The door opened slowly and she quickly pinched her eyes shut, feigning sleep, but she could feel the soft yellow light from the hallway creeping over her naked skin and Shane’s eyes caressing her body all the same.

Shane went to the bathroom. The water ran longer than usual. When she finally felt the mattress sink down behind her, she couldn’t even remember why she was mad in the first place. She pictured Shane lying behind her back, sad eyes staring at the ceiling, and it made her feel really bad. Guilt was back to eat her insides, one bite at the time, and when it got too much she rolled over on her side. To her surprise she found Shane lying on her stomach, eyes shut, same thick lashes touching her cheeks, her right hand curled next to her face on the pillow.

‘Shane?’ She’d never heard herself sounding so vulnerable. Hesitantly she slid her hand into Shane’s. Her fingertips felt unusually cold.
‘Tomorrow okay..? Tomorrow I will talk to Julian, I promise,’ she whispered in the dark, giving Shane’s hand an almost desperate squeeze.

The silence seems to last for fucking hours. When she’s about to give up, an annoyed sigh ready to escape in her throat, Shane wrapped her arms around her tightly, pulling her in close with one long leg draped over her hips. The annoyed sigh came out as a sad whimper instead. Carmen rested her head on Shane’s chest, feeling her heartbeat more than she was able to hear it. Shane threaded her fingers into Carmen’s thick hair and mumbled something in it. She couldn’t hear what she just said, but for now it didn’t matter.

–

She opened one eye lazily and there was Shane, naked but for the white boy-cut briefs she was wearing, drying her hair roughly with the towel in her hand. The fingers of her other hand were going through different items of clothing in her closet. Carmen glanced over at the alarm clock. It read 8:12. That was right, Shane had to work today. Sighing softly she watched Shane in quiet amazement, the way little drops of water slid from her hair down the pale skin of her broad shoulders.