“No” Tina smiled, enjoying of relief on Bette’s face “That’s not on the list”

“What list?”

“The list of things that we need to sort out, we need to make some changes around here”

“Can I see it?” Bette asked despite her fears.

“Nope”

“Why not?” Bette was perturbed by the response “I need to see it if I’m supposed to…”

“It’s in my head” Tina cut Bette off before she had the chance to work herself into an agitated state

“I see” Bette responded

“You’re doing a great job of jumping to conclusions this morning, so far you’ve crashed and burned on two from two. Shall we continue? Or are you going to stop second-guessing everything?”

“I’m sorry. I was awake half the night scared stiff that I’d wake up this morning and you’d be gone” Bette admitted despite herself.

“Bette” Tina’s expression was full of concern “Why?”

“Because you’d wake up this morning and yesterday’s nightmare would be forgotten. You’d be back to being angry and unable to forgive me, forgive what I did. You’d wake up and see that I was still the same person that…cheated on you, the one that broke your heart” Bette’s lowered her head in shame

“Oh Baby” Tina shook her head “I know we’ve got a lot to sort out and it’s going to take time. There are parts of our relationship where I feel like we’re back to square-one”

“Yeah like ever trusting me again”

“It’s going to take time but I promise to try. We’re not going to fix everything immediately. There are parts of me that are still angry and hurt and, above all, sad. There are going to be days when these get the better of me but I’m not going to let them win. I thought that I’d lost you forever and I know that I never want to feel that way again. Trust has to be built again and that’s a mutual thing, you need to know that I trust you too. There are lots items on the list but I don’t want to tackle them all this morning” Bette nodded in agreement.

“Been awake long?” Bette moved the conversation to a neutral topic