Chapter 6
They didn’t have much control over themselves after that first night. Tina felt that, somehow, something had shifted inside of herself that made her crave for more of everything that Bette Porter was. Sure, sometimes, she had to turn her thoughts off to forget that this was the same Bette Porter that she had been at war with for so many years. But most of the times, it was just Bette.
Bette, with her kisses that made her feel like the most desirable woman in the world. Whose touch felt like lighting a match on fire and waiting for it to burn it all, her doubts included. Bette was the warm body in her bed every morning that made her believe that maybe, perhaps, public relations people weren’t the biggest idiots in the face of the earth.
“Let me just get it clear.” Helena had asked the day after the night at the club, curled up in the corner of a sofa in her own trailer. “This is really, really happening then?”
“I guess” Tina had responded, sipping on her coffee. She needed the caffeine.
“And here I was thinking you left together because some prick thought it would look good.” Her friend laughed. “Ok, tell me every detail.”
“I won’t tell you every detail” Tina refused.
“But was it good?”
The blonde smiled, the memories flooding her mind.
“Yeah. Very.”
“I knew it!” Helena exclaimed, excited. “It was obvious! God, I’m sorry but we’ve all seen you fake-fucking and it was good. I expect the real thing to be mind-blowing.”
“Yeah, I could say she blew my mind yesterday. Multiple times. And today, when we woke up. And then in my trailer when we got here.” Recounting their encounters made her blush.
“Woman, I’m never stepping foot on your trailer again.” Helena said, laughing lightly. “I’m just saying, it doesn’t surprise me. You’ve got to catch up for all the time you spent fighting.”
And she was right.
They had been catching up with the sexual part, without a doubt. Only two weeks had gone by since the night at the club, but Tina already felt like she couldn’t remember what it felt like to sleep in a bed without Bette. Being honest, though, what surprised her the most was everything that Bette was outside of the bedroom (after all, she had fantasized about that part and the brunette exceeded all of her expectations, so there was no reason for her to be much surprised about that). But in their daily lives, Bette had a way of carrying herself, all attitude and elegance, that had nothing to do with the soft person she was behind closed doors. Tina had never given herself the chance of getting to know this side of Bette, and discovering it over shared breakfasts and car rides was something that she had been enjoying – for however unexpected it was.
They were lying in bed one morning, half dressed. They both were the slow-mornings kind of person, they had discovered.
“I have to leave tonight”, Bette said, while searching for a pair of jeans that had been mindlessly discarded the night before. “To New York, to make some promo.” She added after seeing the confused look Tina gave her.
“Oh” the blonde said, caught off guard. “I didn’t know you were supposed to do that stuff so early.”
“Well, is just talk shows and all that. Then we’ll do more here in L.A, I guess.”
“You’ll go on your own?”
“I think Tim was coming too, but I don’t know if he’ll make it.” Bette put on her jacket and started searching for her shoes. “I just wanted to tell you because I won’t be able to come here tonight. I know it was kinda the plan.”
“But that’s ok.” Tina said quickly, although she already knew that she was going to miss the other woman’s presence. “It’s not like we have to spend every night together, you know.”
“I do know” Bette said, already all dressed up. She pulled Tina closer by the belt, bringing their lips together in a quick kiss. “But I’ve been enjoying it.”
Tina smiled, kissing her again, deeper this time. The brunette tightened her arms around her, keeping her in place, but Tina knew that if she let herself melt into this kiss, they were never going to make it in time to the set. So she pulled away, slowly, leaving a trail of kisses on Bette’s cheeks.
“Me too, beautiful. But it is what it is.”
Bette gave her another light kiss.
“I actually wanted to ask you…” she started, but she doubted for a second, as if she couldn’t find the words. “I wanted to ask you, if, you know, just… if there’s something you want me to say? Or something you want me to not say?”.
“What do you mean?” Tina asked, genuinely curious.
“It’s just, we have the rehearsed story that Sam gave us, and all that stuff, but recently it’s been… different between us, and maybe there was something you wanted to change about it. Or something that we should add?” She sounded doubtful, as if she wasn’t even sure of what she was saying.
Tina found the whole thing so cute it was charming.
“Just say whatever you want. Fuck Sam and the PR stuff. Say what you feel like saying.” She reassured the brunette with one last peck on the lips. “I know you don’t enjoy this kind of things, so I’d rather if you don’t over stress yourself over it. Go there, stay pretty, charm them all. It’ll be ok.”
Bette smiled, her eyes shining with something that Tina couldn’t quite decipher yet but looked like comfort, maybe.
-
“At what time is Bette’s interview?” Alice asked, chewing on a piece of chicken from the other side of the table.
“In half an hour” Claire answered immediately, almost as if she was on automatic mode. The assistant hadn’t travelled with Bette (it made no sense to travel with an assistant on a 24 hour long trip) but she was glued to her phone to make sure everything went smoothly on the other side of the country.
“That’s basically right now.” Alice started gathering her things from the table. “Hey D, you’re still the only one with a working tv on her trailer so we’ll go there. Tina will be joining us, obviously…”
“No, I can’t” Tina quickly interrupted her friend. “I’ve got scenes scheduled for the next three hours.”
“But she’s going to talk about you! I want to see your live reaction”, Alice complained.
“Just let me know if she says something embarrassing” Tina laughed, knowing very well that Bette wouldn’t do that. She was just going to say the basics and get over with it.
After all, there wasn’t much you could say in a fifteen-minute interview.
Tina went through her day normally, shooting her scenes and doing her stuff. She noticed at some point that some people from the crew looked at her with soft smiles, but she responded to them with nice gestures too, assuming that it was just a natural response to how polite and friendly she tried to be with them every day. She had forgotten her cellphone in her trailer, so it was only at the end of the day that she was able to look at it and check her notifications.
Bad idea.
The screen was flooded with messages and things in the one she’d been tagged on. She searched between the familiar names, dismissing all the rest. She had a text from Bette.
“Hope it was ok. See you soon, x.”
And then a lot of texts from Alice, who apparently had had a full-on meltdown live commenting on the interview on their chat.
“Oh my god. She’s cute.
Is she serious?
I REALLY WANTED TO SEE YOUR REACTION TO THIS
I mean I’m ok but I know fans will lose their shit. Good luck with that.
C’mon now she’s just being cute for extra-gay points
And she doesn’t need extra gay points
You really want to see this
Gotta admit you got lucky with her
Ok yeah we understand you’re in love BLAH I always knew”
And then she attached the video to the full interview. Tina was already very confused. What could have possibly happened in ten minutes to cause such a commotion? She pressed the play button with slightly trembling hands.
“Bette Porter, everybody!” The interviewer welcomed her.
Tina couldn’t help but notice how beautiful she looked walking down the few steps that the talk show studio had. She was wearing one of her trademark suits – a deep red one, this time- with a black shirt underneath. Tina wished she had been there to fasten its buttons, like she had been doing the last couple of weeks. It was one of her favorite things to do, the intimacy of the gesture not lost on the blonde.
“It’s good being here, James.” Bette said while settling in her designated armchair.
“I say the same thing every time I get into the studio” the host said, and the public laughed at his joke. “You look really good, I must say.”
“Well thank you!” the actress replied, with a beaming smile. “Happiness suits me well; my mother told me yesterday.”
“And a wise woman she is” James said, quick as every talk-show host. “Does happiness come in the form a certain blonde, or…?”
“A certain blonde, a certain show…” Bette started, and James took both his hands to his heart in an exaggerated gesture. “I have a healthy family, a healthy body, my dream job and my dream girl. There’s nothing more I could ask for, right?”
A collective ‘awww’ was heard from the public.
“But this is a new development, Bette, right? Word on the street says things used to be a lil’ bit different on that set.”
Bette nodded, the smile never leaving her face.
“The streets don’t lie, James.” She conceded. “Tina and I got off to a rough start, but love finds a way, you know?”
She was radiant, Tina though, while her cheeks burned at every word she heard. Bette was simply radiant, with an aura of pure happiness surrounding her that was unmistakable. She knew a part of it was acting, but she also knew that a part of it was very, very real.
“Got to say that anyone who had ever seen ‘Dupont and Associates’ could’ve seen this coming.” The interviewer said, and the public shouted in agreement. Bette simply looked at them, as if she was taking them in, smiling.
“It wasn’t that obvious to me, but I’m happy for how it turned out.”
The interview continued, with the host asking her about the new season of the show, her character and what fans should expect for it. They made her play a game of throwing things to the public and she looked so cute while doing it that Tina couldn’t quite believe that was the same woman she had in her bed night after night. The whole thing was clearly coming to an end, with the host trying to wrap up the segment.
“So, Bette, before letting you go, there’s not any news you want to tell us, right?” he pointed at his own ring finger and winked at the crowd, who started screaming. Bette furrowed her brows in confusion before she understood what he was implying.
“Wedding news, you mean, James?” he nodded in confirmation, the crowd cheering even louder. Bette laughed, joyful. “No! That’s too fast, even for two Hollywood lesbians.”
The crowd laughed with her at the remark.
“That’s right, but you’ll let us know, please!” James exclaimed in the middle of the noise.
Bette let them all calm down, with that charming smile she usually used to get a whole lot of people in her pocket.
“I will.” She promised. “What I can let you know right now is I never felt this way, so happy and safe. And I don’t need a ring to be sure of that.”
With her phone in her hand, Tina gasped at the answer. She didn’t know what part of Bette’s speech was real and what was just an exaggeration for marketing’s sake, but she felt like she was telling the truth. Or, at least, she felt exactly like the brunette had expressed.
She opened their chat, quickly texting a reply.
It was ok, don’t worry. Can’t wait to see you tomorrow, x.