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Episode Six

All Good Things

Tammy lied about when she had to be back to school and drove straight to B Street. She walked into Rhonda’s and sat down at her favorite table, glad no one else was sitting at it, and had a sensation of homecoming that had eluded her the whole time she’d been in her parents’ home sleeping in her own room. She didn’t belong there anymore. It was both a sad experience and a freeing one.

Frances delivered an order to a different table and then ran over and hugged her.  “I missed you,” she said.

“I was only gone three days,” Tammy said with a laugh.

“How was home?”

         “It sucked on ice. I couldn’t wait to get out of there.  Jan’s right—being in the closet sucks.  The whole time I was there my mother kept trying to fix me up with this son of one of Dad’s golf buddies. Kept telling me all his good attributes, good teeth nice hair, excetera, like they were trying to sell a car. You know… and Kevin comes with tilt steering, and white wall tires and a full range of accessories for your pleasure and a penis. I just felt like a total moron even trying to act interested. As you’ve pointed out I’m not all that good at flirting with girls I actually want to fuck, and faking it with this dork—well I was just sure that at any moment they were just going to jump up point their fingers in my face and yell lesbian like it was a curse.”

          “Tammy,your parents are cool. They didn’t freak out about me; they’ll accept you.”

“You’re not their flesh and blood and… you don’t know that. Drop it. So… What about you, anything interesting happen while I was gone?”

          “Well you’ll be happy to know that I went to the clinic and I have no communicable diseases,” Frances said proudly.

          “Thank God. You were lucky this time. You have got to start being more careful. Seriously, Frances, there are too many things out there that will kill you, not to mention pregnancy,” Tammy said, trying hard not to sound too much like a preacher, which is what Frances often acussed her of. The truth was her view of her friend’s ill-thought-out hook ups had actually gotten worse not better since being on B Street. During one of the discussion groups at Stella’s house a woman named Carlie had talked about living with HIV. When she spun out her relationship history and she’d only had three partners, Tammy had hoped Frances had been listening but her behavior hadn’t changed. She’d go to a frat party get drunk or stoned or both and sleep with two or three guys, come back to B Street the very next day and hook up with a chick. If she had anything at all, soon everyone on B Street would have it, of this Tammy was sure. “I don’t get it, Frances maybe you should see a shrink yourself.”

          “Or get a steady girl friend?”

          “Something approaching normal, yes.”

          “Got one,” Frances said, and she was so excited she was damn near glowing.

          “So,” Tammy said with a sigh, wondering what Frances’ definition of a “steady girl friend” was. Frances always had some woman on the hook. Tammy still couldn’t believe she’d thrown Faye back to continue to screw any idiot that would have her.

          “No, dumb ass, you don’t get it. I have a girl friend, a real girl girlfriend, and just one, and you’ll be happy to know I am 100 percent queer.”

          Tammy was more than pleasantly surprised, she was stunned. “Well damn! Maybe I should go away and come back more often.”

          “It gets better,” Jerry said, sliding into the table across from her, “Ask her who her exclusive girl friend is.”

          “Who is it?” Tammy asked Frances.

          “Adrian,” Frances said, looking like she was ready to burst.

          Tammy was more than a little confused.  “Adrian? Adrian—I’ve fucked every woman on B Street—Bar?”

          Frances just nodded looking like a bobble head in the back window of a car.

          Tammy laughed loudly then and started to look around. “All right where’s the camera?”

          Frances sat down next to Jerry.  “Look at my face, Tammy, I’m dead serious.”

          She was, too. She’s cracked, she jumped on Adrian and they fucked and now she thinks they’re together I should have never left her alone.

          “Frances, order up!” Jan cried out from the kitchen.

Frances got up and ran off to get it.

“All right, what’s really going on?” Tammy demanded of Jerry.

“You’ve missed a lot in three days. Stella is going off with Toni on some book tour and leaving Jan and Adrian to run everything here. Adrian was taking it very hard and then… well, next thing we know she and Frances are all but getting matching tattoos.” Jerry shrugged, about to bust from the pure juiceness of the gossip he was able to tell her.

“Damn, she’s the rebound girl,” Tammy said, feeling instantly sorry for her best friend.

“See, now that’s the weird thing, I don’t think she is. I mean it’s been three days. This is the longest romantic relationship Adrian has ever had…”

“It’s pushing the envelope for Frances, too,” Tammy mumbled.

“Any way, rebounding from what? Now I’m not saying that those two are going to run off hand in hand into the sunset and live happily ever after, but at least for now… Well, Stella said she thinks they’re both getting something they need from the other one, and sometimes that’s all that’s important.”

Tammy nodded although she didn’t really understand what he meant. She’d like nothing better than to meet her soul mate and settle down for the rest of their lives. She didn’t like playing the field, probably because she wasn’t very good at it. She would have loved to be like Adrian, able to just love ‘em and leave ‘em, have women hanging off of her. But she didn’t have any game whatsoever, and that being the case she just wanted to have someone to love her that she loved. She wanted what her parents had.

“Jerry, order!” Jan cried out. Jerry got up and took off. Frances came back and sat down and Tammy smiled at her, though part of her felt like it was the end of an era. It had always been just the two of them against the world, and now she was up to her eyes in school and basketball and Frances was busy with classes too, and had a job, and now an actual girlfriend.

“So?” Frances asked.

“So what?” Tammy asked, not having any idea what she wanted to know.

“Me and Adrian. What do you think?”

“I think… She wasn’t even remotely interested in you, what the hell happened?” Which turned out to be the wrong thing to ask because Frances told her in every thrusting, sweating, licking, sucking, orgasmic detail and when she had finished Tammy was just sitting there covered in sweat, with her mouth hanging open and her crotch a little wetter than it should be when you’re just talking to your best friend.

“So what do you think?” Frances asked again.

“I think I need a shower,” Tammy said, making an uncomfortable face and then Adrain walked into the caf�.

“Hey, Tammy, how’s it going?” Adrian walked up and grabbed her hand and started pumping it.  Tammy was glad Adrian’s hand was cleaner than her clothes—her shirt and pants were covered in dirt.

“What the hell happened to you?” Tammy asked.

“Working in the back yard.”

Tammy wasn’t even aware Stella’s House had a back yard. Adrian looked at Frances and smiled, and then she bent over and kissed her on her check. “What time do you get off today?”

Frances smiled at Adrian seductively. “Well that sort of depends on you.”

Adrian smiled back. “So sooner and then later.”

“Christ,” Tammy mumbled and got very interested in her coffee. “Could you just tell her when you get off work?”

“12:30,” Frances said to Adrian, “Why?”

“It’s warm out. I was thinking about taking the bike out and just driving around and thought you might like to go with me.”

“Sure I’d love to…” Then she looked at Tammy, realizing what Tammy already had, they had less and less time for each other. “What are you doing?”

Tammy laughed, though she really wasn’t feeling it. “Contrary to popular belief I am capable of entertaining myself. I’m probably going to go to the park at some point and run.”

“Why don’t you meet us back at Stella’s House about 5:00 and we’ll do something?” Adrian said, and suddenly Tammy smiled. She wasn’t losing her fem friend, she was gaining a butch.

It was Thursday afternoon, and Adrian was walking around the park picking up garbage alone again. She sighed, and put it out of her head. It was good to be out away from Stella’s House and Rhonda’s, and wasn’t that the whole reason for being out here in the first place? She reached down, grabbed a styrofoam cup, and put it in the bag.  Behind her a voice said, “Now that guy, he doesn’t give a damn about the enviorment. He’s one of those social climbing morons. Came here to think about a corporate take over and drink his moche latte.”

          “Stella,” Adrian turned to face her with a smile. She was as bundled up as Adrian was against the cold. Adrian laughed, “So what brings the big author out today?”

          The smile faded from Stella’s face. “I needed to talk to you.”

          “We just talked this morning, set up the week, the menu…”

          “You know what I mean, Adrian,” Stella said, and she sounded mad then. “I need to talk to my best friend now, not my business partner.”

          “I’m not your business partner. I’m your employee,” Adrian said coolly.

          “Dammit, Adrian, don’t make this harder than it is.” Stella was near tears, so Adrian shifted her garbage bag to one hand, took the glove off her free hand, took Stella by the hand and led her to a nearby park bench where they both sat down. She discarded the bag at her feet and took the other glove off.

          “What’s going on?” Adrian asked, imagining that she was about to be fired. She just didn’t know what was in Stella’s head any more.

          “You know because I’ve told you before that what I’ve made on my books is a joke. Rhonda’s makes more in a week than I’ve made on an advance on any given book.”

          “But you’ve made a lot in royalties. If it weren’t for the books you couldn’t have bought Rhonda’s,” Adrian said gently.

          “True, but… Adrian, I know you don’t get it, that you never have, but… I have to give this thing with Toni one more real shot. She’s right that I need to be with her if it’s going to work, and… well she’s got this great idea. She’s going to make a documentary of my book and lecture tour. That way we can both work together. That’s the easy part, here’s the hard part… I need more money than I thought I needed.”

          “You get plenty of money from the apartments and Rhonda’s.”

          “I need a bunch of money up front all at once. You’ve been practically running the whole show for weeks now and you’re doing a good job, but… I’m not going to be able to have any input at all. and I’m not going to have time to deal with our distributors or the books and…”

          “I know how to do all that,” Adrian said in a panic. “Don’t sell them out from under us, Stella.”

          “Calm down. That’s not where I’m going with this.” Stella patted her on the back. “I want you to buy it all, Adrian, the apartment building and the caf�.”

          “How… I can’t pull the money out of my ass.”

          “You can get a loan, Adrian. They’ll hold the buildings as collateral. They will make more than enough for you to make all your bills and payments.”

          Adrian quickly weighed losing her home and her job and a life style she was quite happy with against having a mountain of debt over her head. If it doesn’t work out and I go broke I can always jump on my bike and disappear I’ve done it before. If I own it we can all stop worrying about her selling it out from under us.

          “You sure I can get a loan?” Adrian asked.

          “Well… I assumed you’d say yes, and the truth is I’ve done all the paperwork and they’ve already said yes. It’s as simple as you meeting with them and signing the papers.”

          “Is this really what you want?” Adrian asked.

          “More to the point, is it what you want?” Stella asked.

          “I can’t imagine losing it all, so I guess it is, “Adrian said. She looked at Stella, feeling like the worst had happened. “So… you really are going.”

          “I am. I have to, Adrian.”

          “Wow, imagine it, me a big proprietor, a landowner.” Adrian laughed, liking the idea. She looked at Stella. “Any time you want to come back, there will always be a place for you, Stella.”

          “I know that. It’s why I’m selling it to you—and for a song I might add. Come on, let’s start walking again. I’m getting cold just sitting here.”

          Adrian nodded, walked to a trash can and threw the bag in, and then started walking with Stella. “I’d already finished,” she explained, seeing the confused look on Stella’s face.

          “You ready to go then?” Stella asked.

          “No, you just got here and… Well let’s actually walk around it at least once without the trash. Enjoy what we’ve done,” Adrian said. She took Stella’s hand and they started walking.

          “You want to tell me what you’re doing with Frances?”

          “Do you want the details?” Adrian asked with a smile.

          Stella laughed. “You know what I mean, Adrian.”

          Adrian sighed. “And you know what I’m doing with her. I’m settling for what I can get because I can’t have what I want.”

          Stella nodded as if to say that was what she thought. “Do you really think that’s fair to her?” she asked gently

          Adrian let go of Stella’s hand and stopped walking. When Stella stopped she turned to face her. “Let’s not play games right now. You blew off what we could have had together, and you’re giving up everything you love to fulfill some need in Toni to control every aspect of your life. You’re settling, too, so don’t you dare pass judgment on me or how I conduct my life. Frances is a big girl. She knows what she’s doing, and I do have feelings for her, I care for her. Why don’t you just admit it? You don’t want me, but you don’t want anyone else to have me either. We’ve all put you up on this pedestal, Stella, but the truth is that in your own way you’re as screwed up and play just as many head games as any one of us.”

          Adrian stomped across the park, got on her motorcycle, took off, and never even saw the nice, clean park.

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