Taking a deep breath, Simone grabbed the small card that was on her desk, along with a pen, and headed for the kitchen. She sat quietly on one of the bar stools; the only one of the 3 that didn’t make any noise, and bent down over the card, twirling the pen in her fingers. She laughed to herself; this was probably the one time in her life that she struggled to find the words.

 After a long ten minutes, she decided that she didn’t have enough space to transcribe her feelings, so she settled for a small, shaded in heart in the bottom left hand corner. She left the note neatly beside the little black box, and remained seated for a few minutes, running over a checklist in her head to make sure she had everything; she wanted to try and make this evening as romantic as possible. She groaned softly, realizing she didn’t have any candles.

Rolling her eyes, she headed for the bathroom, she was sure she would be able to find some in there. She flicked the light switch on, scanning the edge of the bathtub, spotting a cluster of unused candles. Simone turned towards the mirror once again to check her reflection. She sighed heavily at the cluttered mess of bottles littering the shelves beside the bathroom cabinet. Giving no extra thought to the odd arrangements, she stepped from the bathroom, turning the light off on her way out and closing the door behind her.

 She found a lighter easily enough; she had been trying to stop smoking for a while now, but never seemed to be able to get very far. She lit the candles quickly, spacing them across the small table. She checked her watch, it read 8.02pm. Taking a deep breath for the last time and composing herself, she creeped over to the bedroom door and knocked lightly. She waited a few moments before pushing the door open.

  "Amanda?"

She sat carefully on the bed, taking Amanda’s palm and gently trailing her fingertips across the smooth skin. Simone smiled to herself, it was their way of waking each other up without causing a fuss. When she didn’t stir, Simone leant forward and softly whispered her name into her ear. She bit her bottom lip slowly, pushing her soul mate’s hair away from her face. Amanda’s smooth skin was a light color, her normally full lips a stained blue color.