They both stared at Carmen. Carmen and her broken legs and ribs and shoulder. Carmen and her deep coma. Carmen and her perpetually closed eyes.

“Alright…”, Dante gave in, “…I’ll keep you company, then”.

”…I’d do anything, anything you can dream of
I’d do anything, anything for your love
For your love
For your love…”*

***

The sun was orange across the ocean. Orange and enormous, like one single eye that was wide open on the shore.

Shane and Dante ran on the fresh sand, side by side, glancing at each other. Still running, Dante started unbuttoning his shirt and then pulled it away, tossing it on the beach.

“You… cheater…”, Shane panted through her gritted teeth.

He sneered, jumping to get rid of his shorts.

“…Come on, you’re fucking slow”, he replied, breathing heavily.

Shane chuckled, tossing away her tank top, her naked torso wiped by the wind.

Dante glanced at her and arched his eyebrow, sneering again and concentrating on his shoes.

“Don’t look at me like that. You’re married”, Shane stated, grimacing.

He kept shaking his head, removing his socks.

“I wouldn’t hit on you anyway. You too flat-chested…”, he glanced up again, briefly and smirked, “…but all you need’s a handful, right?”.

“Shut up”, Shane chuckled, walking through the waves, her pants still on.

He heard Dante whistle and turned around and there he was, completely naked and grinning broadly.

“Ta-daaa!”, he exulted.

Shane cringed.

“You’re such a dumbass”, she joked.

He ran to the waves and jumped in, disappearing underwater.

“Well, let’s see if you can swim faster than this dumbass!”, he exclaimed, spitting salty water and swimming away.

“Wait! Cheater!”, Shane yelled, diving into the endless sprawl of blue and struggling hard to reach him.

On the pier, Alice giggled.

“Shane has no chance”.

“Really? Uhm… we’ll see”, Carmen replied. She was comfortably seated in her wheelchair, wearing a white t-shirt and a long skirt. Her legs still didn’t respond well to her orders, but therapy was going good and maybe in three or four weeks she’d be able to walk with the sole support of a stick. Maybe.

“Carmen, Shane’s a woman. She can’t beat a man like Dante”, Alice scoffed.

Carmen smirked.

“First of all, your husband cheated. He wasn’t supposed to swim bare-ass, it’s gross and distracting. And in any event, let me tell you… Shane isn’t exactly a woman…not only, at least”.

“Yeah well, there’s that androgyny thing, but…”, Alice trailed off.

“Alright. Then let’s say that they’re au pair, somehow…”.

Alice shrugged in confusion.

“Whatever. Have a coffee with me until they come back?”.

Carmen looked up and smiled, her eyes happy and shining.

“Yeah, sure”.

The End

***
SOUNDTRACK:
* “Anything For Your Love” (Eric Clapton)