“I heard it from Sue; her girlfriend saw them together in the carpenter’s neighborhood.”

              “Sue who?” Alice asks, looking remarkably like an owl, her eyes open as wide as they would go. Charlotte would have laughed if the car wasn’t strung with tension.

            “Bette is not sleeping with this carpenter.” Charlotte states softly but firmly.

            “Oh? How do you know that?” Tonya inquires.

            “I just do.” Charlotte opened the car door and stepped out, ending the conversation. As she strides to the entrance, she breathes deeply. “Namaste.” She brings her hands together palm to palm in front of her heart.

            Still in the car, Tonya casts a knowing look at Dana, “Oh, she just knows.”

            Alice exits the car to join Charlotte. She leans over to the now composed Charlotte to whisper, “Now she thinks you are sleeping with Bette. I liked it much better when Dana thought we were sleeping together.”

            “Why do I have to be having ***** with either of you?”

            “That is the way that Tonya’s mind works.” Alice takes a good gander at Charlotte. “Char, did you not know about the carpenter?”

            “It is none of my business, Al,” she puts extra emphasis on the shorted name. “What I want to know is what is with the matching outfits? Are they the Bobbsey twins?”

            Charlotte‘s change of subject did not go unnoticed by the junior sleuth. It was clear that something had upset the seemingly easy going woman. ‘Was there something to Tonya’s assessment of the situation? Or was it just the physical presences of Tonya herself? Lord knows that could drive you insane if exposed too long.’

            Alice‘s musing stopped abruptly as Dana and Tonya approached.

            “Today is nothing I have seen it so much worse,” Alice answers Charlotte‘s question.

            “What is worse?” Dana asks, eyeing them. 

              “I was telling Charlotte I have seen it more crowded here.”

            “Oh,” Dana sounded skeptical. The physical closeness of the two women did not go on unnoticed by Dana. She decides on the spot not to like Charlotte, it was obvious to Dana that she was sleeping with one of her two good friends.