AN: Hi, guys, thanks for all the reviews. So glad you guys have loved this story. This is actually the final chapter, which is kind of a surprise even to me, lol. It's a bit short too, but I hope you like it. :)

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Chapter 9:

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This time she really did think it was over. Alice had broken all contact. She stopped going to the gym. She stopped answering calls. Replying to texts. Bella was a wreck. Not sleeping. Bursting into tears on the exercise bike while wishing Alice would appear. Pounding on the door to Alice's apartment and pleading to speak to her until Zafrina came out to console her and send her away.

Eventually she gave up. She might not have gotten through it at all if it wasn't for Jake. He heard her sobbing in bed one night and went into her room and held her till she slept. Stroking her. Inhaling that long familiar scent of her hair. Small tears in his eyes and remembering their life together and knowing, once and for all, that it was all over. Telling her it would be okay.

It was him who finally filed for divorce. She might've never been brave enough to do it herself and it was his final act as her husband, as the man who took care of her. He gave her the papers one afternoon and she signed them at the kitchen table. Watched over by photographs on the fridge. Vacation snaps. The kids in swimsuits. She laid down the pen and sighed. Jake handed her a beer and sat down beside her.

"Well," he said. "Guess we're finally divorced."

"Guess so."

He clicked their bottles together and then pretended something went by really fast. "Shoooom, what was that? That was your life, bro. Shit, that was quick. Do I get another? Sorry, buddy, that's about it."

Bella laughed at his little conversation with himself. He smiled at her.

"Even if I can't turn you on anymore, at least I can still make you laugh, huh?"

Bella set down her bottle and stood up and went around behind her ex-husband and wrapped her arms around him.

"Thanks, Jake," she said. "For everything."

He touched her hand and jostled it. "It's all good, babe."

That same day they gathered the kids in the living room and told them mommy wouldn't be living with them anymore. The boys were stunned. Blank faces. Wide eyes. Nessie started crying softly but she allowed her mother to hug her and explain that everything would be alright. That they were still a family and they would still see each other all the time.

A For Sale sign went up in the yard. They had twelve years left on the mortgage but even a quick sale would cover it.

Meanwhile she started apartment hunting. In the city, closer to work. To the gym. Researching places to rent at work or watching video tours on her laptop at home. Crosslegged on her bed with a notebook and a pen. Finally beginning to feel hopeful. Optimistic. Moving out into the world like a young woman again.

There was a place she liked that she found a short walk to her office building. Spacious. Lots of light. It was a corner apartment with two different views. Bedroom and bathroom, kitchen area, living space. Floorboards. Everything clean and empty. Fresh. Exactly the place to start over.

The next day she came back with her daughter and led her through the rooms by the hand.

"What do you think, Nessie?" she asked her. "How would you like to come visit me here every weekend?"

They were in the living room. Nessie glanced about and then she looked toward the kitchen, at the stove and cabinets and the counter skeptically, and finally shrugged.

"The kitchen's a bit small," she said.

"Are you going to come help me make dinner every weekend?"

"Of course."

"Good," Bella said, and then she knelt down and wrapped her daughter into a hug there in the empty apartment. "I'm not sure how mommy's going to live without you, baby."

"What about Alice?"

Bella's eyes were closed. She held her daughter for a while and then released her but remained on one knee.

"What about her, sweetheart?"

"Is she really gone?"

"Yes. I guess she didn't like mommy as much as mommy wanted her to."

"I miss her."

"Yeah," Bella said, and then chuckled and rose. "So do I."

It took about a week to move in properly. New furniture for the most part. New bed, new mattress. Glass coffeetable. Postmodern bookshelf of segmented squares in black lacquer. Nothing that reminded her of the husband or children she was leaving behind. Nothing that carried their scents or memories.

One of the few things she bought with her from the house was the exercise bike. Jake bought it over one afternoon and lugged it into the elevator and all the way into her apartment. Bella gave him directions into the bedroom and he finally set it down by the bed and breathed out. The mattress was still wrapped in plastic.

"Whew," he said. "That's my work out for the day."

"Thanks for bringing it over, Jake."

"Not sure what you need it for. You still going to that gym?"

"Yeah."

"Seen Alice?"

"Nah."

Jake nodded. He had his hands in his back pockets and he was looking around. Over the bed was a frameless black and white painting of an apple with a vivid slash of red lipstick around a bitemark. It was called Forbidden Fruit.

"You okay, Jake?" she asked him.

Jake chuckled once and turned back to her. "Yeah. It's just funny how things work out. All this drama and you didn't even get the girl."

"Such is life, I guess."

"Well, at least you had eighteen really good years before it all fell apart. They were good years, weren't they? It's not just my imagination?"

"They were great years."

Jake smiled and nodded. "Yeah. They were."

Bella stepped aside from the door and Jake went past her out into the living room. She walked him to the door. The windows were open and bright sunlight spilled over the polished doors. He paused at the door and took another look at the apartment.

"It's a nice place," he said. "Have you tried calling her recently? Alice?"

"No."

"How come? I mean, it's been over a month. Maybe she's calmed down a little."

"The best thing I can do for her is to just stay out of her life. Time for me to stop being so selfish, Jake. She deserves better than some old hag like me, anyway. Baggage doesn't even begin to describe the shit I'm lugging into a relationship."

"Not much baggage anymore. New apartment, new life. Besides, since when did selflessness ever help anybody? Never made either of us happy and I doubt that girl is all that happy either."

"It's too late, Jake. You gonna give me a ride home?"

"Yeah, come on. When's the big move in?"

"Next week, I guess. I'll get you a key for emergencies."

Bella went out into the corridor and closed the door behind them.

—

Alice was at a photoshoot at the Botanical Gardens when she looked up and saw Jake. The camera in her hands was the one Bella had gotten her for Christmas. Behind her was a large fountain with water spouting upward into the bright morning sun. The shoot was for very expensive rainslickers and the models wearing the rainslickers were inside the actual fountain, striding through the water in high heels and full makeup with the spray pattering on the plastic hoods over their styled hair.

Jake was weaving through the crowd toward her. Alice let the camera rest against her chest—it had a loop around her neck—and went over to meet him halfway. He was wearing jeans and a work shirt, as if he was on a break from the autoshop. Grease smears on the knees of his jeans. Rag sticking out of one pocket. She couldn't guess why he was here and her heart had begun beating strangely. She feared some kind of bad news, some tragedy, but he was smiling as if he had just come to visit.

"Hey," he said. "I called your office. They said you'd be here."

"Hi. Is everything alright?"

"Yeah, more or less. Bella and I are finally divorced. Officially. She's even found an apartment. She's moving in next week. We're selling the house."

Alice blinked at him. Her mouth was partly open. Jake smiled and looked down. He seemed embarrassed and after a while he chuckled and looked up again.

"Just wanted to let you know," he said.

"Why?"

A voice called for Alice from the fountain. She looked back. Her throat was thick and her heart thumping. She turned back to Jake and Jake smiled and started backing away.

"I'll let you get back to work," he said. "Just tell me one thing."

"Yes?"

"Have you gained weight recently?"

"Excuse me?"

"Looking a bit pudgy there," he said with a grin. "Might be time to renew that gym membership, if you catch my drift."

Alice smiled. She was wearing a croptop and she put a hand on her bare and very flat midriff. Jake winked at her and turned and continued across the park toward the road.

—

Sunday morning Bella looked up from the bicycle and saw Alice coming toward her from across the gym. She didn't fall off the bike. Didn't startle. She simply slowed down and smiled through the familiar waves of attraction and took the ear buds out of her ears. Alice smiled as well, dressed in her streetclothes, and stopped beside the bicycle.

"Hey," she said.

"Hey."

"I wasn't sure you'd be here."

"Well, it's Sunday. Sunday is gym day."

"No days off, huh?"

"Not until I get them abs."

Alice chuckled. The two women fell silent for a moment. Bella was just sitting there, curiously calm, wondering what the other woman was doing here. She took the towel from around the handlebars and wiped her forehead with it.

"You here to work out?" she asked the girl.

"No. I came to see you."

"Me?"

"Yeah. Jake came to see me at a photoshoot."

"What for?"

"I don't know. Guess he just wanted to catch up. He said you guys are divorced now. And you're moving out."

Bella looked down at her lap. Alice smiled at her.

"I just wanted to say I'm proud of you," she said. "It's not easy to make big changes in your life. But you did. You never gave up. Took a long time, but you did it. You figured out who you were and you made it happen."

Bella looked up again. Her face was already red but now she could feel it heating even further. "Thanks," she said. "I just wish I had done it sooner. Before I hurt you."

Alice nodded and looked away. Then she sighed and smiled brightly.

"So where's the new apartment?"

"On the Eastside, not far from here."

"I'd love to see it."

"Sure. Anytime."

"Well, how about today?"

"Now?"

"Sure, why not? We could grab lunch and swing by. If it gets late, we could even have dinner together. What do you think?"

Bella blinked. Her throat was throbbing. Alice was smiling and waiting and finally Bella nodded.

"Okay," she said.

"Great," the girl said with a giggle. "I'll go get changed and meet you back here."

Bella nodded and turned on the bike to watch her go. She was wearing designer jeans, tight around the butt, and she paused at the entrance to the change rooms and smiled over her shoulder before disappearing inside. Bella took a deep breath and started cycling again.

After catching a workout together, just like old times, they went for coffee at the Starbucks where Alice used to work. Zafrina had moved on from here as well and the waitresses were all new. They sat at a table and ordered a couple lattes and some lunch. Alice had a roasted tomato and mozzarella panini and Bella had a chicken and black bean salad bowl. It had been a month since they had been in the same room together but they seemed to resume exactly where they had left off. As if the breakup had never occurred at all.

Afterwards they drove to Bella's place and Bella took her upstairs and showed her the apartment. Alice nodded as Bella spoke and moved through the rooms as she herself were a housebuyer. As if contemplating whether to move in. There were still some cardboard boxes laying around, labelled across their sides with markerpen. Books. Clothes. Bella explained that she was really busy at work and hadn't been able to unpack properly. Alice offered to help her right now and before Bella knew what was going on the girl had taken off her jacket and torn open one of the boxes.

By dusk the boxes were empty and thrown in the corner. The bookshelf was stocked. The closet, the dresser. The sun was setting in the windows, filling the apartment with orange light. Alice had taken charge and Bella was now the one following her about. It filled Bella with a peculiar feeling to see Alice making herself at home, critiquing things, suggesting adjustments. It was how she always wished it would be. Alice opened some of the cabinets in the kitchen and the fridge as well and found them mostly empty and asked Bella if she wanted to order in. Bella knew a chinese place not far but first she called Jake and told him she wouldn't be home. Alice noticed and smiled but didn't comment.

They ate the chinese out of boxes while sitting on the sofa. There wasn't much to catch up on. The separation had been short but it was enough to create a longing between them. Sitting slightly apart, not daring to even let their knees brush, not wanting to rush the other, not wanting to send the wrong signal. They had nothing to drink but water and they sipped it like wine and nodded and smiled while the sun continued to descend outside. After a while Bella got up to turn the light on and when she came back she found Alice had shuffled closer to her side of the sofa. When she sat down again they were quite close.

Conversation began to dwindle, their minds wandering. Alice was leaning with an elbow on the backrest, languid, her eyes sweeping up and down over Bella's body. Bella smiled and gestured at the living room.

"So what do you think of the place?" she asked. "Not bad, huh?"

"Yeah, I love it. I could never afford a place like this."

"The rent isn't as bad as you'd think."

"Expenses must be tight just by yourself, though."

"Are you kidding? No kids, no husband. Rent is nothing compared to all that."

"How are they taking it?"

"The kids?"

"Yeah."

"Well, the boys were pissed, but I guess they'll just have to get used to it. Nessie's fine. We've already scheduled one night a week where she can come over and cook for me."

Alice giggled at the reminder of Nessie. "I loved Nessie."

"She loved you too. I think she missed you as much as I did."

They fell silent for a moment at the reminder that technically they were still broken up. Alice paused for a moment, smiling, and then resumed the conversation.

"So they're staying with Jake?" she asked.

"For now, yeah. He's gonna stay in the house while we look for a buyer. I'll be helping out with alimony. I'm gonna miss them so much, but I couldn't take them away from him. Besides, it's me who has to start over. Maybe I'll even have another family. If I ever meet the right girl."

"The right girl is hard to find."

"Yeah. Took me almost four decades. But the hardest part is keeping her. That's the hard part. Finding her is only half of it. Holding on to her, that's the…that's the, uh…"

Bella trailed off, her eyes beginning to sting. Alice smiled and shuffled closer.

"I missed you, Bella," she whispered.

Bella looked at her. "I missed you too."

Slowly the girl leaned forward with her lips. Tentatively. Cautiously. Bella's eyes fell closed and finally their mouths connected. Soft. Warm. Alice's hand was cupping Bella's neck and pulling her closer. Bella moaned and opened her mouth. Alice's tongue came in. Hint of garlic from the chinese food. Huge. Wet. Bella moaned again and used her own tongue to wrap around it.

For a long time they made out there on the couch. Chests heaving. Hands in each other's hair. Alice gradually became more and more passionate. The sounds that came out of her were insistent. Soon she was lifting Bella's top and squeezing Bella's breasts out of her bra. Lowering her mouth to those large swollen nipples and engulfing them between her lips. Bella hissed from the first suckle and moaned and squirmed on the couch as the girl alternated, nipple to nipple, sucking at them and licking and sucking some more, gripping each globe in her tiny hands with those huge mounds all but overflowing through her fingers.

Bella was stroking her hair and moaning and eventually Alice lifted her face. Her eyes huge and pretty. Her lips wet and shiny. Bella looked at them and brushed her thumb over them and then pulled the girl into a kiss. Alice returned it with little whimpers until she finally pulled away.

"Oh god," she breathed. "I missed you so much, Bella."

"Me too."

"I shouldn't have left, but I was just so tired. So tired of being on the side. I didn't want to be on the side. I wanted to be everything to you. I just loved you so much."

"You are everything to me, Alice. Nothing was ever more important to me than you. I was just too afraid to admit it. I was stupid. You have no idea how much I love you."

"Can we be together now? Can we finally be together?"

"Yes. I love you, Alice. I love you so much."

"I love you too, Bella. Mmm. I love you. I love you so much."

Their mouths melded together once more and more moans rose as they made love there on the couch.

—

Afterwards they giggled and put their clothes back on and went shopping for wine and a bedspread. They found something at a department store just before closing, a blue magnolia spread with a danish eiderdown quilt, and they returned to the apartment and showered and ripped the plastic off the mattress and made up the bed in the nude. Bella tucking in the sheets with her heavy breasts swaying. Alice stuffing a pillowcase and watching with a hungry grin. Once the bed was made they applied a puff of perfume and climbed under the covers. Only the lamp was on. Their bodies were clean and smooth as silk and soon they were each slick and wet between their legs. The room was filled with heavy breathing and moans as they stared into each other's eyes and fingered each other under the covers. Heaving. Smiling. Gasping instructions and coordinating the climax until it came to both of them at the same time in a great crescendo of joy, a rapture of the heart, an eclipse of bliss, that left them laughing and sweaty and laying there in each other's arms for a long time. Eventually they got up and put on some clothes, just a sleepshirt each out of the dresser, no underwear, and Bella went into the kitchen and came back with a glass of wine that she handed to Alice. Alice took it and thanked her and together with Bella they sat up in bed and sipped from their glasses. Alice was looking up at the portrait over the bed of that black and white apple with the lipstick mark on it. Bella waited until she was finished drinking and then she took the empty glass and bought them back into the kitchen. They made love one more time, pulling off the shirts and climbing back under the covers, and then they lay there in the lamplight. Cuddled on the same pillow. One of Alice's hands holding one of Bella's breasts like a teddy bear. Stroking it. Flicking the nipple with her thumb. Bella liked it and covered the hand with her own. Alice murmured a sleepy chuckle with her head resting against Bella's chest.

"You know, this really is a nice apartment," she said. "Got room for one more?"

Bella smiled to herself. "You want us to live together? Isn't that a bit fast?"

"I don't think so. I think it's long overdue."

"I think so too. But I don't want you to rush into anything you might regret. Just because I'm moving out, doesn't mean my family doesn't exist anymore. You sure you wanna date someone like me?"

"I wanna do more than date you," the girl said, pinching that soft nipple between her fingers.

Bella gave the hand a playful smack. "Young lady, control yourself."

Alice giggled and raised up a little to look into Bella's face.

"I just want us to be together, Bella," she said.

"Me too."

"So I can move in?"

"Yes."

"And we can be together? Forever?"

"Sure."

"Good. Because I'm sick of patience. I don't want to be patient anymore. I want you all to myself. Maybe everything that happened was my fault. I was never assertive enough with you. I never made you choose. I thought I was being selfless. But you were right. I should've made you choose. I should've let you know how much you mean to me. How much I need you. Because I do, Bella. I love you. No woman has ever made me feel the way you make me feel. I want to be with you for the rest of my life. Okay?"

"Okay."

"So it's alright if I move in?"

"Yes. It's not exactly a cottage in the country, but it'll do, hm?"

"I think it's perfect."

"So do I."

Bella smiled up at her and stroked some small locks of black hair from her eyes. The eyes blinked. They were sparkling with unshed tears of joy and happiness and finally Alice leaned down and captured Bella's lips with her own.

—

AN: Well, there we go. To be honest, it does feel like something is missing, but I can't figure out what. Maybe there should be another chapter or something, or even just an epilogue, but my imagination kind of just stopped right there.

Still, I think it's okay. They made the verbal commitment, which is what they were lacking. From here I think it's believable they'll be alright, but I do wish I could come up with a few more scenes of them living together and just being together. Unfortunately, this was the only climax I could come up with.

Anyway, what did you think? It's far too short to be a novel, obviously, but I think it's pretty good for a short story. I'll keep it tucked away for a month or two and then come back with fresh eyes for an edit or maybe a rewrite to enlarge it. Overall, I think it's a fairly decent attempt.

Finally, this story was for Bobbi. Wherever you are, I hope you're okay.

That's all. Thank you guys very much for reading, and for your support, and I hope to see you soon. :)