Fan Fiction
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Chapter 4 – Philadelphia – Day 3
Bette then repeated the process and place a serving on her plate. She then put the dome back over the fish carcass and put it on the other cart. Tina served herself with the rice and asparagus. There was some hollandaise sauce to go on the asparagus which both Bette and Tina took some of.
Tina: Oh, my god, Bette. This bass is wonderful. The skin is so crunchy and the fish is so moist and flavorful. I love this.
Bette: It is really nice. They have a good chef here at this hotel. He specializes in seafood.
The two enjoyed their dinner and commented that they really liked eating alone in their pajamas by candlelight. The town was fully lit up and was an enchanting back drop to their dinner. The food was good. The wine was good and the company was excellent.
They talked about their wedding and how glad they were to just have a little ceremony performed by a Justice of the Peace in a gazebo outside of the courthouse in Greenwich, Connecticut some eleven years ago. Marilyn and Peggy had been there as witnesses and to take Angie for the weekend as Tina and Bette had their abbreviated honeymoon. Maria was working for them at the time and she accompanied Angie to the Peabody townhouse apartment. Angie was about 5 years old at the time and really did not understand the significance of the event. Bette and Tina spent the weekend at the Hotel Pierre in the bridal suite curtsey of Peggy Peabody. Bette and Tina had only recently moved to New York and had really planned on just returning to their apartment and spend a normal weekend at home. But Peggy was having none of it. She insisted that they go to a hotel and send Angie to their apartment for the weekend. Peggy made arrangements for the couple to be picked up after their ceremony and carried directly to their hotel while Gerald picked up the balance of the wedding party. It was Marilyn who insisted that Peggy forgo the wedding dinner and just allow the couple to have their time together. Bette and Tina relieved their memories of that weekend and how grateful they were to Marilyn and Peggy for their insistence on going to a hotel.
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Hi Martha, what an amazing trip to Philadelphia. There was so much information regarding Melvin and what they learnt if him and his life. Poor Bette, I think it’s going to be pretty difficult to explain this all to Mary and her sister as it has obviously hit her hearing all this. Tina is such a tower of strength to her, I love how they are so besotted with each other and hold each other up! I love hearing about their plans for Angie and Daniel, they are so attentive to their children and want only the best for them. The way they talk through everything with them making sure they understand .
Finally the love they have for each other, is incredibly. They way they do everything for each other, they just want to be together, all the time. Enjoying being out shopping, visiting museums, enjoying meals or just cuddling up on the sofa. They are, as you said, the other half of each other !
Loving this so much, will continue on….o hope you are also continuing on, with this story….
Take care and Thankyou, for this amazing piece of writing!
Thanks… I have always thought that the relationship between Bette and her father was the most important relationship of her life prior to Tina. I could see that she struggled to love and admire the man who always seemed to believe she never quite measured up to his standards. But in my mind, I always knew that Melvin loved his children with all of his heart. He just didn’t have the ability to show this to them. His thought was to just leave them all his worldly possessions and they would know. But the truth is that until Bette talked to Gabriel Scott and to Harriett Myers, she would never know how much Melvin loved Bette, Kit, Mary, Paris and even Tina.
When Tina points out that if Melvin had told Bette on his death bed that Mary was alive and that she had another sister, Bette would be in shock. But if he told her that he had known for 15 years or more, Bette might have taken a pillow and smothered him on the spot. The truth was there was never going to be an ideal time to tell Bette or Kit about Mary Southerland. And Bette knows this deep in her heart. She also knows that all of this is a part of the past. A past which is done and dusted. And all the what ifs and if onlys are a waste of energy. Melvin and his relationship with Bette, Kit and Tina is what it was and had its impact on their lives. For Bette and for Tina, it explains so much. It explains why Tina is a part of his will. It explains why the final distribution was 18 years after his death. It explains how he found out about Mary Southerland and her daughter Paris. It explains how Paris was educated in England during her teen years and college years. And it gives another dimension to the personality of Melvin William Porter.
Bette is going to explain most of this to Kit, Paris and Mary in a future chapter. And in their own way, they will reconcile the Melvin they knew to the Melvin to the man they found in Philadelphia.
This for me is the most emotional chapter I have ever written… deep in my soul, I feel the loss Bette feels for the relationship she never had with her father and that is more painful than the fact that she had all those years of loss in not knowing her mother and sister. The reason is because Mary and Paris are still around and there is opportunity to have a good relationship with them. But Melvin is gone and there is no opportunity to mend that relationship with him. Such as life. But as Bette Porter and Tina Kennard always do – they learn from the mistakes including the mistakes of others around them. They have learned a lot from Melvin and much of it is what not to do in life.
Thank you for reading this and commenting…. it is rather gratifying to see that someone sees this story as a gratifying piece of entertainment. There are several more chapters to this Volume and it will continue.