“What’s that?”, Shane asks, and her voice is worried.

Dante shrugs his shoulders, taking another sip of his coffee.

“A kid delivered it. I asked him who sent him and he answered that an unknown man handed him twenty bucks just to put that envelope on your doorstep”, he answers huskily.

“Did you already check what it is?”, Shane asks, and Dante nods slightly, staring at him.

“Yeah. I’ll leave you two alone. I gotta check Marshall, he’s still not answering to my calls”.

Despite his massive body, he walks away soundlessly and we’re alone.

Shane lets go a long, shaking breath and sits at the table, placing a hand on the envelope. She throws me a quick glance and I nod my head, crossing my arms over my chest and fighting the urge to bite my nails.

When Shane picks up the envelope, I realize that it’s heavy. She swallows, extracting a pile of photographs. Dozens of photographs. Black and white. White frame. They look professional and they look scary.

I move closer to Shane and stop right behind her back, placing my hands on her shoulders. I brush them slightly, encouraging her to face the new inning of the fucking game.

As soon as she starts placing the pictures on the table, side by side, my breath itches. We are looking at ourselves.

There is me, shopping at the local mall. I’m wearing a white dress and I look relaxed. There’s Shane opening the door of his Jeep, outside WAX. There’s me, again, outside Clockwork Studios in downtown. Me drinking an orange juice at the Planet. Me turning the key into the keyhole of our house. Me talking with my mother and my sister. Me visiting my father’s grave in the cemetery. Me, spinning at the Planet.

And then again, Dante holding Cassandra’s hand outside what I presume is an italian hospital. They are smiling to each other and they look happy. I guess the picture has been taken when Cassandra had already discovered that she was pregnant. Which means that these people have been following us all for more than four months, now.

There’s Shane. Shane sipping a beer at the Planet, Shane wincing at Alice while she’s laughing and grabbing her forearm. Shane skating on the half pipe, at WAX. Shane having dinner with me and my entire family. Shane and me talking in front of my mixer, at night.

And finally, Shane and me having sex in her car. Last night. Me straddling her, my legs naked, my mouth open. Shane’s hair wild, her eyes full of lust, her hands on my ass and I feel like we’ve been abused.

Shivers go down my spine and I grab her shoulders harder.

“Fuck…”, Shane hisses between her gritted teeth. And suddenly I understand why Dante left. Because he was embarrassed. He was embarrassed because of these photographs and because the last one is the worst of all.

Shane is kissing another woman.

TBC

Soundtrack: "Here With Me" (Dido)