A/N: I started watching 80's One Life to Live on Youtube recently and have really fallen head over heels for Cord and Tina. I always liked them but seeing them in their "hey-day", well now I am obsessed! However, this story takes place in 1990 or thereabouts right before Tina leaves town after Cord asks her for a divorce. I hope it makes sense lol It's angsty, but we know somehow eventually they always end up back together. That's what soulmates do, am I right?

Divorce papers fisted in his two hands so tightly they nicked the pads of his fingers, Cord was deeply lost in his tortured thoughts. Time seemed to have slipped away while he was sitting on the sofa for hours in the darkness, the shades drawn together to block out any light.

Just the night before Tina had informed him, she was leaving Llanview, and taking CJ with her. He'd held his son, kissed his soft, chubby little cheek, and tearfully said goodbye to the boy before Tina pressed the signed papers into his big hands. It was his choice to end the marriage, but he couldn't wrap his mind around how quickly it was all happening. He was dearly going to miss his son, and he was going to miss…

No, no. He wasn't going to miss her. He couldn't. He wouldn't allow himself the luxury of missing her. Not after all she had done to ruin his life.

There was a firm rap at the door. It took him a few moments though to really be conscious of the sound of the knocking, and then someone was leaning heavily on the doorbell. "I'm coming. Dammit, I'm coming," he spat, wondering who was so damned eager to see him. Whomever it was had to be feeling mighty brave because Cord was in a foul mood. An awfully foul mood.

He swung open the door, a nasty remark on his tongue. It died when he saw who stood there, staring up at him with those beautiful blue eyes of hers that about did him in.

"Cord," Tina said, "we need to talk."

He finally found his voice. It sounded a little shaky at first. "No - no, we don't. We've said all we need to say. And then some. Don't you have a plane to catch?"

"I do," Tina said, "but first things first." She easily slipped around him, moving into his place, invading his space the way only she could. "Wow, it's so dark in here. Open the curtains every once in a while, why don't you?"

"Dammit, Tina!"

"Oh, stop you're hollering." She whirled around to face him. "We need to get something straight and I'm not leaving here until we do."

"Tina girl, just get out of here!" He snapped. The scent of her perfume was in his nostrils, and it was soft and feminine. It gave him such a heady, familiar jolt of desire. He was off-kilter, almost woozy. Was he drunk? He felt drunk. She should have no effect on him anymore. He shouldn't allow her to have any effect on him after everything she had done.

"No, no, see I can't leave. Not till I've said my piece. You've said yours. By God, you've more than said yours. You've told me a hundred times over what a - Why, what a selfish, lying, no good scammer I am! But I'm here to tell you, Cordero Roberts, that no matter what you may think of me right now, there are reasons for the things I do."

He rolls his eyes. "Oh, of course, there always are."

"Well, maybe they don't make a lot of sense to you, or anyone else, but there are. I'm not going to apologize to you anymore, however. I'm done trying to make you see how sorry I am. I can try to explain something to you though. You see, I just wanted to hold onto you. I didn't want to lose you. When I thought you and Debra were becoming too close, I just - well, I overreacted. I know, I know. Sometimes I just go too far, and then I ruin things. I ruined our new beginning, but I didn't set out to. I didn't have nasty, nefarious intentions like you think I did. I loved you; you see, I've always loved you. I was just so afraid you were going to leave me for her, and even if you had no intention of doing so, well, the end result is the same anyway. We're not together anymore, are we? It all ended up just the way I feared it would with you throwing me to the curb like yesterday's newspaper."

"Don't you blame me for this, Tina."

"But Cord, don't you see? It takes two to tango."

"Tina-"

"Oh god, go ahead! Go ahead and bellow all you want to. Bellow to the heavens, I don't care, because it's true. It is true!" Her voice softened. "But I'll tell you one other thing I know is true, Cordero Roberts - " She stepped closer to him, coming very near, so near he was hypnotized by the proximity of her, the warmth emanating from her petite body - "I know that I still love you."

His heart clenched painfully. "Tina, don't you dare. Stop it."

"No, see, I can't stop it. That's what I was born to do. You obviously need to be reminded of that because you said the very thing when you proposed to me the last time, remember? You said that I'd never love another man the way I love you, and you're right. I never will. You'll always be the one for me, Cord. Always. You also said you'd never love another woman the way you love me, and I'm holding you to that. That's a promise in my book."

"I am not promising you anything. We're done."

"For now, alright, yes, maybe we are, but there's this old Mexican saying. I think you probably know it; maybe you can even appreciate it. I heard it once and it stuck with me for some reason and now I know why. 'No hay dos sin tres'. There isn't-"

"There isn't two without three. Yes, so what's your point?"

"Cord, you know it means if something happens once, it could be a one-time thing. If it happens twice, it will most likely happen again. We've been married two times now, Cord, and I know someday we're going to get married again."

His laugh was bitter. "Oh, you're crazy. Crazy as can be!"

"No, call it a prediction if you want, but it's going to happen again. I believe it."

"Believe what you will." His eyes were full of fire, but when she grabbed his hand and refused to release it, his voice noticeably shook. "It's not going to happen ever again, Tina. That saying …"

"Sayings become sayings for a reason. There's a real grain of truth to them. There's a pattern here with us, Cord. Every time we fall apart, we somehow fall back together, and I believe it will happen for us again someday, and it will be amazing."

Her pretty blue eyes filled with tears. "I know we'll keep trying and trying if we have to, until one day, we will get it absolutely right. Even if it takes us years, until we're old and gray, and sitting in rockers, and our knees won't hold us up anymore, and God forbid, our hair is gray and we're - we're wearing false teeth! But we won't care because we will be watching our grandchildren and our great grandchildren - people created from our love - at play, and it will be the most beautiful, perfect sight in the whole world. We'll know every bad, ugly, harsh moment we had to endure brought us to that very moment of wonderful happiness."

"Tina girl, you're dreamin'," he said, but his voice was hoarse and lacked conviction. "You always did have such a big imagination."

"No, I just see what you can't right now. I'll be back someday, Cord, and you'll be ready for me then, I just know it. For now, I have to leave so you can have the time and space to maybe, just maybe, stop hating me so much." She sniffled. "Absence makes the heart grow fonder, right?"

She slipped her hand free of his and he felt the loss acutely, the same way a new amputee would his missing limb. Cord felt his heart wrenched from his chest, because that's what Tina was. His heart, his soul, and her words, he realized, were the unvarnished truth. He never had loved anyone like he did her, and he never would, but he was a stubborn man, and he was stupid, and proud, and he didn't know how to ask her to stay. He couldn't when the wounds were so fresh and new.

He watched her turn to go, his eyes burning as she lifted her fingers in a little wave. "Take care, Cord," she whispered and then she was gone. And that was it. For now, that was it, because deep down, he knew it wasn't over for them. That it never could be.

the end - for now!