“I thought the note was perfectly clear,”

“I don’t want this….I mean just because I took a knock on the head doesn’t mean you have to give this to me……It’s part of my job,” Carmen placed the bag on the corner of the bed.

“I’m not giving it to you because you took a knock on the head. When you look at it, there was something in your eyes. Something that tells me you desire this……and I just thought I would it buy for you,” she said with a shrug, still refusing to meet Carmen’s gaze.  She had a faraway gaze in her eyes, as if her thoughts were consumed by something else. “I can’t accept this…” To Shane, it might be nothing more than spending a fraction of her money on something but to Carmen, if she accepted this, it had a whole different meaning. “I’ll leave it here until I’ll ready to accept a present like this,” Shane narrowed her eyes and she could tell Shane was perplexed at her use of words. Let her wonder, Carmen thought, because she didn’t have to know. Didn’t have to know that the day she accepted the present meant that she had allowed Shane to get closer to her heart than she had ever intended.

Shane looked at the paper bag on her bed. She had bought it on impulse when she saw the look in Carmen’s eyes. She couldn’t remember what it felt like to desire something, to see something you like and feel pleasure gushing throughout your body. It was the primary reason why she had bought it. Money to her was simply a convenience. When she bought things, she bought them on a whim, without having to think twice. It had become a habit to buy things for people around her, just to see their delighted faces, as she had ceased to be surprised or delighted by anything money could buy. A pity that Carmen took that as an affront…..because Carmen was clearly enthralled by that bag in the shop and Shane was more than happy to spend that money just to recapture the look of longing and want in Carmen’s eyes.

Chapter 12

 Will heard the ringing of his cell phone and recognized it as Dave’s number. He answered it.

“Mr. Jansen, I believe there is something important you have to know…”

“What Dave?”

“Miss McCutcheon seems to treat Carmen differently,” Will listened in silence as Dave related the incident that happened today.

“I got it Dave, continue to keep tabs on them,” He hung up and leaned back in his seat. If something had given cause for Dave to be concerned, then there must be something happening between the both of them. When he hired Carmen, he had thought of her as a level-headed person, someone who would definitely be turned off by Shane’s behavior. He hadn’t expected her to stay long and the clause had been a precautionary measure. He didn’t think that he would need to use it one day. Carmen was someone pretty enough but not the kind Shane regularly went for, therefore he had been so insistent in hiring her. It was a bet he waged with himself and apparently he had lost. He didn’t think of Carmen as a threat but now she was, in more ways than one. He looked at the framed picture of Shane on his desk . All these years, women had come and gone in Shane’s life and he was the only consistent figure beside Shane.

He didn’t just stay because of Shane’s talent. He had stayed because Shane’s loneliness mirrored his own, because they were two of a kind, because he loved Shane, even though he had always viewed love as a commodity, readily available for barter and trade. He put the picture face-down on his desk. He would wait first, and then he would strike. This was what he had to do for Shane, and himself.