"No, Janet. It's too late." Bianca said with a sad tone of voice while she handed out her keys to Janet.
Janet looked down. Her hand outstretched, however, that wasn't part of her plans. She couldn't believe this was actually happening. Reluctant, Janet held Bianca's hand just to grab the keys and kept them on her palm. So, she looked at the keys and suddenly her hopes disappeared in a matter of seconds; the future she expected to spend on her side was being thrown away.
When Bianca turned around and walked away ready to leave the room, Janet said "Bianca, wait please!" her voice was breaking due to emotional stage.
Before Bianca reaching the door, Janet's voice made her change her mind and stepped right there where you can easily reach the door knob but she still kept her distance far away because now she had no intentions to leave the room. Bianca sighed, and for a moment she wasn't sure to face Janet. When she decided to do so, Janet walked close her; she gently held Bianca's face, got closer, and pressed her lips firmly on hers ending up in the sweetest kiss.
At that point Janet didn't care where they were or if people in the office could have seen them. The only thing Janet really cared about was having Bianca back.
Janet reacted to her own impulse and interrupted the kiss by holding Bianca's face, and stared at her; Bianca was surprised at the unexpected kiss.
"I love you, Bianca." she said looking deep into Bianca eyes, feeling tears welling up in her eyes.
Bianca stared into Janet's deep blue eyes and saw on her face the pain and sadness she was feeling inside; an exact reflex of her own pain when she decided to give her the keys back and questioned herself on whether to quit or not on everything then went through.
With sadness, Bianca stated, "Saying I love you is not going to fix things, Janet." then she stepped off and freed her face from Janet's hands.
"I know." Janet took a step back as she felt Bianca a little bit uncomfortable. "I don't want to lose you." she said, "Then, tell me what do I have to do?" her voice was soft, and a bit strained, like if someone had hit her in the gut and she was still recovering.
"You know I love you too, but sometimes love is not enough to keep a relationship."
"But that's what motivate people to keep on trying, isn't it?"
"We already try and it didn't work. I'm sure it's better this way."
"No," she said, struggling to not show the despair in her voice. "I need you to give me the chance to prove how much you mean to me." she asked clenching her hand while holding the keys.
"You had the chance to do this, Janet, but you preferred to throw it away. When I was ready to talk, you were not ready to listen. Now that you're ready to talk, I don't want to hear it. I waited so long for this conversation that now it doesn't matter anymore."
The sincerity in Bianca's words brought tears to Janet's eyes. She was silent for a moment before replying.
"I didn't know I was hurting you this much." she looked away and a knot in her throat was getting stronger and the pain inwards wreaked havoc.
"But you did." Bianca added. "Do you know how I felt when I went to your house with my heart filled with hope for reconciliation; we could have talked about us, but then the first thing you did was ask about Zoe?" she said with anger and bitter attitude in her words. "Do you have any idea how small and insignificant you made me feel at that moment? You broke my heart."
"I'm really sorry to hear that I made you feel this way. And I'm sorry I couldn't see your needs." she suddenly paused. "Most of the time, my work is consuming my mind at the point that I can't even perceive my own needs."
"That's the problem. You have your priorities and apparently I've never been one of them." Bianca stated. Her eyes were expressing emotions that now she refused to showing in her voice.
"But you're going to be one from now on, I promise. I'll be there for you, just let me prove it." she stepped closer to Bianca and reached out the keys she was holding on her hand, "Please, keep them." she said, her eyes begging her to accept. "I can wait. You can take your time."
Bianca faced a brainstorm with ideas and confusion; she was taking longer than usual to process the chaos. She wanted to remain firm with her final decision. She was angry, resentful, with heart and pride in pain. But Janet means the world to her. Her mind was ready to say no, but her heart holds few doubts. She didn't want to give up and regret it. Bianca wondered how could had been like if she would give her the chance Janet was asking for. She needed to try, at least once again, even though she could risk to lose everything again.
After a long moment of hesitation Bianca accepted the keys back, looked at Janet and made an effort to move her lips in a gently smile before leaving the room.
