**

She opens the fridge door, grabs the orange juice and drinks straight from the bottle.
I glance at her over my shoulder, grimacing.
“That’s disgusting…”, I mutter.
Her eyes dart in my direction.
“Don’t bust my balls…”, she replies, drying her mouth with the back of her hand.
I shake my head, checking the oven.
“Jeez… I can believe you can really stay here…”.
Shane chuckles joylessly.
“Well, the law says I can. Look it up, tootsie pie”.
I turn around.
“Coming home is the stupidest thing you’ve ever done!”.
“Second stupidest”. Shane closes the fridge door and walks away.
I sigh, rubbing the bridge of my nose.
Right then, the burning smell comes to my nostrils.
I barely have the time to turn towards the counter when my fabulous
– well, not so fabulous –
roastbeef goes up to flames.
I yell in surprise, grabbing a napkin and slamming it on the pot.
But the flames are already high and they set fire to the napkin, the dishtowels hanging from the hood and the hood itself.
“Fuck!” I shout, stepping back and feeling my eyes itch. “Fire! Fire!!!”
Shane’s face appears in the doorframe and her eyes pop out.
“Christ!”, she exclaims, “Step away Carm! I’ll get the extinguisher!”.
She disappears and I can hear her running towards the hallway.
She rapidly heads back to the kitchen, grabbing frantically my shoulder.
“Stay off the way!!”.
“Coming through!” I cough in panic, hiding behind her back.
Shane’s eyes rapidly run across the fire extinguisher instructions for use.
“One: store in a cool place. Two: hold upright, pull pin out”.
She pulls the pin out.
“Ok! Three: stand back, aim away from face!”.
I clasp to her shirt.
“Shane, hurry!”.
“Alright! Ok, ok! All right. Ok, ok!”, she repeats stuttering.
She sprays the foam all over the kitchen.
“Shane! The curtain!”, I yell.
Shane sprays the foam all over the curtains. Even the sane ones.
As the whole room fills with a sticky fog and a nauseous stink, we stare at each other panting in panic.
“Wow…”, Shane pants, “That was close…”.
She swallows, laying the fire extinguisher on the floor.
“It’s over…”, she murmurs, “Thank God I was here!”.
I rub my forehead.
“The whole house could have gone up”.
Right then, Jenny’s face peeps in from the door frames.
“Mrs. Morales, what…”.
Her eyes widen.
“Oh my God!”, she whispers, pressing her hands over her mouth.
“Oh my God… Oh Jesus, I was going home, I didn’t hear the mess… I’m so sorry I couldn’t help…”.
Shane waves her hand in her direction.
“It’s okay Jenny… Don’t worry… It’s okay, we got it…”.
“No… No, I mean…”, Jenny murmurs, as she starts pulling off her coat, “…I’ll get a sponge and start cleaning up…”.
I smile at her.
“No, Jenny. It’s okay. Shane is right. Go home, don’t worry. I’ll take care of it…”.
“Yeah… maybe with a rake… or a bulldozer…”, Shane mumbles.
“Go home, Jenny… It’s okay…”, I repeat, quietly, trying hard not to chuckle at Shane’s tragicomic words.
“Are you sure?”, Jenny’s eyes move from me to Shane.
I just nod my head and she smiles.
“Okay then… Have a good afternoon… And see you tomorrow…”.
“Bye Jenny…”, Shane says absent-mindedly.
When we hear the door close behind Jenny’s shoulders, we find ourselves staring at each other.
“Carmen… “, she starts, hesitantly.
I stop her mid-sentence.
“Thank you, Shane… For your help…”.
She exhales, slowly.
And she smiles a little.
I look away not to see that smile. Because I’d lose myself in it.
So I grab a sponge and start cleaning up.
“I’d like to reach some accord…”, Shane murmurs, “…Time is passing…”.
“I’d love to be done with this, too…”, I reply, staring at the counter.
Shane nods her head.
“Right. If we have settlement to the court, the lawyers get everything… So I’ve come up with a fair solution…”.
She pauses a little.
“You wanna hear it?”.
I sigh.
“Yes”.
Shane clears her throat, grabbing another sponge and starting to help me.
“Now, I understand your point of view. You’ve invested almost five years in this marriage. That’s worth a lot. A tremendous amount. 500.000 dollars”.
I frown, glancing at her.
“How did you arrive at that number?”.
Shane shudders.
“Fairly. You do almost the same things as Jenny”.
I shake my head.
“No. Jenny should make much more… but she’s studying”.
Shane sighs.
“Carmen…”.
“There is no comparison whatsoever between what she does and…”.
“Her salary is a base, so I doubled it”, Shane cuts in, “And that wasn’t enough, and then I tripled it. And that’s how I came up with this figure. 500.000 dollars approximately”.
She stops cleaning and bends her head to meet my eyes.
“I shall give you that in cash. It won’t be easy…”, she chuckles, “…It’ll be harder than hell, but I’m gonna do it…”.
I don’t reply.
“You just have to…. You know, agree to give up the house”.
I don’t reply.
And Shane starts getting nervous.
“You owe me. You’ve gotten more out of knowing me than I’ve got out of knowing you”.
I shake my head, disgusted.
“I’m not even gonna ask you what that means”.
I smash the sponge in the sink.
“I found this house! I bought everything in it!”.
Shane mirrors me, throwing the sponge on the floor.
“With my money! It’s a lot easier to spend it than it is to make it, honeybun!”.
I give her a wicked smile, resting my hands on my hips.
“You might not have made it if not for me, sweet cake!”.
I head towards the door, but Shane grabs my wrist, forcing me to spin around.
“You weren’t even multiorgasmic before you met me!”, she hisses, our noses almost touching.
I narrow my eyes.
“You expect me to keep reassuring you sexually, even now when we disgust each other?!”, I snap.
We stare at each other, breathing heavily.
Then, we cup each other’s face at the same time, kissing feverishly.
Finally.
I’ve been away from her body for just a few weeks and the truth is that…
Well, I can’t stand it anymore.
And Shane neither, or so it seems.
Growling and moaning, we head towards the couch, in the living room, bumping into practically everything across the way.
We fall on the couch, already breathless, Shane’s body all over mine.
I grab the front of her shirt and tear it up.
Buttons jumping everywhere.
“You’re playing dirty…”, Shane murmurs huskily, biting her bottom lip.
“Shut the fuck up…”, I mutter back, grabbing the nape of her neck and kissing her deeply.
Shane’s hands move rapidly on my clothes.
It’s always surprising how she can undress me in less than thirty seconds.
And I am so glad that Jenny is away.
Because I didn’t expect this to happen but, fuck, I want it to happen.
I want it to happen now.
Shane opens my legs forcefully and starts grinding against me.
I can barely keep my eyes open.
Snarling, I bite her neck and scratch her back.
She winces, but her eyes are definitely glorious.
“Do you like this?”, she asks, gritting her teeth.
I purse my lips, trying to keep control.
“No I don’t”, I stutter.
Shane grins.
“You’re a liar”.
Her tongue in my mouth, again.
I kiss her back raking my fingers across her hair.
“You’re liking this more than I do…”, I murmur when we pull apart.
She snakes her hand between my thighs and pushes her fingers inside of me, roughly.
I jolt and moan, a loud moan.
“You sure?”.
I clasp to her shoulders, pushing my hips hard against her hand.
“You’re a fucker…”.
“And you’re a bitch”, she replies immediately.
Then we kiss again.
And we shouldn’t be having sex.
Or maybe, yeah, maybe we should.
And we both know that all this raw arousal is nothing more than a shield.
Because no one of us wants to give up.
We can act like we don’t love each other.
But it really seems like we can’t act like we don’t desire each other.
Shane grunts when my hand reaches her where she is weakest.
She grunts and closes her eyes when I start mirroring her gestures.
I close my eyes feeling the familiar taste of her tongue grazing my lips and for a second.
For just a small, insignificant second.
Everything is perfect.
My eyes snap open.
“I am not giving up”, I whisper, as her mouth goes down on my breasts.
I brush her hair and pull it slightly.
“I am not giving up, Shane”, I repeat.
“I know…I am not giving up either”, she answers in her wolfish voice.
“Christ…”, I moan, leaning my head back as her head starts moving between my legs.
“Do you like me to fuck you?”, she murmurs against my center, her warm breath caressing my core.
I swallow.
“Yes…”.
“Say it again”.
“Yes…”.
“Again…”.
“Shit! Yes! Yes! I like it when you fuck me!”, I moan, loudly.
Her mouth sinks into my body, a growl escaping from the deepest area of Shane’s throat.
I pull her head up as a violent orgasm shakes me, making me shout.
“Come here”, I whisper, kissing her roughly and grabbing her hand and placing it between my legs and scraping her neck and wrapping my thighs around her hips and slowly brushing her center with my fingers.
“Fuck you Carmen…”, she moans.
“Yeah that’s what you’re doing…”.
I can’t help but chuckle.
Her eyes sink into mine.
My eyes sink into hers.
And we both close our eyes, letting our bodies speak all the words we’re unable to say.

End Flashback