Therese comes home to a dark apartment. Carol should be home by now, she is almost always done working before the brunette. This is a bit of a surprise, but as she walks into the kitchen after dropping her things in the bedroom, she sees a beautifully set dinner table. Carol is standing at the counter, her back towards Therese and the brunette calls out Carol's name.

"Hi darling."

"Hey."

Carol walked up to Therese and placed a slow, sweet kiss on her lover's lips. They both close their eyes before they're realizing it and it takes quite a while before they break it off. Carol smiles as she pulls back and softly places her hands on the brunette's hips. She places a soft kiss on the dimples on Therese's cheeks, and squeezes her hips softly.

"Take a seat, sweetheart. Dinner will be ready in a few."

"Okay."

"Wine?"

"Sounds great Carol. Thank you."

Therese takes a seat at the table and Carol puts a glass of wine in her hand. She takes a sip and sighs contentedly. This is heaven on earth. Carol quickly puts the last finishing touches on their dinner and plates it two times. She sways her hips as she walks over to where her lover is still sitting. She places Therese's plate in front of her and then sits down with her own.

"Bon appétit."

Therese only smiles before taking a bite of the food on her plate. She closes her eyes and moans softly. Fuck this is good. Carol smirks as she watches Therese's reaction to the food. She knew Therese would like it, but this much was a surprise, even for the blonde. They both eat as much as they can, enjoying every bite of food on their forks. Carol finishes first and watches Therese slowly devour the food on her plate. It was a sight for sore eyes.

"Mmm. That was good. Thank you Carol."

"You're welcome my love."

A comfortable silence falls over them, but Therese wants to break it. It's been a week since she moved in the Madison Avenue apartment, but they haven't talked about what happened months ago yet. Therese wants to do that now, so they can have closure and move on in their relationship. They need to sort things out in order to come out stronger.

Carol silently stands up and offers her hand to Therese; she too can feel that they need to talk. She needs to explain herself, and hopes that the brunette will forgive her. Therese takes her hand and stands up but doesn't let go, instead intertwining their fingers and pulling Carol with her into the living room. Therese stands to face Carol so that the blonde's facing away from the couch.

"Sit down darling."

Carol complies and takes a seat on the couch, still holding onto the younger woman's hand. She doesn't want to lose that connection. She's quite sure that Therese won't be leaving her, but she's afraid of the harsh words her lover might have for her. She closes her eyes and shakes her head, she doesn't want to think about it just now.

Therese sits down next to the blonde, never letting go of her hand, the connection. She looks at Carol, but the older woman doesn't return her gaze. She hates that it is like this. In an ideal situation, she and Carol would've met in a different time, or under different circumstances without anything prohibiting them from being together. But it wasn't like that, and there isn't anything that they can do about it. They're here now to fix this.

"Carol? Please look at me. Please darling …"

Carol looks at her, but tears are forming in her eyes. She's afraid of what's going to come out of Therese's mouth by now, she's afraid that the brunette will realize that she's better off without her and leave her. Therese sees the fear in Carol's eyes and cups her face in reassurance. She lifts her chin up until their lips are aligned and leans in to kiss those full, soft lips softly. She's in love with the lips she's kissing, much like she's in love with everything else.

"Carol, we're fine. It's all good, we'll get through this alright? We just need to talk about what happened."

"Okay." It's a soft whisper that comes from Carol's lips.

They talk about everything that transpired all those months ago. Carol explains that she had to at least try to win her daughter back, but that after a few months she realized she'd never be a good mother to Rindy if she couldn't be herself. She knew that she had to give up the little girl to have at least a chance at happiness.

Therese knew this; she knew that Carol felt like she had to try one last time. For Rindy, that sweet little girl. Therese hates that she's the reason for Carol losing Rindy like this. She tells Carol how much it hurt her when she left her like that, but she immediately adds that she forgives her. She forgave her a long time ago, but she wanted to talk about it. They had to do this.

It's incredibly liberating for them. Therese forgives Carol (who begs for it), and Carol vows to never hurt Therese like that. Therese trusts her that she never will.

Therese takes charge after they talked things through, softly pushing Carol onto her back on the couch. She unbuttons the red blouse that is adorning the blonde's chest slowly while kissing her lover. Finally, finally, they can be together like they both wish to be. The kiss conveys every bit of love they feel for each other.

After the blouse is on the floor, her black laced bra soon follows. Her naked chest is one of the most amazing things the brunette has ever seen. Carol's naked body is the most beautiful thing Therese has ever seen and she never wants to forget it ever again. She slowly kisses her way to Carol's chest, paying special attention to the beautiful ivory neck and collarbones.

Therese plays with one of Carol's erect nipples while slowly unbuttoning Carol's slacks. She pulls them down her legs, taking the black panties with them at the same time. Carol is now completely naked for the brunette, and the younger woman slowly moves in. They make sweet, sweet love and feel more than ever connected.

Over the next week, they talk about everything and anything they can think about. They vow for communication to be key, and they do everything to always talk about something that bothers them. They laugh together at things that happened at work that day, they cry together when Carol realizes how much she misses Rindy, they share every emotion one of them feels. It's the kind of connection that is only very rarely found.

Every single night they shared the same three words: I love you.