Tina shifted slightly, nonchalantly placing her cheek in the direct path of Bette’s warm breath, her eye catching the momentary hitch in Bette’s throat.

Bette could feel Tina’s gaze, their auras mingling, a magnetic tumbling of past and present. She cocked her head at the blonde. They both giggled nervously, Tina rotating the drink in front of her and Bette biting the inside of her cheek.

Once they both received their drinks, Tina raised her glass to Bette’s. “A toast.”

“No wait, I’ll toast you. It is your birthday after all,” Bette’s voice like a melodic honey.

“Let me first. I decided I’m giving myself all of the presents today.”

Bette gulped not knowing what that meant since Tina just showed up at the gallery. “Ok.”

“To another year of new beginnings…” Tina’s toast continued silently, with an old love.

Another year of new beginnings to Bette only meant Tina’s upcoming marriage, and a final ending to their relationship.

Tina watched Bette take a full sip of her wine, entranced by the perfect lips that rounded the edge of the glass, the liquid moistening them before she saw it coat her throat. Bette’s cavernous eyes delved over Tina. She was memorizing every aspect of Tina’s being, the way her short blonde waves were pinned up on one side, the diamond earrings that Bette recognized as one of their anniversary gifts, the golden gilt of her hazel eyes flitting under the warm bar lights. The radiance of her beauty lighting up even the darkest corner of Bette’s heart. Suddenly the shadows didn’t feel so long.

Bette held her glass up to Tina, leaning into her shoulder to speak closer to her ear. “To shadow and light, love, and life.”

Tina felt the current running though her veins, that familiar spark that lit up every nerve ending in her body. It was an electrical storm she only felt with the tall brunette by her side.

The chair next to Tina opened up but Bette didn’t take it.

“Aren’t you going to sit down?”

Bette was enjoying standing beside her ex-wife, their bodies in such close proximity, no pressure of touching, no pressure of keeping a fair distance. Just two bodies existing in a mutual space.

When Bette did sit down, Tina felt her sudden absence and she leaned a bit on the bar to move her chair closer to the brunette.