Bette glanced up from her coffee an easy smile on her face, “I guess Provocations was too much for them. We are doing Impressions in Winter next. Everyone loves the impressionists.” Bette sighed and shrugged her shoulders. She looked at peace. “I don’t know what I am doing there. Sometimes I think I should go back to running my own gallery.”

Tina nodded, “You loved that. It was hard work but we all know you loved it. You should think about it.”

               “Maybe after my contract is up,” again Bette just shrugged it off. “What is the Center doing with the Peabody? I never did congratulate you on that. You must have worked endlessly on that grant proposal. I am very proud of you,” Bette smiled.

               “Thank you. I appreciate that very much, Bette. I was troubled to see that the CAC didn’t get a grant.”

               Bette’s brow furrowed, “I know Helena Peabody doesn’t think the arts are deserving enough.” It was said with venom, Tina frowned at the statement. Once again Bette shrugged, she continued evenly, “We will muddle through this. Thank you for you concern.”

               The girls watch the conversation flow back and forth as if they were watching one of Dana’s matches. Bette and Tina navigated through the mine field of a conversation, the girls watched on waiting for the inevitable explosion. Charlotte just sighed under her breath and rolled her eyes at her tea.

               Finally after a tense 15 minutes of the show, “I should get to work. This was nice we should do this again sometime.” With that Tina stood up and waved goodbye.

               The gang heaved a collective sigh of relief.

               “What was the hell was that?” Alice demanded.

               “What was what?” Bette asked feigning ignorance. She had not forgotten she owed Alice pain and suffering and lots of it too.

               Alice blinks wildly in Bette’s direction, “You and Tina! There was no yelling, no screaming, there was nothing! What the hell happened on Friday? Did we enter a parallel universe?”       

               “Well,” Bette paused to sip her coffee knowing it would drive Alice insane, “Tina and I have talked about it and we have decided that it would be best for everyone if we were friends.”