save room

"This just might hurt a little. Love hurts sometimes when you do it right."

Neneh slammed the door behind her. She found the sound satisfying. It was such a loud, shattering sound, such a startling disturbance of the silence that now invaded this tiny apartment. The satisfaction was fleeting though. The wild rush of emotions that had propelled her from the living room, down the hallway, and into the guest bedroom came rushing back.

So Neneh sat there on the floor beside the bed and crying into the sunshine yellow comforter. She knew she should be thinking. Thinking of all the things he did wrong, all the times he made her cry or annoyed her or frustrated her or disappointed her. But she didn't think. She cried out those emotions, tried desperately to cry him out of her system and her soul. But he stayed. Just like she knew he had stayed in the living room, never moving from the chair, waiting for her to return. Knowing that she would return.

So she pulled herself up off the floor. She walked slowly towards the door, crept down the hallway, and peeked into the living room to see him there. There. In that chair. A wave of relief swept through her as she saw the reflection of herself in his face. The same anguish from the fight. The same fear of their intense relationship. The same conflict of frustration and adoration. It took that one moment to forgive him. For the pain to melt away and the desire to be sitting on his lap overtake her.

She walked back into the living room confidently, but with still tear-stained cheeks. Neneh walked straight to him, kissed him. She told him how she felt in that room crying. Alone and overwhelmed. And she told him that she loved him, and that they would do better. He smiled gratefully and agreed.