Then the moment was over and the image had been banished from her mind. She threw a glance at Shane’s leather blazer, at the black, buttoned shirt under it, at the leather pants, and, eventually, she nodded.

“Carmen is an Account Manager. She works at ApplePie’s ADV…”.

“Okay”, Shane muttered.

“…She’s twenty-nine. She likes music, literature and poetry… She likes incense and goes jogging every morning”.

“Where?”, Shane asked.

“In the park, I guess…”, Melissa winced.

Shane smirked, raising her eyebrow.

“You guess?”.

“Well, yeah….”.

“Okay”, Shane shrugged, “Do you have a picture of her?”.

“Not here”, Melissa shook her head.

Shane licked her bottom lip pensively.

“Alright. My fee is 3,500 dollars. 2,000 now, the other 1,500 when the job is done”, she stated calmly, staring at her.

Melissa extracted a cheque book from her purse.

“Can I pay you by cheque?”, she asked.

Shane nodded her head.

“Of course”.

Melissa took a pen and wrote down the amount with her slightly trembling hand.

**

When Shane saw Carmen for the very first time, Carmen was drinking a sip of water from a little granite fountain strategically placed in the hallway of ApplePie’s ADV.

It was two days after Shane’s conversation with Melissa Coles Smith.

Shane had just walked through the huge glass door and was about to move another step when she saw her. To be honest, she had no idea of what Carmen looked like, but in that very moment, in that perfect Polaroid of a moment, she knew it was her.

She stopped right where she was and ducked her head to a side, studying the young woman just a few feet away from her.

Carmen was undeniably amazing. Her whole body was flawless and there was something in the way she moved, in the way she flipped a strand of brown hair behind her ear, in the way she bent to touch the crystalline spout with her lips, there was something… And Shane didn’t know how to define it or name it. But it was definitely something and Shane found herself transfixed, her lips slightly parted.

Every other people in the agency just… disappeared, for a second, and every move Carmen made, was in slow motion.

Nothing changed into Shane’s heart, not then at least, but something definitely changed into her eyes. They were softening and she didn’t even know that. Maybe she didn’t even perceive that, but every feature on her face just relaxed and she forgot to breathe for some seconds.

Then Carmen turned her head and saw her, and smiled.

Shane closed her mouth and offered her a small, polite grin. Carmen wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, in a delicate and perfect way, and walked over.

“Good morning”, she said, her smile growing bigger, her eyes soft and gentle. She tilted her head to a side, frowning a little, “May I help you?”.

Shane shoved her hands into her pockets and shifted from foot to foot.

“Well, I was looking for an Account Manager or something… I own a club and I would like to promote it somehow, I guess I need merchandise and advertisements and all of that stuff you usually do here and I have no idea of –“.

Carmen giggled and her eyes softened even more.

“I’m the right person, then. I’m the Account Manager here and my name is Morales. Carmen Morales”.

Shane went silent and blinked her eyelids, surprised. Maybe even dazzled by Carmen’s beauty.

She just nodded, smiling, and Carmen giggled again seeing her slight discomfort.

“What’s yours?”, she asked, gently.

“What?”, Shane muttered, distracted.

“What’s your name”, Carmen repeated, amused.

“Oh!”, Shane patted her forehead, “Shane. Shane McCutcheon”.

“Okay, Miss McCutcheon. Follow me?”, Carmen replied, and made that gesture again. That tilting her head to a side and smirking that soft, amused smile.

Shane gave her a lopsided look.

“Sure. But please, call me Shane”, she said as Carmen turned around. Shane’s look fell on her perfect ass, and her perfect way of swaying it as she started walking.

Carmen laughed.

“Okay. Call me Carmen, then”.

TBC