“I should have shaven, at least. I’m sorry for being so scraggy”, I murmur, trying to ease the tension and she chuckles with sadness, caressing my scratchy cheeks in a friendly way.

“Kiss me”, she says simply, and her eyes dart in a strange way. I narrow mine trying to understand.

“Just kiss me, okay?”, she repeats and still I see that look into her eyes. And now I am sure she’s telling me something beyond those simple words.

I bow my head a little – she’s so petite – and Carmen spreads her fingers all over my cheeks, covering, hiding half of my face and resting her mouth over mine. The kiss is chaste, and I would like to keep it that way, but Carmen parts her lips and suddenly her tongue is pushing into my mouth. It’s pushing something into my mouth. The grip on my face tightens a little and finally I get it. Suddenly I get it. She’s trying to pass me something and she has no other way to do it, but this.

So I raise my hands and place them on her face, mirroring her actions and giving her a momentary shelter, because nobody in this room must understand what’s going on or we’ll be done, fucked. In the meantime, I realize that the little object Carmen has just pushed into my mouth is just a few inches long and sharp and metallic. A hairpin, probably. Our only weapon. And I smile a little in the kiss.

Carmen’s hands rest on my chest as soon as the hairpin is in my mouth and the kiss turns chaste again, and I know we’re both relieved. Carmen brushes my shoulders and kisses my cheek, then my neck, and I bury my face in the crook of hers, wondering how much this is going to last and feeling nothing but gratitude and hope and friendship and trust and affection and feeling so extremely proud of her that every other thing just… disappears. No arousal, no excitement, nothing but friendship despite Carmen’s breathtaking beauty and undeniable hotness. I throw a glance to Shane, sure that I’ll find her in tears, and instead she’s looking at us puzzled. And I realize that she knows. She knows that something important has just happened and that has nothing to do with sex or attraction.

Carmen’s hands slide under my shirt and move a little on my naked skin, and she trails the evident ramifications of the ugly scar on my side. I don’t touch her, and when Sanders finally talks, I sigh in relief.

“Okay. Okay, stop. Enough. I am not a pornographer and I don’t want to see you two having sex in my living room”, he says annoyed, “You seem to enjoy it too much”.

“You’re so clever”, I murmur to myself, amused. The guy doesn’t know shit.

We pull back at the same time and Carmen watches me with no trace of embarrassment. Her eyes are simply full of hope and I narrow mine, telling her, silently, that I’ll do my best.

She runs the palm of her hand on my lips and steps back with a sigh, looking down.

“Are you satisfied, Mister Sanders?”, Carmen asks, casually.

Sanders’ eyes shift from her to Shane, then to Carmen again. He smiles.

“I am. The look on your partner’s face was priceless”, he says.

“I bet it was”, Shane murmurs, expressionless, and I am sure there is a double entendre in her words. So, well, yeah, even I am satisfied. I turn my head to Cassandra and I think that I’ll have to tell her about this hairpin thing before she wants a divorce.

“And also, Miss Morales, I have to tell you that, with your kiss of Judas, you just decided who’s gonna be the first real victim of our game”, Sanders adds then, like he’s saying the most normal thing in the world, “See? Loyalty or betrayal… it all depends on the point of view”.

”Soulmates never die
Never die
Soulmates never die
Never die…
Soulmates never die
Soulmates never die
Soulmates never die
Soulmates never die”*

**

SOUNDTRACK:

* “Sleeping With Ghosts” (Placebo)