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Tina folded a pile of Angie’s clothes while Bette scurried around her living room with last minute preparations for her trip. Watching them one would think they were a happy couple, in matching plum-color shirts, one doing household chores, the other getting ready for a work trip. But Tina knew it was quite the opposite. She was playing house in a home that used to be hers, sending Bette off to win someone back who should have been her.
She knew she had created this seat on the sofa for herself, made her bed with a man and now was lying in it alone. It was naive of her to think Bette would be waiting for her when she was ready to come back after leaving her open to meet someone new. But the love of her life’s happiness was still very important to her so, although reluctantly, she would help her plan her trip across the country, surprise Jodi with an extravagant gesture, and give the words of affirmation that she had always longed to hear.
Secretly, Tina couldn’t help but wonder if maybe she still could have a chance with Bette. There had been recent moments when their soulmatism lingered in innocent interactions, stolen looks and flirty smiles. Tina felt a spark strike when they shared the same “surreal” thought about Joyce and Phyllis’ unexpected visit. She couldn’t ignore the charged energy winding its way from the doorstep, wrapping itself around the estranged couple.
“I’m going to call and talk to Angie. Thank you so much for helping me, I really, really appreciate it.” Bette rushed to gather her things with her cab waiting outside.
Call me, talk to me. Tina’s eyebrow curved to the shape of Bette’s body as she bent to pick up her luggage. Trying to ignore the vibes coursing through her veins, she remained focused on why she was there.
“And remember,” Tina asserted, committed in helping her ex, “I totally defer to you when she asks you whether you’re planning on hanging out while she’s working.”
“I totally defer to you.” Bette nodded.
The shift of the brunette’s doe eyes pranced through Tina’s own lashes.
“When she wants to join you for dinner?”
“I yield to your wishes.” Bette smiled.
“And when she equivocates about whether it’s a good idea for you to sleep together tomorrow night?”
“I bow to your superior judgement,” Bette said with a dramatic pause in her gesture.
Tina tried to shake it off, her insides trembling with tangled desire, their past heavily laced in their present. She saw herself reflected in Bette’s gaze, those deep ebon eyes, mirrors to her soul that seemed only to be focused on her.
Bow to me, be with me, she thought before she managed to mutter a sincere “good luck.”
Bette didn’t waste words in a thank you, instead she caught the blonde off guard, nodding into a tender kiss. Tina leaned into the affection, half a breath hitched between their lips. It wasn’t like the quick pecks of hello or goodbye they sometimes shared or the very recent awkwardness on set that fumbled Tina into saying the wrong thing. This kiss exposed their natural comfort level with each other, sealing their unwavering affinity of silent communication.
Stars dazzled behind Tina’s eyelids. The sudden urge of desire flashing images of Bette laying her flat on her back and pushing herself between her legs, Tina’s high heels wrapped around the taller woman’s thighs. Her tongue tingled with the reminiscent rushes of the brunette’s mouth roaming her body.
But the moment vanished as Bette stood, regaining her stance with a lick of her lips. Tina grasped the back of her neck, stifling the goosebumps threatening to prickle under her skin.
“Good luck to you, too.” Bette’s eyes never left Tina. Even as she reached for her coat, the dark orbs peaked from under her lids.
“For what?” Tina huffed with a hint of aroused confusion at Bette’s flirtatious farewell.
“With Kate.”
“Oh,” she shrugged back to reality, and waved the name away. “Yeah.”
Tina blushed, her cheeks pinkening with the surge of warmth coursing through her core as she said goodbye. Bette’s promise to call snared the snarl of Tina’s crooked grin leading her mind to race ahead of Bette’s path to the cab, a telepathic attempt to stop it from taking her away from her. What just happened? Kate who? But Jodi…hmmmph Jodi. She bit back her bottom lip, relishing in the flavor of Bette Porter.
The neat pile of clothes fell to the floor as she jumped from the couch. She couldn’t let Bette leave without saying something…tell her not to go…admit she should have never let her go…beg her for a second chance. She knew she had to try after that kiss even if she would make a fool of herself chasing the woman she loved down the street. She threw open the door, her voice hardly a holler of Bette’s name as Bette stood in front of her, on the other side of that irrefutable fate still evident on the doorstep.
Bette dropped her bags and without a spoken word told Tina everything she felt when she grabbed the back of her head and pulled her roughly into her. She kissed her passionately, her arms embracing the blonde’s vulnerable body, picking her up and shutting the door behind her with her foot.
She pushed them against the wall, Tina’s prophetic vision of her shoes digging into the back of Bette’s thighs coming true. They kissed long and hard, the strength of Bette’s fervor holding them both up.
Tina pulled at the back of Bette’s hair, twirling her curls around her fingers to steady her fluttering emotions. She moaned into Bette’s open mouth, “What are we doing?”
“I totally defer to you…” A tinge of atonement evident in Bette’s deep voice. Her lips puckered under Tina’s ear.
“Bette, I…”
Bette’s tongue traced Tina’s throbbing vein to a soft nibble to her pulse point. “I yield to your wishes,” she mumbled into the crook of her neck.
Tina leaned her shoulders against the wall and took Bette’s face between her hands. Her thumbs caressed the caramel cheeks as Bette rested her forehead against Tina’s chin with a slow and sentimental sigh. “I bow to your superior judgment,” Bette whispered.
Tina’s hands ran through the hair covering Bette’s face, pushing it behind her ears to find her lips. She inhaled Bette with every breath, absorbing the woman that held her rocking hips, and rasped her name with each tantalizing kiss.
Bette pressed herself to her, adjusting the weight in her arms by holding her tighter. Their bodies melded, moving together in unison against the wall. When her fingers started to unbutton Tina’s jeans, Tina untangled her legs and stood with her, chest to chest.
“I don’t want to complicate things for you,” Tina said as she nudged the side of her face into Bette’s strong jaw.
But Bette shook her head and took Tina’s chin between her thumb and her finger. She lifted the hazel eyes to catch the pouring sentiment from her own. “It’s you, Ti. You’re my 17 reasons why…it has always and only ever been you.”