“Open baby” Carmen said as she scooped a spoonful of cereal and brought it up to Shane’s lips. Shane removed her lips from Carmen’s temple and leaned in obediently opened her mouth. Deliberately tilting the spoon slightly so that some of the milk dripped down the corner of Shane’s mouth, Carmen chuckled as she brought her head up to lick away the trail before Shane had a chance to wipe it away.

“You just wanna lick me, don’tcha.” Shane quipped with laughter in her voice.

“Yeap.” Making no attempt to hide her intentions, Carmen stole a kiss at the corner of Shane’s mouth.

Shane shook with quiet laughter, blissfully basking in the antics of her girlfriend. The little pecks Carmen was putting around her lips slowly weren’t enough to satisfy her and Shane sought to deepen the kisses. And the bowl Carmen was holding was annoyingly in the way. Shane guided Carmen’s hands to the table to put it down, and then drawing both of her arms around her own neck so that she could kiss her girlfriend properly. Carmen willingly complied and parted her lips just slightly to give Shane the access she needed. With the invitation, Shane slid her tongue into Carmen’s mouth and ran it across the back of Carmen’s teeth before seeking out the tongue. Shane pulled out of Carmen’s mouth and ran her tongue across Carmen’s lips before she..


“Hey you guys”

Without looking up, Shane murmured a lazy “hey” as she continued to nibble on Carmen’s bottom lip. Jenny smiled at the sight she was so accustomed to every morning and set about to prepare her own breakfast.

Finally, as Jenny sat down with her cereal and her juice across the table, Carmen reluctantly pulled away out of sheer courtesy and returned her attention to her cereal. She flashed Jenny a bright smile as Shane leaned in to nibble on her ear.

“Aww I am glad you guys worked it out.”

“Yup, we did.” Carmen answered truthfully as she turned to look at Shane, “Didn’t we baby?” Shane just planted a kiss onto her lips as a reply. With a huge grin on her face, Carmen turned her attention back to Jenny, “And thank you.”

“Okay, I gotta go now. Need to beat the morning traffic if I wanna get to the studio on time.” Shane said as she reluctantly pulled away from Carmen and stood up.

“Where are you going?” Jenny asked as she had become accustomed to.

“Studio call, doing Jordana-something today.”

“Doing baby? Aww. I know you are desperate but” Carmen pouted playfully.

Shane shot her girlfriend an angry look mockingly. She leaned in for a kiss as Carmen laughed. Crossing the table to kiss Jenny on the temples, Shane gathered her jacket and her things before making her way out of the door.

“Bye!” Jenny called out. As she heard the door close, she asked Carmen seriously, “Everything really okay now Carmen?”

“Yes, Jenny,” Carmen answered with relief in her voice. “We had a long talk last night. And even though we can’t change the world, or help my condition, at least we have each other. I love her and she loves me, that is all that matters.”

Jenny stretched her hand across the table to give Carmen’s hand a squeeze. The non-verbal support was massive for Carmen, and she wished that she had the same support from her family.

“Oh god! I have to call my mother. She is probably freaking out and calling the police by now.” Carmen suddenly realized that amidst all the commotion yesterday she had forgotten to make that daily phone call she had promised her mother.

She rang the house but there was no answer. There was always someone at the house and therefore not possible that no one answered. Thinking she might have dialed the wrong number, Carmen tried again just as the doorbell rang.

Jenny mouthed an “I’ll get it” to Carmen and stood up to get the door. Carmen frowned, she tried re-dialing a few times but there was still no answer. All kinds of worrying thoughts went through her mind and just as she was about to dial her sister Olivia’s number, Jenny came into the room and announced, “Your family’s here.”

Her heart stilled for a moment before starting to race in breakneck speed. Her family had just missed Shane by a hair, and it was too close for comfort. She tried to regain her composure as Jenny watched concerned. Carmen attempted a weak smile to reassure Jenny as she took a deep breath. Trying not to worry too much, she made her way into the living room.

“Momma, I was trying to call you, what are you doing here?” Carmen smiled as best as she could while waving the phone for emphasis. Standing there in her living room with her mother was her sister Anna and her brother Rodrigo. Carmen hugged each of them, lingering the longest in the arms of her mother as the older woman scolded, “You promised a phone call everyday. But you didn’t call last night. Anna got worried, Roddy misses you and I am here to smack your butt.”

Carmen looked at her mother giggling as Roddy added, “Yeah, momma couldn’t eat or sleep the entire night.”

“Aww, momma” Carmen hugged her mother again out of appreciation.

Carmen started assuring her family that she was fine, making up excuses as to why she didn’t call the day before and explaining Jenny’s role in the house while her family started nosing around the living room.

After living with Shane for about a year, Mercedes nagged and grumbled about not having seen the living conditions that Carmen was in. Carmen had wormed her way out of that one, just like she had avoided the subject of introducing Shane. But now, this one little slip up and her smart mother jumped the opportunity to gain the upper hand again.

Mercedes headed straight for the photo frames hanging by the bookshelf and Carmen started panicking, not knowing if any of their pictures were there. She quick-stepped her way towards Mercedes, trying to stop her and if that failed, deny everything to the end. But as she looked at her photos, she heaved a deep sigh of relief.

There were only Jenny’s photos on display, one with each of her friends. ‘Oh shit!’ Carmen thought as she spied a photo with Shane and Jenny. She bit her lip nervously hoping that Mercedes didn’t notice. Then she realized that Mercedes wouldn’t know that was Shane because they had never met.

“I wanna see your room, Carmen!” Anna shrieked excitedly.

“No!” Carmen shouted out almost on reflex. “I mean It’s a mess, and and”

“Carmen? I’m going off to work now. See you later.” Jenny chose an excellent moment to distract everyone. After giving Carmen a quick peck on the cheeks, she turned to Carmen’s family members and sweetly bid them goodbye. “Nice to meet you, Mrs. Morales, Anna, Rodrigo.”

As she turned and waved from the door, she shot one last sympathetic look at Carmen before closing the door behind her.



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Shane stood outside of the office’s main entrance and contemplated on whether or not to get inside. She was a tab early for her gig, and she decided to pop by Alice’s office across the street from her studio and check if she was okay. She was apprehensive, feeling partly to blame for whatever was going on with Dana. But Shane braced herself and thought that no matter what, she should be there for her friend.

“Hi, my name is Shane McCutcheon, and I am here to see Miss Alice Pieszecki please.” Shane asked the receptionist of the posh looking office. At first the woman decidedly ignored her, but when she looked up from her computer screen, her expressions changed from slightly annoyed to a softer almost flirty look.

“Sure, Miss McCutcheon.” Shane could have swore she saw the receptionist wink, but after being monogamous for so long, Shane had become really uncomfortable with extra attention showered to her by strangers. She cleared her throat as she pretended not to notice the receptionist blatantly running her eyes up and down her while making the internal call to Alice.

The heat of the stare burned right into Shane’s back and at the moment, the doorway seemed like a very appealing place to head to. ‘Maybe looking for Alice is not a good idea.’ Just as Shane was about to step out of the office, Alice walked out of the coded internal door and called out to her.

“Shane! What are you doing here?” Alice looked truly surprised.

“I just thought I come and see how ya doing. I’ve got” Shane stole a quick glance at her watch, “a good twenty minutes to spare.”

“I’m fi” Alice started, but she stopped in mid-sentence as she realized that the receptionist was still staring at Shane.

Grabbing Shane by the arm, Alice threw out a “Thank you, Margie.” before ushering Shane down a corridor. The R&R room that they finally stopped in had a couch and Alice slumped down on it, pulling Shane down with her.

“I’m fine, Shane. Really I am.”

Shane was not at all convinced. There were dark rings all around Alice’s eyes, and she looked like she had been crying all night. Shane shot Alice a ‘Really’ look.

“Seriously, I’m fine! I just don’t understand why Dana is acting this way.” Alice whispered in defeat.

“I’m sorry that everything turned out the way it did, Alice. Really, I am.”

“No, don’t be, really, I’m sorry I ran out. I just couldn’t take it anymore, ya’know.” Alice slumped further into the cushions. “What happened after I left?”

“Well, I snapped. Al, I snapped really bad. I just couldn’t take the pressure anymore. And Carmen got hurt because of me.”

Alice stared at Shane with her jaws agape. She knew Shane was under a lot of stress and she was angry with Dana for causing so much unwarranted tensions.

“I What is wrong with her?” Alice sighed in an exasperated manner.

“It’s okay, Alice.” Shane wore a big contented grin, “In a really weird way, I am glad she broke me. I had a good talk with Carmen last night. We thrashed everything out.”

“You did!”

“Yeah.” Shane said, sounding like she wasn’t going to elaborate further. But the inquisitive nature in Alice wasn’t going to let Shane off that easily. Her own problems were forgotten now that she had something else to focus on. “And?” Alice said, putting exaggerated stress on the word.


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