Chapter 52

Tina woke as the sun poured through the room.  She looked down at their bodies and smiled as she looked at beauty of their entwined bodies.  Bette stirred and looked into her eyes.

“Good morning.”

Tina leaned into Bette’s arms and sighed.

“Good morning, my beautiful fiancé.”

They both giggled.

“Hey Bette, what’s that?”

Bette smiled.

“Oh, I don’t know it kind of looks like a present, doesn’t it?”

Tina sat up and playfully tapped Bette’s arm, staring at the present leaning on the dresser.

“Bette…I wonder who it’s for?”

“Well, why don’t you go see.”

Tina hopped out of bed, grabbed the large package and bounded back into bed. 

Bette laughed.

“She barely looks at the rock I slipped on her finger, but I could wrap up a roll of toilet paper and she goes all bonkers on me.”

“Oh my god Bette, your right…I’m so sorry…Babe, I’m so sorry”

Tina lifted her hand and looked at the ring that sealed their love.

“Oh my God Bette it’s so beautiful.”

Bette reached for Tina and pulled her toward her.

“T, I’m just kidding…I can’t think of a better way to seal a proposal than the way we did last night.  It was perfect.  I love you so much..”

Tina smiled at Bette.

“Does that mean I can open the present?”

They both laughed.  Bette flashed her million dollar smile and nodded.

Tina opened the small card attached to the package.

“T,

Please take this a symbol of my commitment to our life together.  Please keep this as a reminder that all I need or want in this life is to love you and to be loved by you.

Yours Forever,

B

Tina smiled at Bette with tears in her eyes.

“Babe…”

Tina carefully opened the package and gazed at the contents.

“Bette, it’s beautiful.  Where did you find this?”

“Tina, I’ve always had it.”

“I don’t understand… why I haven’t seen this before.”

“Tina, I have never hung this painting.  My mother gave it to me shortly before she left.  It’s called, ‘Love’.”

Tina looked into Bette’s tear-filled eyes and then grabbed her hand and looked down at the painting.  It was a beautiful light filled image of a blonde woman looking out a window.  The woman’s eyes and expression were filled with such love that it took Tina’s breath away.

“Babe, I can’t take this…”

“Don’t you see T…Don’t you see…before you, I couldn’t even look at this painting.  How could someone with so much love for someone…”  Bette’s voice broke.  “…just leave?  I couldn’t believe in  love, but now Tina I see the love…I feel the love…My mother couldn’t love me that way…She was too broken, but she wanted me to be loved like that…T, that’s how I feel when you look at …Loved…Loved completely….”

They fell into each other’s arms and held each other tight.

“Bette, I swear I will work so hard to always be worthy of this gift…your love…I love you so much.”

After several minutes Bette leaned away from Tina and gave her a shy smile. 

“You know that was the first painting I ever owned… the rest will be here tomorrow.”

“Oh God Bette…I can’t believe you’d be willing to do that…Wait….Wait…You don’t have to…Wait…”

Tina ran to the other room and grabbed her laptop and jumped back into bed and booted up.

“Here look I was going to show you this tomorrow after the Gala…but wait…Look I found the perfect house…Look”

Bette looked at the beautiful smile on Tina’s face and smiled and then looked at the pictures of the home and frowned a bit.

“T, I think we can do better than this…it ….it….”

Tina laughed.

“No Bette.  Look at the address.  It’s a prime location.  We could do a total renovation and build ‘our’ dream home together…I did all the numbers Bette, even with the loss on our houses I know we could build our equity back and still live in our dream home.  It’s perfect.”

Bette looked at Tina and smiled. 

“Well I guess we should call and make an offer then.”

Tina just about tackled Bette as she threw her body on top of Bette and peppered her with kisses as she yelled.

“I love you… I love you…I love you…. I love you… I love you…I love you….For…Ever…and Ever and Ever….”

The End