"Oh," Carmen spun around, raising the shirt slightly, "just some touch ups on this. I got these for my father." She glanced over her shoulder to watch Shane as she examined the ink.

"Oh? Any reason in particular?" Shane was hoping to provoke some good ole’ fashioned conversation, though something was telling her she wouldn’t need any excuses to get Carmen to stay for a bit. Her eyes followed the swirling pattern of the tattoos circling Carmen’s firm hips. They must have hurt like hell to get done but they looked amazing.

"He was some kind of Mayan medicine man. He died in a motorcycle accident before I was born. I have these to honor him," Carmen explained, lowering the waistband of her jeans a little more to accentuate the point. She didn’t need to do this, but she did it anyway. Carmen had a nice ass, and she knew it.

"Hmmm," Shane hummed appreciatively. Break me off some a’… Carmen turned around and Shane realized she must have sounded like a cad. "I mean, hmmmm," she stated with a little more enthusiasm and interest. Making eye contact with the other woman, she said, "They’re beautiful." They stood for a silent moment, just looking at each other, before resuming their conversation. There was something in that contact, some glimmer, that told Shane this girl might be worth some effort. Carmen might want to get intimate, but it didn’t mean Shane had to go along with it.

Besides, she could always take her out. On a date.

Date.

The very word made Shane desperately uneasy. She suppressed her anxiety and tried to tell herself that there was nothing to be afraid of.

Carmen gave her another smile, knowing she wasn’t talking about the tattoos. She had Shane’s undivided attention, and genuinely liked her laid back but earnest disposition, and didn’t mind her full mouth or sly green eyes, either. A girl could get used to this. "What did you get?" she asked.  Tattoos always told stories, and the kind of story that’s worth getting permanent ink on your skin is always worth hearing.  She was hoping Shane might share something with her about herself.

Shane’s mind blanked entirely. She stared for a moment, caught once again by the other woman’s gaze before it clicked. "Oh! Tattoos. Right. Uh, this swallow," she raised her arm over her head to show Carmen the fresh ink in the shallow of her triceps. Shane coughed and berated herself silently for having turned into the biggest dork over a girl she had just met. Shane’s existence was easier when she only focused on flirting and sex. While she’d always known how to talk to women, how to be charming and make them interested, this whole "turning a new leaf" thing was screwing with her mojo.