I took a deep breath then looked at my best friend of seven years. We had become friends in our sophomore year in high school and were roommates all throughout college. I was always her camera girl when she was doing her journalism interviews and she was always my actress when I was doing my film projects. We hit the dating scene together and she was knew some eligible bachelor to hook me up to. I always gave them a chance, but this is the one time I had to say no.

"Come on Tina, this guy is amazing! He has a doctorate degree from Harvard! I interviewed him," Alice insisted.

"No Alice," I said.

"Give one good reason why not?" Alice challenged.

I sighed deeply and said, "I’m a lesbian."

"What?" Alice said in shock, "you don’t like dick?"

"It disgusts me and it hurts," I said.

Alice was stunned, "wow, why didn’t you tell me you know I’m bi!"

"I was confused for months Al, I just barely figured it out," I admitted.

"Well good for you!" Alice said. "I’ll just set Grant up with Marcie."

"Good, does that mean we can finally have a night where it’s just friends hanging out? No dating?" I said hopefully.

The grin that filled her face told me the answer. She pulled out her cell phone and dialed. "Hello? Hey! Bitch I found the perfect girl for you… No, no, she’s not a convicted felon this time. She’s been my friend for seven years… Yeah the one that was my roommate…mmm hmm… Okay get dressed and meet us at "Milk" in the VIP room. Yeah, see ya later, bye."

"All done," Alice said grinning, "her name is Bette Porter, check."

Alice always thought of dating as a game of chess. The ‘killing of the king’ so to speak was the ‘finding of the perfect mate.’ Whenever Alice got close she would say check, and if she hooked someone up who she knew would be together forever, she would say ‘checkmate.’ And the funny thing is, she hasn’t failed. She would say check a lot of times and more than once for the same people with other partners, but everytime she said checkmate, that’s it. There was no turning back.