Chapter 28

A few days later, Shane was pacing her office anxiously, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, like a broken carillon that can’t do anything else but repeating the same old melody over and over again. Out of tune and stumbling, that was how Shane felt.

She hadn’t had the guts of calling Carmen, after the radio show and after the kisses they had shared. They had been making out in a car like two teenagers, then Carmen had driven her home, and Shane had ended disappearing again. How clever. How smart. How suave.

Shane scoffed bitterly and gnashed her teeth unconsciously, grabbing her cell phone from the desk. She flipped it open, dialed Carmen’s number, stayed still for a second, and then placed the phone back on the desk.

She snorted, then cleared her voice and bravely grabbed the phone again.

She held it into her hand for the longest time, her eyebrows furrowed and her lips pursed, just to put it back on the table maybe for the tenth time that day.

“Fuck”, she whispered, rubbing the palms of her hands on her swollen eyes.

Melissa’s words echoed into her head

If you don’t leave her, I swear to God she’ll lose her job.

and Shane swallowed hard, feeling guilty. A horrendous thought started crawling into her mind.

What if Melissa had seen them in the parking lot? What if she had seen them kissing?

Shane reached for the phone again, in a much more convinced way this time and with the clear intention of calling Carmen and asking her, in a subtle way, if she still had her job.

Right then Helena appeared on the threshold of the room.

“Shane”, she called her out, gently.

Shane spun on her heels and hid the phone behind her back, watching her expressionlessly.

Helena frowned.

“What are you doing?”, she murmured, glancing at her suspiciously.

“Uh? Nothing”, Shane replied hastily, relaxing her shoulders and sitting on her desk casually. She slowly pushed the phone behind a pencil case.

Helena walked in, her pace uncertain. The look on her face said that she was still suspicious.

“Shane…”, she muttered in a warning tone, and Shane scoffed.