“Well, well, well here’s Lazarus back from the dead” Alice quipped as she grinned at Bette.

“Morning Alice” Bette relaxed into the chair next to Alice with an easy smile as she positioned her sunglasses on the top of her head.

“Got your wife right where she should be, I see” Alice nodded in the direction of the counter where Tina was paying for and collecting their coffees.

“Yeah well this ‘rising from the dead’ thing has some perks” Bette’s dry sense of humor wasn’t wasted on Alice.

“***** Porter” Alice shook her head with a stunned look on her face “I couldn’t believe it when you walked through that door last night. I can only imagine how Tina took it”

“How Tina took what?” Tina enquired as she placed two coffee mugs gently on the table and sat down next to Bette.

“Me coming home last night” Bette responded lacing the fingers of her right hand with those on Tina’s left before resting them on her thigh

“I fainted” Tina sighed

“Really?” Alice looked from Tina to Bette who just nodded in agreement “Well I guess that out does my response”

“It was pretty funny seeing the look on your face Alice” Bette chuckled as she turned to Tina to explain “The first words out of her mouth were ‘Your dead’”

“Well you were according to Air France!” Alice justified “Shane called them and they told her you were on the flight”

“I did board the flight” Bette admitted shaking her head “But I knew Paris was the wrong choice so I got off it again”

“So what…they just let you get off the plane without bothering to note that you weren’t on it anymore?”

“I had to show my boarding pass to the steward as I got off the aircraft but maybe he didn’t notify the ground staff. I only had hand luggage because I was planning to shop in Paris so it’s not like they had bags to unload.”

“What does it matter?” Tina said looking at Alice “She’s here, she’s safe, can’t we just be happy?”

“Sorry” Alice recognized that she was in work mode “It’s a bad habit” She could see now that the events of yesterday will still a little raw for Tina.