Shane let her words seep in and soon enough Carmen stopped in her tracks and turned toward her, giving her an inquisitive look. “How did you…?”

Shane pointed to the sling that Carmen was wearing around her neck.

“You had that on.”

Carmen silently kicked herself when she realized that she was still wearing her ID pass. “So you knew who I was all along?” she said glaring at Shane.

“Hey don’t look at me like that…” Shane said indignantly, “You were the one who made a deal with me remember?”

Carmen let out a small laugh, “Yeah, I guess I did.” surprised that Shane would even bother to find out who she was.

“So now that I know your name, I was wondering if you would like to””

‘Smooth.’ Carmen thought. “Sure.” she said, not even letting Shane finish what she had to say, “Pick me up here tomorrow. Is around 5 okay?”

“Yeah, cool. I’ll see ya’.” Shane answered nonchalantly, making sure not to let Carmen see how truly surprised she was.

Shane watched Carmen walk back into the building. With a satisfied smile on her face she got into her car and pulled away, glad for once in her life that she actually got lost.

____________________________________________

“Alice what honey?” Tonya asked as she made her way into Dana’s kitchen.

‘*****!’ Dana thought as panic temporarily took over her system, she quickly struggled to wipe the tears off her cheeks and braced herself to face Tonya.

“Hey what’re you doing here?” Dana said forcing a smile on. Tonya came closer and kissed her lightly on the lips.

“I wanted to know what you thought of these.” Tonya said handing over sheets of what seemed like endless ad campaigns for Dana to look at.

“I don’t understand.”

“Dana!” Tonya said with a hint of irritation, “These people want to sponsor our wedding.” she gave a meaningful pause and let the idea sink in to Dana before she continued, “See, here’s one with tennis balls, and here’s one with vodka…”

Tonya’s words were lost on Dana. She was no longer listening, she just let the words drown away into nothing.

“Tonya,” Dana interrupted, “we have to talk.”
__________________________________________

On the other side of town Bette was trying her best to resist the urge of holding Tina’s hand as they walked side by side in silence, lost in their own thoughts. ‘Damn, I miss doing that so much.’ she admitted to herself. In fact as time progressed Bette concluded that she missed a lot of things given the fact that Tina had only been gone for a couple of days. She found herself missing the way Tina felt in her arms, and the way Tina made her feel as if the world revolved her, ‘God I feel like such a ***** *****.’ she thought remorsefully. Bette relished the fact that everything she wanted, and everything she needed, everything… she could get from Tina. Now all she could get was silence as she and Tina walked along L.A.’s busy streets. Bette was trying to muster enough courage to start a conversation but everytime she’d try talking, fear would overcome her confidence. ‘I can’t take this anymore!’

“Tina…” Bette began, Tina looked at her intently, “Hmm?”

“I’m sorry I put you through this.”

“Oh no, I don’t mind it was getting pretty cramped inside Al’s apartment anyway.” Tina replied misunderstanding the context of Bette’s apology.

Bette stopped walking prompting Tina to stop too. She pulled Tina into a secluded corner and decided to take advantage of the privacy it offered. Bette looked her in the eye trying to make sure that every word that was about to come out of her mouth sounded sincere.

“No T, I mean I’m sorry, for everything. For cheating on you…. for causing you so much pain, for acting like such a moron…”

Bette stopped mid-sentence, thinking that with every syllable she uttered the closer she got to letting Tina slip through her fingers.

“Bette I…” Tina said, talking in a raspy voice, indicating how close she was to tears. “…I don’t know what you want me to say.” she finished weakly.

“Tell me you’ll take me back.”

“Bette I can’t, not after…”

Tina wanted to say, ‘Not after you fucked Candace!’ but somehow she couldn’t find the strength to tell Bette, instead she felt tears streaming freely down her face. Bette understood and hesitantly came closer to Tina, trying to comfort her. Tina rested her head on Bette’s shoulder, crying into it, realizing that how torn she was when it came to her feelings about Bette.

“I love you.” Bette whispered into Tina’s ear, trying her best not to break down. “Come home T…”
________________________________________

Tina let her mind drift, as she rested her head on wife’s strong shoulders, thoughts of Bette and the first time they ever had a major fight were resurfacing in her brain. Tina remembered the familiar time wherein everything about her relationship with Bette was new. She and Bette had been living together for a few weeks, things were very happy yet very raw between them and Tina knew there were still a few things she and Bette had to adjust to. Tina could still recall that faithful Saturday night when it all happened. They were enjoying another night at Milk together, when suddenly she saw another woman chatting up Bette, Bette wasn’t paying much attention to the girl, brushing her off politely, but nonetheless Tina was jealous. She stormed out of the club eager to get the mental picture of Bette and the girl together out of her mind, Bette noticed where Tina was going and immediately ran out to get her.

“Tina come back.” Bette pleaded.

“Go to ***** Bette.” Tina said walking away.

“Tina *****, stop being so stubborn!” Bette yelled, doing her best to catch up to Tina. “What the ***** is wrong with you?”

“I saw you!”

“Saw me what?”

“With her!” Tina said furiously.

“T, she was coming on to me, I pushed her off, didn’t you see?”

Tina stopped walking, realizing how much she was overreacting, “Still Bette.”

Bette exhaled loudly and came closer towards Tina, wrapping her arms around Tina’s waist. “Still? You don’t see me acting up everytime a guy hits on you do you?”

Tina stared at Bette as if she didn’t hear a thing. She was slightly blushing, feeling more and more stupid by the minute. “No.”

“I love you Tina. I always will, just because some girl comes on to me doesn’t mean I automatically stop loving you!”

“I know.” Tina said breathing in the scent of Bette’s hair, “I’m sorry baby… take me home.”
________________________________________

‘Home?’ Tina thought, smiling at the memory of the very first fight she had with Bette after moving in together. She couldn’t take away the fact that even after seven years the same Bette would be standing before her asking her to come home. ‘Well maybe not the same Bette.’ she thought, but regardless of all the pain and anguish her wife had caused her, the love was still there, ‘It will always be there.’ she quietly concluded.

Bette held Tina in her arms for what seemed like ages, patiently waiting for Tina to calm down and talk to her. She stroked Tina’s hair until Tina finally realized how long she had been standing there, leaning on Bette’s shoulder, thinking. Tina didn’t budge, instead she opted to whisper the words into Bette’s ear, “Take me home, Bette.”