She sat there staring at him, waiting for him to respond. What sort of secret had he been hiding from her? He sucked in his breath as he was preparing his words. She didn’t rush him, she waited very anxiously.

“Babe, what is it? You know you can tell me anything,” she said, trying to find his eyes.

“I know, I just don’t want you to be upset.”

“I won’t be, I promise.”

“Ok,” he sighed, “you were right mother, I haven’t been going to a study group, well I have, it’s just a lot of the time I’m meeting this girl. Well, dating this girl from school, Zoey.”

“Now sweetie, why would I be upset about that?”

“We have just gotten to know each other and I didn’t want you to think you were losing me.”

“I would never think that, I am happy you’ve found someone.”

“Trust me, I would never let this girl come between us, and now with this stunning appearance of my uncle, I have a real chance at knowing who my parents were,” Bette smiled and patted his hand, “I talked to Tina about Zoey and she was very supportive; and that’s the other thing I don’t want you to be upset about.”

“I’m not upset about that, it pleases me you feel comfortable enough to talk to Tina.”

“I don’t know what it is about Tina, she just kind of pulled it outta me,” he said and Bette smiled, “I didn’t want to say anything before I talked to you.”

“She just has her way of interrogating you until you fess up,” she said and laughed, “our children are so screwed.”

They both laughed and spent a little more time talking with each other. Bette reassured Alexander that he can come to her anytime, no judgments or anger. As they both said their goodbyes, Joyce called. She let Bette know that Stephen Kale was ready for her whenever she was. Bette wanted to get this done as soon as possible and called Tina and Alexander to get their schedules, so they could fly to New York. As soon as she talked to them she booked them a flight, and they’d leave at the end of the week and be there for a couple days. Bette had filled James in on her situation and had her assistant reschedule all of her meetings.