“Earth to Tina! Hellooo..?”

Alice waving her hands in front of her face brought Tina out of her daydream of one beautiful mocca goddess.

“Oh sorry Al, what were you saying?” Tina blushed again.

“Tina you okay? Anything we should know about huh?” Alice smiled a sweet smile and wiggled her eyebrows.

“Ohh…umm…I..ah” Tina stuttered and turned even more red as her previous thoughts filtered through her mind.

“Leave her alone Alice.” Dana chastised her as Alice pouted making everyone laugh again.

“Okay, okay guys. So Tina, Alice here was wondering earlier, before her little nosey bout, about having a little house warming party for you. What do you think?” Shane piped in as they all settled down from laughing.

“Oh guys, you have already done so much for me today what with all this unpacking of the never ending boxes and I am so grateful to you for that. I don’t think I could have managed it all on my own in such a short time. Really I can’t ask more of you all. Party seems to be too much trouble. Besides I don’t even know that many people here yet.”

“Come on Tina. It’s what I do. Party is no big deal at all. You just say yes and we will take care of the rest. Don’t worry about the people. I just have to shake the phone tree and people will come running out of the hiding. Besides ya know I need parties to keep me going. All those beautiful girls…they should get a chance to meet me once in a while.” Alice bragged.

“Oh God!” Dana groaned as Shane smirked.

Seeing that Tina couldn’t hold in her giggles anymore and she burst out laughing.

“Oh my God Alice you are a real character you know that!”

“Please…please…pretty pleaseee?” Alice continued making puppy dog eyes at Tina.

“Okay…okay geez. Lets do it! Let’s have a party!” Tina said.

“Yay! You just wait its going to be amazing.” Alice said getting excited at the prospect of throwing a party.

“So who do you wanna have there?” Alice asked Tina mischievously.

“Well…ahh..you know I would want all of you there of course and…um..I don’t know who else…”

“Oh..oh…I know who I am gonna call…Porter!” Alice exclaimed smiling brightly.

“That sounds good. That way we would all be here celebrating.” Dana agreed.

“I don’t know guys. She seems busy with her gallery. I don’t think she would come. Let’s see who else we can invite.” Tina made a feeble attempt to change the subject.

Tina was not sure she was ready to be in such a close proximity with Bette again so soon even though she had been missing her like crazy. It had been two days since that day in the café when she had last seen her. They hadn’t talked much. Well to be precise she had done most of the talking, trying to keep the conversation going, as Bette had continued to be her shy self.

Sometimes she wondered if Bette was actually afraid of her or something. This passionate and fierce woman who could take the art world by storm would magically transform in front of her into this shy adorable person that she couldn’t get enough of. Whatever the mystery is I will eventually get it out of you Tina thought and brought her attention back to her friends.

“Don’t you worry Tina. Porter will be here. I will make sure of that. We are gonna help you Tina, right guys?” Alice said smiling and looking around for confirmation from Dana and Shane.

“Yeah you bet!” Both Dana and Shane said nodding their heads and grinning.

“You mean…?” Tina was shocked.

“Yup I mean!” Alice winked at Tina.

She knew what was going on. They all had inkling for some time now and it was finally time for a little push in the right direction they concurred.

“Okay who’s next…” Alice smiled as she continued writing down the names of potential guests with Shane and Dana occasionally piping in their agreements or disagreements at the names being included while Tina just sat there stunned trying to comprehend what had just happened.