As she sat holding the letter between her hands, Kimberley could feel herself slowly welling up. “I can’t believe I wrote this,” she mumbled to herself.
“Wrote what?”
She turned at the sound of the Geordie tones, Cheryl exiting the bathroom with a towel wrapped around her body while her hair was wrapped in another. Panicking, she folded it back up and attempted to wipe the tears from under her eyes.
“Kimberley, are you cryin’?” Rushing over, the younger woman frowned before sitting down beside her on the edge of the bed. “What’s wrong?” she worryingly asked, reaching out to stroke her cheek. “And what have you go there?”
Kimberley snatched her hand away as she reached down to take it from her. “Nothing,” she insisted.
“Baby?” Cheryl pleaded, a little hurt by her actions.
The blonde let out a sigh, knowing there was not much point in lying as it would only cause problems. “It’s a letter I wrote for you.”
“Well give me it then and I’ll read it.”
“I wrote it after everything that happened, it’s an apology letter,” she continued, clutching onto it tightly as she moved it further out of her reach. “I was just about to put it in the bin.”
“But I want to read it now,” Cheryl frowned, her voice laced with a tone that showed she was almost pleading.
“No,” Kimberley instantly replied. “Please don’t make me give it to you,” she continued, knowing that if she tried hard enough she’d sure enough sweet talk it from her.
Cheryl, while her hand remained glued to her cheek, her mouth remained shut, and so she continued.
“This letter was the bane of my life at stages; I couldn’t eat or sleep because of it. I couldn’t focus until I got it perfect. And when I finally did I chickened out of posting it to you. All I want to do now is get rid of it. If you read it then I’ll want to know what you thought and if it was ok and...”
“Hey, shh...” Leaning forward, Cheryl pressed their foreheads together, her brown eyes boring into Kimberley’s teary ones. “It’s ok,” she smiled before moving forward to softly kiss her. “Put it in the bin, if that’s what you really want to do, baby.”
And then she got up and left the room, slightly confusing Kimberley. Was she annoyed at her?
Unfolding the letter once more, she reread it again, the words on the paper still provoking the same emotional reaction – tears.
* * * * *
“You’ll ruin her you know,” Kimberley huskily breathed into Cheryl’s ear as she wrapped her arms around her from the back. She looked over her shoulder as she continued breaking up the uneaten sausages from the McMuffin’s and placed them into Pixie’s bowl, the small pooch sitting at their feet.
“It’s only sausage,” the Geordie lightly giggled. “She deserves it anyway; she’s a good little girl.”
“Just like you then,” Kimberley complimented before turning to lightly kiss her neck.
Cheryl smiled to herself, glad that her girlfriend was feeling better than she had been that morning. “I see you’ve perked up,” she responded, reaching down to give Pixie the food.
“Here.”
Glancing up at her, she slowly got back up again, frowning as she watched her hold out a little white envelope. She looked down at it before redirecting her eyes back up to meet hers.
“I want you to read it, Cheryl. And then I want you to rip it up and put it in the bin, ok? This is a fresh start between us and I don’t want any more lies or secrets. I just didn’t think it was that important, but if it means that much to you and you really want to read it,” Kimberley half-heartedly smiled, “go ahead.”
With her eyes flicking between the paper and the woman standing in front, Cheryl nodded her head, her mind trying to take everything in. “Hillary called,” she mumbled. “I have to go to a meeting later. So, I’ll need to head home soon to get ready.”
“Ok,” Kimberley accepted, her hand reaching out to take hold of her free one. “I’ll miss you,” she sadly told her.
“I’ll miss you, too,” Cheryl responded, her lips curving into a sad smile. “I don’t want to leave,” she continued, pulling her closer. After kissing her softly, she gazed down at their joined hands, her eyes scanning between them and the letter in the other. “No,” she sighed before lifting it up and shaking her head. “I don’t want to read it.”
“But you...”
“Just rip it up and put it in the bin. It shouldn’t be, and isn’t, important anymore.”
“It really ok...”
“Just do it, Kimberley,” she gently demanded.
Slightly relieved, Kimberley took it from her and quickly tore it in half and then again, until it was nothing but tiny shreds. “Thank you,” she sighed.
“I was just being selfish,” Cheryl acknowledged. “I’m sorry.” She grinned when the blonde held out her arms for her, and, without a seconds thought, collapsed into them.
“Hundreds of words where wrote on that piece of paper, but I can only think of one that would truly tell you how I felt... and still feel.”
“Yeah?” she asked, her stomach filling with butterflies.
“Love.”
She flicked her eyes shut as she comprehended the word in her mind, her whole body tingling. “You love me?” she questioned before pulling away to look her in the eyes, her own filling with tears.
“I’m in love with you,” Kimberley nodded. “Deeply, madly in love with you.”
“I love you, too.”
Leaning forward, she smiled as their lips touched softly. “I know,” she whispered. “You told me in your song.”
And, as the sealed their joy with a passionate, emotional embrace, Kimberley let go of the pieces of tore up paper encased inside her hand, hundreds of tiny confetti-like shreds landing on the floor. But the last bit to fall was the most important bit, the bit that had three significantly meaningful words wrote on it in her neat handwriting.
I love you.
The End.
