“We have to talk,” said Sam seriously.  Carmen’s face dropped, sighing and moving back into the bedroom.  Sam grabbed a tee shirt and a pair of Batman boxers.  Getting into the clothes and going back into the room, seeing that Carmen had slipped on a shirt and was sitting on the bed, looking like she was a five year old ready for her punishment.  Sam sighed.

            “Going to let me down gently?” asked Carmen. 

            Sam laughed, “I was going to let me down gently.”  A pause from the tomboy photographer,  “Carmen, you’re still in love with Shane.”

            “I am not!  God, I wish everyone would stop telling me that, first Rosita, and now you.  I’m over Shane ‘I fuck ‘em and leave ‘em’ McCutcheon.  I just want to move on, and I thought that you might want to do that with me,” said Carmen forcefully.

            “I would, I would… but, I know the whole story, from you, and from Shane.”  Sam sat down on the chair across the room, fingers tented in front of her.  “When I started going out with CJ, she was, well, you’ve seen Jayden?”  Carmen nodded, Jayden was a knock out, and Carmen had seen the pictures of CJ, she’d been even more beautiful.  “She could have absolutely anyone she wanted, and she picked me.  Not just to sleep with, but to be with, in a relationship.  About three months in, she cheated on me, hid it, but I found out.  She told me it didn’t mean anything, but I told her it did, because she’d hidden it.”

            “What did you think she would do, tell you?” asked Carmen aghast.

            “She should have.  I fell in love with the person she was, the anti-monogamous woman that was my wife.  I wanted her to change, I wanted that part of her gone, and it wasn’t happening.  So, I went out and found the first woman that would fuck me, and cheated on CJ.  Then I broke up with her because I felt bad, we spent three miserable months hating each other, hating being apart and hating that we were to fucking immature to deal with our feelings like adults.”

            Carmen sat there, watching Sam tell the story calmly. 

            “Then, I figured out that I wanted her more than I wanted her to change.  I accepted her, I wanted her, and I took her, the good, the bad, the ugly, the painful.  And you know what?  That chance that I took, it was the best thing I ever did in my life.  I got a life time of love, and a son that I wouldn’t have had otherwise.”

            “Why are you telling me this?” asked Carmen, wondering if Sam wanted some open relationship where they fucked who they wanted and just flaunted it in front of each other.

            “Because last night when you came to bed, I had every intention of coming to bed with you and waking you up, and fucking you.  That was until Shane showed up at the door looking for you,” said Sam softly.  “Carmen, don’t try and change Shane, love her, you fell for the player, if you give her the time, the space and the love, she’ll be who you want her to be, without having to change.”

            Carmen stood up, looking oddly at Sam, tears coming to her dark eyes, “Shane was here?”

            “Yeah, she wanted to know if you were in my bed, and she left looking like a wounded puppy.  Carmen, Shane loves you and I saw that in her eyes last night, I’m just saying that you should give her one last shot at the happiness that I had with CJ,” smiled Sam.  “So go, find her, see if you can fall in love with the whole Shane, not the Shane you wanted her to be.”

            Carmen grabbed Sam, kissing the tomboy on the lips, tears spilling from her eyes, wetting her cheeks, “Thank you, Sam.  For being the absolute most wonderful woman I’ve ever met.”

            With that, Carmen dashed out of the room, her jeans flying in her hands as she rampaged down the stairs and out the door. 

            Sam sat down, taking a long deep breath, letting it out slowly, “Good luck, Carm.  You’re going to need it.”