“I’m fine….” She felt a sudden dizziness and she bent down until her chest touched her knees.

“Are you always this head-strong?” She heard the trace of irritation in Shane’s voice and she tried to resist.

 “Okay…Carmen just let me have a look,” Shane’s voice softened and she cupped her shoulders and pulled her near to her. She brushed her fringe aside and she was just inches away from her forehead. She could feel Shane’s hot breath, heating up her skin. “I’m going to call my doctor, let him have a look at this,” Carmen was about to voice her refusal when she caught sight of Shane’s grim and stony-faced expression and the queasiness in her made her give up the battle.

“How is she?” “It’s not serious, but in case there’s dizziness, I’m giving a prescription…it’s best for her to get some sleep,” Carmen just looked ahead. They were talking about her as if she was not there but she felt too tired and weak to argue. She felt the heavy weight of her eyelids and her eyes were half-closed when she felt fingers, tenderly brushing the spot where the bump was.

“Lie down,” Carmen could feel hands on her shoulders, gently but firmly pressing her down onto the couch. The last look she had before she lost her battle to keep her eyes open was Shane’s iridescent eyes gazing into hers.

Chapter 11

Carmen woke up and from the windows, she saw that it was already evening and the setting sun had stained the sky red. She got up from the couch and looked at the slightly torn Chanel paper bag placed on the coffee table. There was a note pasted to the side of the paper bag and it simply wrote “Carmen”. She looked into the bag and there was the pink Chanel bag she was looking at this afternoon. She took the bag and knocked on Shane’s door. “Miss McCutcheon…I mean Shane….what is the meaning of this?” Shane was smoking a cigarette, propped against the side of the window. The curtains billowed around her and there was no expression on her face. The light of the setting sun had cast a glow on her face and she looked ethereal and unreal. She cast a cursory glance at the paper bag.