Marry me, Shane thought.  She loved guacamole. 

Whoa. Marry me? You don’t like guacamole THAT much. “Oh, you’ll have to make it for me sometime,” she replied smoothly, without letting on to her crazy little thoughts.

“Yeah,” the other girl said, resting her chin in her hand. She definitely liked that. If Shane wanted a “sometime”, there’d have to be a “next time”. Unwittingly, she let loose another thousand-watt smile.

“What?” Shane asked.

“What?”

“You’re smiling, like, really big, something funny?” Shane smirked at her while biting into another taquito.

“Oh, nothing,” Carmen said through her smile. That was a lie, she really wanted to tell her how cute and sexy she thought Shane was, how she wanted her number, how she wanted to see her again. Those kinds of things.

They stayed there, eating and talking, until well after nightfall. Shane glanced at her watch, surprised to see it was near ten. “Wow! When did we get here? Like 6:00?” she exclaimed.

“Oh crap! My mom is probably freaking out right now!” Carmen exclaimed, “I’m parked at the shop, are you there too?”

“Yeah…I kinda don’t want to leave,” Shane admitted, despite herself. She had impressed herself. Nearly four hours of engaged, entertaining discussion with a beautiful woman who she did not feel pressured to have sex with. Desire, yes. Pressure, no. It was a relieving change.

“All of my entertainment needs, eh?” Shane said with a waggle of her eyebrow.

"Shut up," Carmen said playfully, giving the other woman a light punch to the shoulder. 

Shane tucked the card in her back pocket and produced a random post-it note. She scribbled her number on the back with a pen from Carmen’s purse. Side-by-side, they walked back to the tattoo parlor. The parking lot was lit by a few flickering lights, clouds were rolling in, and the smell of them hung in their air.

The two women stood, facing each other, in front of Shane’s jeep.  Her palms started to sweat.  Do I shake her hand, give her a hug, a pat on the back, a goodnight kiss…?

Apparently answering her questions, Carmen pulled her into a hug, giving her an affectionate squeeze around her ribs. Shane likewise looped her arms around the other woman’s waist, which lingered there as they pulled apart. They looked at each other for a moment. Carmen studied the way Shane’s jaw met with her ear and curved down to her neck. Shane was watching the way the dim lights caught in Carmen’s eyes.