Blue Plaid

No Fear

In which Tyson faces his biggest fear.

//

What turned out to be one of the sadder days of my life started just like any other. Stella was still asleep when I woke, her head resting on my bare chest, her hand splayed across my stomach and the corners of her lips lifted just slightly in a smile.

Normally, I loved watching her sleep, looking completely content and peaceful, but in fourteen hours, I would be getting on a plane and flying to a different continent and I wanted to make the most of the time I had left with the two people I loved the most. I had wanted to say my goodbyes the night before so that I wasn't a complete mess at the airport, but Stella wouldn't have it, refusing to say goodbye until the last possible minute, so instead, I had taken her out on a date. Dani had watched Cooper and Stella and I went to dinner and talked and laughed like it was just any other evening and took a long walk through Central Park, holding hands and kissing in the moonlight because we were young and in love before coming home to kiss our son goodnight, after which we indulged in each other's bodies until neither of us could move.

And now it was the morning of my flight and Stella was sleeping against my chest just like she had every morning since we started sleeping together and all I could think was that I had no idea how I was going to leave her and Cooper behind.

At the time, the culinary program seemed like an amazing opportunity, and seeing as I wasn't currently employed, perfect timing. And even though Stella had always been nothing but supportive, even after discovering where the program was held, I had to admit that I was scared about how the distance would affect our relationship.

It was only three months. That's what I kept telling myself. It wasn't as though Stella was going to fall out of love with me in three months. But considering that the entire past year had been a sequence of rapid fire life changing events, it wasn't entirely improbable that I would return from Florence to find that Stella no longer looked at me with the same adoration in her eyes.

Not wanting to ruin the moment with dark thoughts of the future, I decided I would deal with the shattering of my heart if the time came and leaned down to press my lips to the top of Stella's head, an action which caused her to slowly but surely shake herself awake.

She tilted her head back to look up at me, a small smile lifting the corners of her lips as her eyelids fluttered open, her voice soft and deep. "Good morning."

"Good morning, gorgeous," I replied, leaning down to press my lips to hers. This would be the last time for months that I would get to wake up with her in my arms and I intended to savor every second of it.

"That was nice," she sighed contently when we pulled apart, lightly scratching her fingertips against my chest. "Only a preview of what the rest of the day holds, I assume?"

"Whatever you want, babe," I grinned, kissing her once more.

Laughing when we parted lips again, she rolled to the side. "Come on, we should get Cooper fed."

Following her instructions, I pushed back the covers on my side of the bed and swung my feet to the floor, reaching down to find my discarded boxers and step into them, tugging them over my hips as I stood before striding towards the door to see whether Cooper was awake.

We didn't have a plan for the day because we thought making one would make my imminent departure seem too official. Plus, we didn't want Cooper to sense that anything was wrong. I had told him that I would be leaving for a few months, but he didn't really understand what that meant, so we figured it was best to just keep him happy for as long as possible.