CHAPTER THREE

It was 9.00 when Jenny staggered home from the store, exhausted and ready for a night out on the town. It had been a long day and she was slowly but surely getting extremely bored with her job's long hours and poor pay. She sighed as she fumbled under the flower pot for the spare key. It seemed ridiculous, Tim had already moved most of his stuff out of the house in preparation for his move, but she was still occupying the tool shed. She remembered the embarrassing moment when he had forgotten to tell her he had potential buyers examining the property and she and Robyn had stepped out from some particularly hot shower sex to find Mr and Mrs Preston looking shocked through the window. Shoving her uniform into the laundry basket she hurried into her most revealing dress, rapidly applied some makeup and made her way outside. She glanced at her watch. Not bad only 9.45 she could make it to 'Twat' in plenty of time. Hopefully Alice and Shane would be there. She wanted to discuss finding a new apartment with them nice as the tool shed was it was not a permanent residence.

Just as she was about to walk down the road she noticed that there was a light on in Bette and Tina's. Then she checked herself, it wasn't really Bette and Tina's anymore. Tina had walked out three weeks ago and Jenny hadn't seen her return since. Alice had mentioned that Tina had moved in with her for a while but Jenny couldn't help feeling sorry for Bette. She had spotted her last week on her way out to work. Bette had been sitting in her Saab convertible in the drive way, hands on the wheel and the engine on but she wasn't moving. As a writer Jenny noticed a lot of things, and one of the things she had noticed was that Bette was wearing a lot more makeup nowadays, as if she was trying to hide something. She stared up at the house in awe. It was magnificent Bette did have very particular tastes and liked everything just so. Yet the house had somehow lost its love. There used to be a warmness that could be felt when you walked in the door it was a real home. Now it was cold and desolate and served only to shield its lonely occupant from an increasingly threatening world. Still Bette didn't normally get home this early, so Jenny moved over to the porch to get a closer look, her natural curiosity getting the better of her. Someone was curled up on the step. Jenny guessed that it must be some girl who had passed out drunk on their way home.

"Hey you," Jenny called out. "This is private property the owner is going to be pretty pissed if they catch you."

The figure didn't move.

"Hey." Jenny went over and pulled back the hair from the woman's face. Two chocolate brown eyes gazed unseeing back, blotchy and red.

"Fuck!" Said Jenny she couldn't really think of anything better to say. She looked down at Bette. There were touches of spittle around her mouth and she was breathing heavily.

"Fuck." Whispered Jenny again and rolled Bette onto her side. She grabbed her mobile and dialled a number. After a long session of ringing the phone clicked over to voicemail.

"Hi this is Alice Pierzecki please leave a message."

"Hey Alice it's Jenny, I'm going to be a little late, if Tina is with you could you please get her to call me on this number. Can you tell her that it is really important, thanks bye."

She hung up shoving the phone down into her bag as she did so. She looked down and Bette started to groan.

"Easy there Bette, don't sit up to quickly."

"Tina? Is that you?"

"No it's me Jenny. I found you lying on the porch. I thought you were unconscious."

Bette sat up and wiped her face. She looked at Jenny.

"Thank you." She said slowly, then looked away ashamed.

Jenny helped her to her feet,

"Come on we need to get you inside." She touched Bette's arm "Your freezing, look lets get you warm."

They moved into the house, Jenny with a comforting arm around Bette's shoulders sat her down on the sofa and wandered into the kitchen to make some tea. She looked around in amazement. The usually pristine kitchen was a mess with cutlery. But there was lots of un-eaten food lying about. It was obvious Bette hadn't been eating and when she did it was mainly take-out. There was a small photo frame lying on the counter and Jenny picked it up gingerly. It contained a colourful photo of Bette and Tina on a beach somewhere. Bette was smiling her famous 'Bette Porter smile' while Tina held her tightly in her arms. Jenny looked from the smiling woman in the photo to the distraught creature on the sofa, it was almost a stranger who sat in that room she felt. Jenny made a big cup of sugary tea and sat down beside Bette who sipped at it gratefully.

"Thank you Jenny" she said "I'm a wreck."

"What happened to you?" Jenny asked then winced; maybe Bette didn't want to talk.

Bette looked back at Jenny with curious eyes, as if she was really seeing her for the first time. She had been so wrapped up in her own life she had never really noticed her even though they were neighbours. To Bette she had always seemed so fragile and childish now however it appeared she had the strength that she herself so desperately needed.

"Jenny…don't answer this if it is too personal, but you remember when you and Marina were together and then …Tim found out. How did you cope?"

Jenny laughed.

"I didn't. That evening I went running back to him. I begged, no screamed at him to take me back. It was so embarrassing he was just coming out of the leisure centre and his whole swim team were watching from the bus."

"You know, I never had you pegged as the unfaithful type I guess it just shows how blind I am to the world around me."

"Oh but I was," Jenny interjected her compulsive inappropriateness taking over. "I was unfaithful to myself though more than anything. I thought I could be this humdrum woman trying to make it as a writer while I lived with my husband. Then Marina she opened this…Pandora's Box in my head. It was strange but it also felt in a way like she had released me."

Bette looked deep into Jenny's eyes for a moment a wave of understanding deeper than any mere words could express flashed between them.

"You think I am insane don't you?" Jenny asked,

"No, no. In many ways I think that you are right, at least for you." She sank back into the cushions a tear trickling down her cheek.

"Bette look at yourself. I don't want to be the one to say it but you are a mess. Me and Tim we had fun and I thought I loved him. You and Tina you didn't think that you were going to spend the rest of your lives together you knew it. What was it, really that pushed you over the edge to have that affair? You still love Tina don't you?"

Bette raised an eyebrow in spite of herself, "dare I ask how you got all the gory details?"

Jenny blushed,

"Well I was in the Planet and Alice came in for a coffee…" she trailed off.

Bette smiled and the tears rolled down her face,

"Alice is a journalist through and through, honestly that woman couldn't keep something to herself if her life depended on it."

Suddenly she broke down; the tears were rolling freely now dripping off her face into her mug.

"My God Jenny, I can't believe this is happening to be me. I have failed the woman I loved and I don't think she is going to take me back. But I can't even give up; I don't think I will have a life without her."

Jenny twisted her hands awkwardly; she didn't know what to do so decided that more tea would probably be the best bet. As she stood up to pick up the mugs she noticed her hands were shaking. As she placed them in the sink she looked around at the creamy walls. It felt strange she had never noticed how cold the house was before. It had many beautiful works of art but it was now sterile as if devoid of human influence. There were no longer any vases of flowers adorning the mantles and the absence of Tina's pink coat left the door pegs gaping. There was a raping at the door and Jenny shook back from her daydream. She fumbled with the latch and there on the step stood Tina.

"Jenny, I tried to call you but your mobile seems to be off. What's the problem?"

"Fuck," Jenny rooted in her bag and pulled out the phone, the small screen flashed up 5 missed calls and 3 new messages. As she looked up at Tina, clean and glowing she was suddenly drawn to Bette ragged and dishevelled in the corner. She opened her mouth to speak but found for once she had no words to express what she felt. As she turned to leave closing the door quietly behind her part of her brain craned to hear the words that were being spoken behind the glass. She knew she must leave as this was a story she was no longer part of but there was always that insatiable curiosity to find out what happened next.