Window of Opportunity

Chapter 8

Previously:

“Thank you. Alice, you may want to grab a drink.” Alice looks at me and I nod. She gets up and brings 6 beers back to the table. She walks back to the cooler and grabs Kit a bottle of cherry seltzer water and sits it in front of her before sitting down. We each open our drinks and just sit there. The night was so peaceful and the moon so bright. The next words out of mouth would either be my future or break my heart but I needed to say it. “All of the reasons that I broke up with Jodi are valid and the one about me not being in love with her was the most pressing one. I was not in love with Jodi nor will I ever be in love with Jodi because I have never stopped loving Tina. I am in love with Tina and even though I do not know where things stand with this new woman or even where she is in her feelings for me…I  am going to do everything within  my power to get her to date me in hopes that she too may fall in love with me again.”

There it was…out in the open. I completely felt exposed. That silence again was there amongst us. The crickets were chirping away and the rhythmic noise was almost soothing. I looked up and toward the group hoping that someone would break the silence. Were they not saying anything because they knew it was too late for Tina and me? Had she completely moved on? Did I just set the wheels in motion to destroy myself once again and they knew that they would again have to pick up the pieces? For Alice to not even have anything to say meant that things were bad in monumental ways. Their eyes were not even making contact with me. I felt sick to my stomach but my legs were not able to take me away from the table. I sat and waited. Eventually, I knew that I would start to get some answers.

Kit looked at me with a look I could not read. “Bette, are you sure? You and Tina have been down this road before and it did not work. I thought that you had moved past Tina in a romantic way and were concentrating on being the best parents for Angie. Where is this all coming from?”