Alice sat at the table just staring intently at the sparkling object lying on the table. She took a skeptical look at Shane and then looked back down, rubbing her eyes a couple of times just to confirm she was not dreaming.

“What do you think Al?”

 “When did you get this?”

“This morning, just before I met you.”

Alice leaned back into her chair and crossed her arms, looking accusingly at Shane. Shane on the other hand couldn’t be bothered as she was busy redialing Carmen’s number. But she could only get her voicemail.

“ You can’t get her on the phone, and you bought an apology gift… You must be in deep shit.”

Shane looked up at Alice with a ‘’ on her face. “Alice. Why do you keep thinking I am in deep shit? Why can’t you think of it as my love.”

“Because… There has to be a reason for stuff like that…”

“Al! For crying out loud, Carmen and I are fine and I just want to show how much I love her.” Shane gritted through her teeth.

“Right…”

“Okay okay… We are fine except that I need to break a little piece of news to her.”

“Ahuh! I knew it.” Alice said with a smirk. She tapped her fingers on the table, waiting for Shane to continue on her little confession.

With a heartfelt sigh, Shane slumped back into her chair, bringing the little sparkling object closer to her and losing herself into her own thoughts.

“Shane!”

Another sigh escaped as she continued to stare at her gift for Carmen. “Well… I need to let her know that I am on really friendly terms with her mother. And that her mother had been the one text messaging me and stuff.”

“Oh my gawd!” Alice shrieked, “ And your girlfriend doesn’t know about this?”

Sadly shaking her head, Shane let out another deep sigh, she didn’t like keeping things from Carmen. And she didn’t know how she would react to the news, but she knew that she couldn’t keep it from Carmen any longer.

“Okay… So let me get this straight. This thing…” Alice waves at Shane’s hand. “This here is to lessen the guilt?”