It was nice, alright? Geez, impatient little one… You’re worse than Angie! Alright let me think…

Trying to arrange her thoughts, Tina inhaled sharply.

We went to that dinner-place you told her to go to…

Instantly protesting, Alice’s voice made its way through the phone again, making Tina shake her head in disbelieve

I didn’t tell her nothing, T, you did. On the profile chat thing, remember?

How could she not remember? It had been awful to feel so vulnerable, having her friends looking at possible women for her as if it was a meat-market. And Jodi… Jodi’s presence hadn’t made it any easier. Neither had the fact that she had just ran into Bette who was on her way out…

Bette… Who could still make her heart skip several beats…? Bette… Who, by touching her, even ever so shortly, without any intentions, could leave her breathless…? Bette… Who had asked her what she was doing for sex, with that bend in her voice that still drove her crazy at night… Bette Bette Bette! This had to stop!

Oh god, Al, you were typing it out for me! Please! As if I had any choice in what to…

Lovin you darlin’

Okay okay! Just, go on… Was she as nice as the profile said? Look like her picture?

She wasn’t quite sure why she had, in the end, given in. Maybe it had been the look Jodi and Bette had shared when the brunette had left. Maybe it had been the loneliness she felt due to that. Maybe it was everyone around her dating, maybe even a bit of Shane giving up on sex made her realize how long it had been ago that she had had someone touch her… To be touched with love, with care and tenderness… And maybe desire?

Makes me so confused

But much of it had to do with the sentence that kept running through her head. That one sentence Jodi had uttered when Tina had complemented her on not letting Bette get away with working in the weekend.

She made a commitment.

Bam! Gone were all the dreams, all the specks of hope that were left. All the thoughts about stolen glances, al the hope that had risen when Bette had acted the way she did around the pool, when she had loosened her top… What had that been about anyway? God how pathetic was she becoming? Bette had indeed made a commitment. To someone else… She had better face that and move on herself.