She repressed a sob that sounded hopelessly joyful and then, incredibly, she chuckled. I’m paying for all I’ve done. I’m falling in love and look how terrible that is. I’m falling in love with someone that I’m already betraying. I’m paying for all those years of sexual terror, for messing with other people’s lives, I’m paying and I’m falling in love and that’s my saving grace and curse.

Somebody knocked on the door of her hotel room and Shane turned her head, slightly. She was still motionless in front of the mirror, in the hallway.

“Come in”, she said, huskily, and Carmen turned the doorknob silently. When she appeared, she was already smiling. She was wearing a dark blue trouser suit and a white shirt. Her hair was down on her shoulders – long, curly hair, dark dark dark hair – and she looked stunning.

“Hi”, she whispered.

“Hey”, Shane stood up, straightening her shoulders, giving her a cocky smile but there was something comically tragic in the way her green eyes were shining, and Carmen noticed it.

She observed her in silence, resting her back against the closed door.

“You’re ready”, she just ascertained, slowly.

“Almost”, Shane smiled.

Carmen sighed and grabbed Shane’s black tie. It was abandoned on a chair and looked like a sleepy snake.

“Come here”, she said, and Shane felt, again, that hot shiver going up and down her spine.

Nevertheless, she moved a couple of steps forward her. Carmen rested her palm on Shane’s chest – steady, warm – and looked up. Her eyes were beaming. She placed the tie around Shane’s neck.

“Let me do this for you”, she murmured, and her voice tickled Shane’s skin so softly that she had goose-bumps all over her skin.

“Do you know how you to up a tie?”, Shane asked, and Carmen didn’t answer.

“You’re always so full of surprises…”, Shane muttered then, observing Carmen’s hands moving skillfully on the knot.

“And resources…”, Carmen added, and they smiled at each other with a confidence that only belonged to soul-connected people, “…I used to do up my father’s tie when I was a little girl”.

“That’s so cute. You father must be so proud of you”, Shane said, holding her chin up high to grant Carmen more access.