‘If anything happens, please call us.’ Marina offered. ‘Either Alba or I will be more than happy to guide you throughout the city.’

‘Thank you, Marina.’ Ms. Porter smiled earnestly, happy with the kind gesture. She held her girlfriend’s hand to get her attention. ‘I do wish you could be here for lunch.’

‘Sorry, can’t be done.’ The response was cold, dry, caught the brunette off-guard with its’ briskness.

‘Ok, I understand it.’ Bette fought for control against her temper, barely kept herself from snapping back. Recently, Tina had behaved in such a cool fashion sometimes, for reasons yet unknown. ‘I’ll miss you.’

Ms. Kennard’s spine relaxed, so did her facial expression. ‘I’ll miss you too, babe. I’d better go change clothes.’ She gave her girlfriend a flimsy peck on the cheek, waited until the Italian noiselessly unlocked the room door, then went out and headed upstairs in a hurry.

Bette exhaled loudly, concerned. There were times when she was convinced that Tina had, somehow, figured out she’d been seeing someone else. The thought circled her mind, a predator prowling, waiting for an opening, a vulnerability, so as to strike. More and more often she expected Candace to be brought up on one of their too-frequent arguments, was slightly relieved when it didn’t.

Felling the weight of a guilty consciousness was a new, unwelcome, unsettling experience. The carpinter had been the only woman to ever make Ms. Porter’s love towards Tina be obliterated by a primeval, more carnal impulse. It was a good thing that the brunette had come back to her senses in time to maintain that seven-year-long relationship from forever breaking into a million shards of memories.

‘What’s wrong, Bette?’ Marina queried softly, respectfully, as she sat down in front of her friend, put a hand on her forearm.

‘Nothing.’ She shook her head, had been taken out of her reverie with those words. Suddenly, the whole situation overwhelmed her, bloated like a red balloon in her chest and the sentences rushed out of their own volition. ‘It’s only that -’ She hesitated, tried to breathe through the clog in her throat. ‘sometimes I think that Tina and I are drifting appart. Well, you saw what happened. She snapped at me for a superbly silly thing.’