Taking a Bite from the Big Apple (Complete)

45

Eight Years Later

Cheryl stepped off the elevator and saw her girlfriend leaning against the doorframe, staring into the apartment. She walked up and wrapped her arms around her mid-section, resting her head on her shoulder.

“That was the last box. We’re all packed up.”

Toni nodded, then sighed.

“It’s just hard, you know? I grew up here…I met you here…I went through college and university here…and now I’m leaving. It’s like a piece of me is staying here with it.”

“You’re only renting it out, baby. We can come back when you finish your residency at the newspaper. And we’ve got a house waiting for us in Manhattan, fully furnished, rented house with a driveway and a garden and everything. And you, missy, got into one of the best residency programs in the country- the New York Times Toni! So you can learn all you need to there, then we can come back here and you can start on your book. This isn’t a forever goodbye to this apartment. It’s a ‘see you later’.”

“We’ve had some good times here…”

“We’ve had the best times here. A wonderful, fantastic nine years. But we’re starting a new chapter now.”

Toni sighed again, she knew Cheryl was right, the past nine years together had been fantastic. After they had graduated college, Toni had started some advanced journalism classes at another school and Cheryl had started interning for a small business that recently opened on Wall Street, where she was gaining lots of valuable experience beofre taking over her parents maple syrup business. When Toni had been offered a place in the residency program at the New York Times, she left her part-time job as a weekly columnist for The Boston Globe, reporting on the financial situation the country and New England are were in, with a human angle - making it relatable to the everyday person.

Fangs had moved to Queens three years previously, when he and Joaquin had broken up, but the two boys had been able to remain close friends and worked together at the same offices, Joaquin as a PA and Fangs as an IT consultant, but the four of them still hung out and went clubbing whenever they could, not letting strenuous work schedules getting the way of their friendship.

Cheryl too was sad to be leaving their home, she’d really grown to love it, but she knew as long as her and Toni were together, she’d be happy. If nothing else, the past nine years of their relationship had proved that.

“You’re right, my love. As ever,” Toni sighed, “So I suppose now we just wait for the people renting to show up and hand the keys over.”

“Why don’t we go for a walk in the park? The new people aren’t here for about another hour.”

Toni grinned, hidden from her girlfriend, before adopting a neutral look and turned in the redhead’s arms.

“I’d love to go for a walk. Stretch our legs out before the drive to Manhattan.

“It’s only four hours,” Cheryl chuckled as they closed the door and walked down the stairs, out of their building and towards the park, “And I’m the one driving. With the ridiculously large trailer behind us because someone freaked out when they thought about someone else sleeping in their bed so now we have to lug it all the way to the next borough.”