“What?” Her voice cracked. “Eric, are you out of your mind? That is not possible.” Her heart thudded faster.

“No? I’ve seen the way she looks at you. Believe me, that look in her eyes, it is love.” He teased her, kissing her shoulder.

She moved away involuntarily. “No…” she repeated, but she did not sound convincing.

“It’s not a big deal. Tina, you are so beautiful. Anyone can fall for you. Why not, Bette?”

“Okay, what if she was in love with me? What then?” She snapped back at him, now fully awake.

Eric pondered about it for a moment. “I’d feel bad for Alice. But maybe they can work out an open relationship. And if you were up for it, maybe we could invite her to our bed to spice things up.”

“What?” Tina shrieked and got out of bed. “ERIC!” The thought of anyone else touching Bette enraged her. But her husband having such thoughts about her lover disgusted her to no end.

“Hey, I’m just kidding! C’mon Tina, you know I only want you.”

“Eric, I don’t want to talk about this with you anymore. I’m going to go sleep in the living room.” She gathered her things and walked out of bed, even as he protested.

“And one last thing. If you invited Bette have sex with us, she’d only want to be with me and be touched by me. She’s a lesbian Eric. And …”

She wanted to say “And so am I…” but stopped in her tracks.

“And what Tina?”

“And you need to stop making stupid jokes and go to sleep.”

She marched out of the bedroom without another word to him. He stared after her receding figure, confused and perplexed. He didn’t understand her at all.

–

Alice lay in bed beside Bette in the dark, trying to fall asleep. She wondered if Bette was awake or pretending to sleep. She wanted to reach across and touch her, but she was afraid of rejection. Even after they had sat and talked, and buried the past, she still felt a certain distance from Bette.

She studied her sleeping form, trying to think back to the last time that they had made love in this bed. She couldn’t remember, but she needed her desperately tonight.

She reached out and lightly ran her fingertips up and down her exposed arm. Bette moaned and mumbled inaudibly. Alice smiled warmly, happy that Bette still responded to her touch. She snuggled closer and kissed her neck, sucking on it slowly. She lightly blew and watched her shiver before leaning down to lick along the long column of her neck again. Bette moaned and pulled her into her arms. Encouraged, Alice slipped her hand underneath the white tank Bette was wearing in bed, and started to massage her breasts. Not to be outdone, her wife responded by stroking her ample breasts through her nightie and pulled her down to feast on her hard nipples. Alice threw her head back and moaned long and hard in response.

–

Tina woke up from the nightmare with a pounding headache, feeling nauseous and sick in the stomach. She threw off the covers, got off the couch and ran into the bathroom, where she retched continuously into the toilet bowl.

After she had emptied out her stomach, she sunk down against the bath-tub, spent and exhausted. Her body ached and she felt completely unsexy. Visions of Bette and Alice together in bed tortured her. But what bothered her most was the look in her Dad’s eyes at the dinner table, the look of disappointment.

Tina had desperately wanted to talk to him afterward but he had left the dining table quietly in the most uncharacteristic way.

She had never wanted to let him down, ever since he brought her home to live with them after her own parents had passed away. He had loved and supported her through everything and she was his daughter first, and his daughter-in-law later.

But the truth remained that she was cheating on his only son while carrying his grandchild. She was betraying him. She was betraying her only family. And she stood to lose them completely.

Yet, there was a bigger truth. She loved Bette Porter. And she could no longer live a lie and live apart from her.

She hugged her knees to her chest and started crying really hard for the first time in ages.