“Are you asking me to?”

Bette dipped her finger into the glass and watched a drip form on it. “No.”

Then breaking the whispered stillness, she sucked her finger and looked up at Tina sharply. “Would you have said yes if I had?”

“No.” She matched Bette’s steady gaze. ” I can’t.”

Bette nodded slowly. “I know. It was worth a try though, hey?”

Tina twitched a corner of her mouth in silent accord.

“What people don’t realise about fairy tales,” Bette said suddenly, “is that there were far more macabre endings in their original form. There were no happy endings.”

“I love you,” she said urgently. “I love you more than anyone else I’ve ever met in my entire life. I love you more than my ***** life. Christ only knows its been one long ***** up journey so far- totally mindlessly pointless until I met you. Then I spend two days alone with you. Two days of total bliss and I don’t want it to ever end.” 

Tina stared at her, her heart burning its way out of her chest.

“I want just one more day,” she went on. “Just one more night T. Tonight, tomorrow, this moment, today, ***** now. I can’t let you go without telling you how I really feel. I don’t care if one more night in heaven makes ***** even hotter. I can’t let you go just yet.”

Tina took Bette’s hand over the table, the wine tipping over and spilling onto the floor.

“I love you.” Bette gripped her hands, eyes bubbling with mirth and relief. “I believe in soul mates, I believe in love at first sight and even in Jesus Christ right now, because whatever it was that put you and me together should be worshipped by millions of people and loathed by just as many. I believe,” she shouted, “in Jesus.”

Tina was laughing. Laughing and crying at the same time.

Bette made her way across the table towards Tina and took her face in her hands. “I want to marry the most beautiful, good, kind, *****, ***** amazing woman in the world. I want to marry the love of my life.”