Please forgive me

‘I’m sorry, what?’ Alex felt like her head was spinning. Noises faded into the background as she looked at her girlfriend of 2 years in disbelief. Her voice was shaking as she uttered ‘you can’t be serious! What about us?’ At this point, tears welled in her eyes. Her girlfriend, Stacey, grabbed both of her hands and said softly ‘we can still be together. It’s only a year and then I’ll be back’. Alex pulled away from her, sat on the sofa and started crying. As she sat there she couldn’t help but think why is this happening?

The day had started like any other, she woke up clinging onto the scraps of the quilt enveloping her beautiful girlfriend. She smiled at the sight, grabbed Stacey in a tight hug and kissed the top of the sleeping girl’s head. She lay like that for a few moments before getting up to get ready for the day. After her shower, she returned to the bedroom to find her girlfriend awake and giggling at something on her phone. ‘What are you giggling about?’ She asked, although she already knew the answer. ‘TikTok! There’s a woman being chased by a seagull!’ Alex lay next to her on the bed and watched the video with Stacey, they both laughed and Alex said ‘I’d die if that happened to me, I hate birds!’ Stacey but her phone down on the bed and grabbed Alex by the chin and said ‘please don’t talk about you dying, my heart wouldn’t be able to take it if anything happened to you’. Alex leaned in and gave her a soft kiss and said ‘you softy’ they looked at each other smiling for a moment when Stacey’s alarm went off startling them both. They both laughed at the intrusion and carried on getting ready for work.

Alex loved her job. She had worked her way up from Trainee I.T. Technician to Senior Manager at a great company. She was at the top of her game and had the respect of her colleagues. She had made some great friends in work and socialised with them regularly. Stacey was also happy with her job as a vet. She worked in a small clinic and tended to the pets of the locals for the last four years. The clinic belonged to her dad and she felt lucky that she got to work in the family business alongside her dad, older sister and younger brother. Her mum worked in the office so it was a real family affair. She had a group of friends she met in school and they had been together ever since. Everything was good, until one day her brother came into work and showed Stacey a website with opportunities to work in Australia for a year. He wasn’t yet qualified so it was something he was thinking about for the future but in that moment Stacey thought ‘this is something I could do right now!’. She had always dreamed of travelling to Australia and she probably would have done if she hadn’t met Alex and fallen hopelessly in love with her. She tried to put it out of her mind but it wouldn’t go away. She couldn’t really do it, could she?