass doors of the lobby.

“Lady in the back,” Harry reported, as he activated the laser rangefinder of the binoculars, training it on the middle of the windshield of the cab.  Within less than half a second it gave him real-time distance, angle, temperature, and air pressure calculations based on the ballistics data that he’d uploaded.  He steadied his rifle.

A woman alighted from the cab a minute after the cab had slowed to a stop in front of the glass doors.  While the cab had been idling, she’d settled her bill with the cab driver, then turned and dragged her roller that had been sitting next to her on the backseat after she got out.  Meanwhile, the cab driver opened his door, then slowly got out, stretching his arms out first, before shuffling to the trunk of the cab, and pulled out her luggage.

Tom could hear her thank the driver, and as she tried to pull both the larger luggage and her carry-on roller, dragging one on each hand behind her, the lobby guard jumped up to help her, glancing quickly at Tom as he did so.  Tom nodded at him while whispering into his microphone, “False alarm.  Just a resident or guest coming in from the airport probably.”

The cab pulled out, and, just as slowly as it had come in, turned into the street.  Harry continued to observe it until it turned into the main road, and accelerated to match the speed of the traffic, then melted into the stream of cars.

Acapulco, Mexico, April three years ago

“Carlos has a brunette fascination.”

Bette slowly turned her head from gazing out at Acapulco Bay to look at Raoul, who had just seen Carlos, the grandson of a close friend, off. At the request of his grandfather, Carlos had dropped by Raoul’s to pick up a mid-century painting that he’d purchased for his grandfather from Raoul, before flying back to Mexico City on his private jet.

Bette turned her gaze away from the glistening blue waters of the bay to look at Raoul and offer him a small smile in response. She imagined that if Tina had been here, her golden hair would have picked up the reflected shine of the late-afternoon sun and the blonde’s naturally-reddish lips would have curved in a smile at Carlos’ observation, while her hazel eyes would have sparkled and given Bette a teasing wink.

However, all that only existed in the mind’s eye, as Tina was over 2600 miles away in New York, and Bette had escaped to Acapulco. This was a couple of weeks after Tina had told her about cheating on Bette with Scott, and their immediate break-up thereafter (please see “Let It Happen” Chapter XIV for more).

The revelation from Tina had nearly broken Bette, and in the aftermath, Bette had staggered down the snow-filled path that led her away from where Tina stood on a bridge in Central Park, stumbling and barely able to stand, let alone walk, out of the snowed-in park. Bette had hailed a cab when she’d somehow gotten to the curb, and had asked the cabbie to take her to their rented flat. The cab had waited for her while she moved about their apartment, as if in slow-motion, grabbing her go-bag, and her travel coat and handbag.

Focus, Bette. Pretend that you’re going away for a long trip, she’d told herself, as she had paused before opening the door to their bedroom, clutching her stomach, as if preventing her insides from splitting in half, while she wondered about what she should do. Her head was pounding and her world was crashing down around her ears. She bit into her hand and stifled a cry.

After taking a moment to try to gather herself, without realizing it, slowly a sense of self-preservation had kicked in, and she’d unconsciously willed herself to do something familiar. Something automatic – and get to safety, she told herself. Go to a hotel first. Then get out of New York. Keep moving or you’ll crack.

The room from which security cameras were monitored at The Play Room was a converted file room of the menswear store that used to lease the space, plain and tightly elbowed but out-of-the-way.

It was reached only after walking down the length of dimly lit hallway in the second floor of The Play Room that could be accessed to the left of the landing of the staircase that led up to the second floor. Everything else in the second floor of the bar was to the right of the staircase, and access to the dark hall that led to the camera room was roped off.

Jules and Diane waited anxiously in the dimly lit hallway, pacing a few feet from the door of the camera room, which was shut. Bette, Brom, Spencer, and the tech were inside the room, where Spencer had made a call.

Bette suddenly came out of the room, speaking in clipped tones in mid-sentence, “… Christy, don’t worry someone will be with you to take care of Angie…”, as she shut the door behind her. She was walking further down the hallway, towards the emergency exit door, when she wheeled around to face Jules and Diane, who had quickly walked over to her, palms open, mouthing questions to her to ask about what was going on. She partially covered her phone to answer the two, “I need someone to be with Christy and Angie, while I go do something with Brom.”

Jules and Diane looked at each other, and quickly reached an unspoken agreement. “I’ll go to your place and be with Angelica and Christy,” Diane said quickly.

Bette mouthed a quick word of thanks to her and uncovered her phone, “Ok, Christy, Diane will be there shortly. I’ll be talking to her first about a few things. No one’s to leave the duplex until either Tina or I return, ok?”

After a few more exchanges with Christy, Bette clicked the call shut and slipped her mobile into her purse, blowing a breath out to pause for a second before raising her eyes to meet Diane’s.

“Diane, I don’t have a lot of time to explain things but before I do so .. um…I’d like to say something first.” Her voice wavered slightly, and her lower lip trembled a bit. Bette swallowed and breath out again, before saying, “This is for you and Jules, actually.”

Charlotte- Douglas Airport

Tina

Tina walked towards the waiting limo that her stepfather had arranged for her visit. “Do we go to the Hyatt in Uptown straightaway or would you like to stop somewhere else first?,” the driver asked politely, as he opened her door for her.

Tina gave him a quick smile, shook her head, and responded she didn’t need to stop anywhere.  She leaned back in the leather seat and blew a breath out as the driver shut her door.  As the driver asked whether she wanted the music playing in the car changed, she shook her head again, then gazed through the window at the bright lights bathing the steel-and-glass exterior of the renovated wing of the airport that she’d just departed, feeling oppressed by the knowledge that she was acquiescing to the hospitality of a man who had disavowed her choice of taking a woman in marriage.

“Just for you, mom,” she muttered to herself, then turned her gaze from the window, leaned her neck against the neck-rest, and shut her eyes as the driver pulled smoothly into the airport’s exit lane.

Tina’s thoughts drifted back to the last time she’d been here, in Charlotte, about a year ago.  She’d stayed at the same hotel because it was attached to the upscale condo where her mom and Paul, her mother’s husband over the last ten years, maintained a penthouse. Paul was in the energy business, and had had a good run when the economy in the south had boomed.

“It’s a place in the city where we can rest up if we’re in town,” her mom had explained when Tina gave her a questioning look soon after they’d surprised her by meeting her at the hotel lobby.

Although pleased to see her mom at the lobby, Tina had been expecting that they would be meeting the next day at the couple’s suburban manse just outside of the city.  As they’d talked, however, she realized Paul would be downtown for meetings over the next few days, anyway, thus understood why her mom had insisted that Tina stay at this particular hotel when Tina had called her about paying them a visit.  Tina had put it down to her mother’s keen antenna, as if anticipating Tina would need the extra time to prepare her and Paul adequately for big news.