Shane walked out of her car squinting, the bright sun wasn’t helping her recover from the huge hang over she was having, not to mention every single sound she heard annoyed her.

‘I guess I shouldn’t have had that drinking spree last night.’ she smiled, mentally taking note of her stupidity. ‘And definitely no more sleeping with the rich client’s wife…’ she added. She was cut away from her thoughts as she heard a car horn booming in the distance.

‘Christ this is some hang over!’ she thought, as she put a hand on either side of her head, gently massaging her temples, ‘I gotta get out of here.’ Shane briskly walked into the Planet to get her usual shot of espresso. But before she could get her coffee she spotted Dana and Tina, and quickly decided to go over there and let her presence be known. ‘The coffee can wait.’
_________________________________________

Tina and Dana sat in silence for a while. Tina was trying to build up the courage to tell Dana what was going on between her and Bette, and Dana was trying to give Tina the space she needed, afraid if she pushed her too much, Tina would break down again.

Finally Tina just decided to go for it. She sighed and said, “Dane, I don’t know where to start… I-” Tina began but abruptly stopped as she felt a hand rest itself lightly on her shoulder. Tina turned around and gasped, “Oh god Shane you scared me.”

“Geez sorry T, I didn’t realize you’d be so jumpy!” Shane replied sounding a bit agitated from being caught off guard, her hang over getting the best of her.

“What happened to you Shane? You look like a wreck.” Dana inquired, examining Shane very carefully. Shane’s clothes were wrinkled, her eyes were a bit blood-shot, and her cool, calm demeanor was no where to be found.

“Watch it Dane you’re beginning to sound like Alice.” Shane said with a smirk. “I’ll just go get some coffee.”

“Wait Shane I want you to hear this too.” Tina said grabbing one of Shane’s rumpled sleeves and pulling her firmly onto an empty chair.

“Can’t it wait? I’ll just be…”

“No, it can’t Shane.” Tina calmly answered, Shane gave Tina a confused look and opened her mouth as if to tell Tina something, but decided against it and slumped down onto her seat, crossing her arms and giving her undivided attention to Tina. Dana crossed her legs and leaned deeper into her chair, looking intently at Tina. “Go head Tina.”

“Well as I was saying… I… uhm…” Tina trailed off and sighed, she took a deep breath and said the words Dana and Shane least expected to hear from her, “Bette and I broke up.”

________________________________________

Bette was still sitting on the floor, only now she had resorted to wrapping her arms around her knees and rocking back and forth. She heard a knock coming from the front door. “What the…” was all Bette could manage, stumped as to how anyone would know she was home. ‘It couldn’t be, could it?’

A smile spread across Bette’s face, hopeful that the person knocking would be Tina. She raced to the front door grabbing the opportunity to open it for Tina, only to find her sister Kit standing in front of her.

“Hi.” Kit said noticing Bette’s smile gradually fade into a more somber expression. “Why do you look so disappointed?” Kit wondered out loud, showing nothing but genuine concern for her sister.

“It’s nothing, I was just” forget it.”

Kit could tell from Bette’s tone of voice that she was lying. Her attention shifted to Bette’s eyes and she realized that her little sister had been crying, but knowing Bette she knew that she wouldn’t even dream of telling her why.

“So uhm, what are you doing here?” Bette asked, curious as to why Kit was there.

“I was lookin’ for Tina actually.”

“Well she’s not here Kit.” Bette said trying to wipe away the dreary expression etched across her face.

“Oh, that’s cool, that’s cool… just tell her I was here when she gets back okay?” Kit replied oblivious to the fact that Bette and Tina were no longer together.

“Okay.” Bette said trying to force a smile onto her face.

Kit turned to leave but surprised Bette by taking her in for a hug. “I love you baby girl.” was all Kit could manage to say before she started to walk away.

Bette couldn’t take it anymore, “I cheated on her…” she blurted out, in hushed, abashed tone.

Kit turned around and faced Bette looking extremely perplexed. Kit was in such a state of disbelief, that she kept looking at Bette expecting that at any moment Bette would let her in on the joke. But Kit soon came to understand that Bette wasn’t kidding, as Bette’s eyes started welling up right in front of her.

Kit instinctively walked over to Bette comforting her, just before Bette broke down in an uncontrollable fit of tears.
________________________________________

Alice was now in her bathroom, playing out the conversation she planned to have with Dana in front of the mirror. ‘Okay let’s try the serious approach…’

“Dane…” She started, “I know we’re in a weird place right now” wait that’s not right.” Alice told herself.

‘How ’bout the logical approach…’

“Well Dane, the thing is the kiss wasn’t really all that! A lip is a lip; a kiss is a kiss, right?” Alice shook her head, she felt like screaming.

She glanced at her wristwatch, ‘*****, I can’t believe I’ve been doing this for the past 15 minutes! And Tina, god I left Tina at the coffee house. I have to get back to her, who knows what she’s been doing there alone.’

Alice started to move, but then suddenly she froze. She couldn’t face Dana unprepared, ‘One last time.’ she thought.

She re-grouped her thoughts and breathed deeply, ‘Let’s try a different approach. Maybe I can pull it off with a little bit of bargaining…’

Alice started to speak again, “Hey Dane, guess what? Remember that kiss we just had a few days ago? Oh you do? Well can you just forget that ever happened? Why? ‘Cause if you do I’m willing to forget that silly little dance you did on Shane’s yacht!” Alice said trying, and in her opinion failing miserably to inject bit of humor into her situation with Dana.

She looked at herself in the mirror, pushed her bangs away and began to directly speak to her reflection. “Face it Al, you’re in love with her.”