“Oh yeah. I cooked some evening meals but, luckily Mikie liked Henry’s cooking much better than mine so ……..”  Seeing the pained look on Bette’s face, “Bette, I’m sorry. They will not come up again.”

“No Tina, they were a part of your life and it’s alright. I’m sure things are going to come up from time to time. We need to decide now, that we are accepting of each others recent past and that we realize that we cannot act like they do not exist. We may not be proud of some of the things that have happened recently but, we have apologized, accepted apologies, acknowledged our past and put it behind us. It is the only way we can make this work.”

Angelica scurries off to her bedroom to play.

“Bette, can we really put things back together?”

“God Tina, what did we just do if we didn’t plan on putting things back together?”

Tina a bit defensive, “ I didn’t say I didn’t want to, I do, but having great sex does not fix everything.”

With her head down and not making eye contact with Tina, “Tina, do you love me?”

“Bette, you shouldn’t even have to ask that question.”

“T    …    I need to hear you say it. That is, if you feel that way. Honesty remember! Only say it if you feel it.”

“I love you Bette.  I am sorry ….. I’m sorry for all of my actions. I’m sorry for all of the ill chosen words. I want to make it right. I want you in my life and I am willing to work on it if you are…….”

“Tina, those are the words that I was to say to Jodie. Were those words meant for me?

“Bette, Those were the words that I wanted to say to you soooo many times. I am so fucking stubborn, I just could not seem to get them out when we spoke. This whole thing with Jodie gave me an opportunity to say them and I HOPED you were listening.”

“I heard them T. I heard them then and I hear them now. I love you so much. You complete me. I am so fucking miserable without you. I acted like an ass. I was stupid. None of it meant anything Tina. You, you and Angelica, you are the only things that mean anything to me. I need you. I need my family.”

With tears streaming down her face, “Tina, I want you to come back home. I want us to be the family that we imagined we would be. We can put everything away, we can process the pain and heal and never speak of the pain we caused each other again. I can  ……… if you can. Please Tina, I   NEED   YOU!”

Putting her arms tightly around a sobbing Bette, “Baby, we can make it. We can do anything we WANT to do. There is nothing else I need to talk about. It is said and done and put away and as far as I am concerned we start from today and work on our relationship, we work on HONESTY and our job as mom’s to Angelica.”

“Will you come home Tina?”