Shane looked up from her plate, smiling bashfully back at her.
‘So..,’ Shane cleared her throat, taking a sip of her coffee, ‘Have you like.. I don’t know- decided what you’re gonna say to Julian yet?’ she asked hesitantly, looking at Carmen expectantly.

Carmen looked down in her mug, she could feel the warm waves of wet air settling on the skin of her cheeks and chin. ‘No,’ she said softly, ‘actually I haven’t thought about it at all.’
A minute of silence passed between them and Carmen didn’t dare to look up.

‘Hey,’ she felt Shane’s hand reaching for hers, clasping it tightly, ‘Everything’s going to be okay.’

‘Yeah,’ Carmen whispered, smiling faintly. ‘This is just something I have to do.’ She stood up and gathered the empty plates and mugs from the table and put them down in the sink. She turned on the faucet and put her hand underneath it to gauge its temperature. She felt Shane’s tall body pressing up behind her, chin resting on her shoulder.

‘I don’t want you to do it because you think you have to,’ Shane said, her voice entwined with guilt.

‘No.. it’s not.. that’s not why I’m doing it,’ Carmen mumbled, she turned around to look up at Shane, wiping her hands dry on her robe. ‘You were right,’ she said, fingers playing oddly with the collar of Shane’s shirt, ‘I just need to get it over with, I can’t keep avoiding him for the rest of my life.’ She let out a weak chuckle.

Shane nodded slowly and cupped the back of Carmen’s neck, their foreheads coming to rest against one another. ‘Hey.. look at me..’

Carmen met her eyes and offered her a fragile smile.

‘I’m proud of you,’ Shane whispered against her temple. Carmen let out a faint whimper and sniffled, hands clutching Shane’s hips almost desperately. Shane drew back a little, ‘Are you sure you’ll be OK?’ she asked worriedly.

Carmen nodded and smiled, a real smile this time. ‘Yeah, I’ll be fine, you gotta go baby.’

‘Yeah, I’ll see tonight,’ Shane murmured, leaving a careful kiss on the top of Carmen’s head. She grabbed her cell phone and jacket and made her way to the front door.

‘I love you!,’ Carmen called after her when she had her hand already on the doorknob.

Shane looked up and a big grin slowly spread out over her face, ‘I love you too. Bye.’