Finally Tina moved towards her. Bette silently hoped to be held by her, to feel her arms around her, to know that it was okay, maybe not right now but that it would be. She needed the reassurance she’d always found there whenever she was wanting.

Tears started to well in Bette’s eyes as Tina stood and looked down at her wife. Just a hand, a gentle touch of her cheek, a lingering palm placed on her shoulder, a simple brushing away of a stray lock from her face. Anything. Something. Nothing.

Tina moved her right hand, Bette looked up expectantly. The hope in her eyes betraying the urgent need to feel her wife’s touch she was so desperately trying to subdue. But the movement was not made to calm any longing or any fear Bette may have.

Tina reached into her pocket and pulled it back out. Something held in her palm that she wasn’t allowing Bette to see. She turned slightly and placed it on Bette’s bedside table. Bette still paralysed on the bed, unable to move because Tina hadn’t commanded it, did not see what it was.

Bette hadn’t realised it but she had been holding her breath when Tina’s gaze was not on her. As her eyes fell into her wife’s again she released her breath. She waited for the words she knew would come. That Tina couldn’t stay here tonight but that she’d be back in the morning. Then everything would be okay. That somehow they’d work this out. Tomorrow. That she still loved her.

And it was that thought that echoed in Bette’s ears as she heard the front door close. Those words that she heard instead of Tina’s car as it drove away. Her wife still loved her. Those words that she kept repeating to herself, now alone in their home. The words that Tina had never said as she picked up her bag and left that night. That she still loved her.

It felt like a lifetime before Bette was able to turn her head and see what Tina had left by her side of the bed. The tears had made here eyesight blurry but there was no mistaking what it was. Bette wiped her eyes before reaching down to pick it up.

Tina’s wedding ring. The ring identical to the one still on her ring finger. The one that they had both chosen only a few weeks after they had decided that they wanted to let the world know that they belonged to each other.

In Bette’s hand it turned her thoughts into questions. Doubt entered her mind. She didn’t know if Tina would be back in the morning, if she would be back at all. She didn’t even know where she had gone. She didn’t know if they could fix this.