“Ah! There you are!”, he shouted.

He was sweating profusely and his hair was a mess. Half of her shirt was hanging outside his jeans and it wasn’t buttoned correctly.

Shane placed her forefinger on her lips, in a worldwide famous gesture and Mark swallowed, standing up straight and straightening his shoulders.

“Come in”, she just said in a quiet tone.

Mark plopped on the chair in front of Shane’s desk and covered his face with his hands. He shook his head repeatedly and Shane thought that it was a mixture of denial, frustration, disappointment and rage.

She sat down at her desk and lit a cigarette. She didn’t talk.

“How did it happen?”, Mark sobbed, his voice sounding muffled and chocked.

Shane sighed.

“You know how it happened. I don’t need to be more accurate”.

Mark’s hazel eyes darted behind his hands.

“What if you’re fooling around me?”.

“I am not fooling around you”.

“What if she was just sleeping?”.

“I am not fooling around you”.

“What if nothing happened between the two of you?”.

“Mark, sorry to disappoint you but I fucked your girl all night. Okay?”, Shane stated curtly, and Mark swallowed hard, again.

He winced.

“It wasn’t necessary…”, he moaned.

“It was. And you know that. This is how I work and you knew that right from the start”.

“…I mean, a kiss would have been enough…”.

“Not for you. Even now, you’re in complete denial”.

“…You should have informed me that Jenny was about to…”.

“About what? About to let me fuck her like there was no tomorrow?”, Shane interrupted him.

Mark watched her with begging eyes.

“You don’t really mean that”.

“I do”.

“No, really, it can’t be true”.

“It is”.

“Is that what she told you? To fuck her like there was no tomorrow?”, he sobbed.

Shane didn’t reply. She just rested her back against her chair and watched Mark with sympathetic eyes.

Mark’s hands were trembling as he extracted the money from his wallet. He placed bill after bill on the desk, his lips pursed.

“Well… I guess… I guess I’ll have to cancel the wedding, then…”, he stuttered.

“Do as you like”, Shane murmured dryly.

She didn’t want to deal with the consequences of her job. She was out of the game when the woman decided that she wanted to fuck her or that she didn’t want to fuck her – and that last option happened rarely. What happened next was not her business, nor problem.

She just wanted Mark to pay her and get out of her office, nothing less, nothing more.

Mark dried his eyes with the sleeve of his shirt and put the wallet back into his pocket.

He took a sniff and clenched his jaw, in a vain attempt to regain his composure.

“…So…”, he muttered croakily, “…What do you always say, when it’s over? ’Tried and True’, right?”.

Shane smiled bitterly and nodded.

“Yeah, tried and true, Mark. Sorry”.

He took another sniff and stood up.

“Alright”, he whispered, his head bowed.

“Have a good day, Mark”, Shane said simply, staring at him.

Mark nodded and walked to the door. His pace looked exhausted.

On the doorstep, he ran into a woman. Her fist was already raised in order to knock on the door.

Mark looked at her as if she was a ghost. Then, he bowed his head again and exited the room.

“Sorry…”, the woman murmured throwing him a glance. Mark didn’t answer. He just disappeared in the club.

“Good morning”, Shane saluted the woman, standing up with a polite smile.

The woman moved some steps towards her and blinked her eyelids nervously. They shook hands, Shane in her usual relaxed way, the lady much more uneasily.

She pointed at the door.

“Was he a content client?”, she chuckled joylessly.

Shane smirked.

“Yeah, so to speak…”, she replied sitting at her desk again and motioning to the woman to take Mark’s place.

Shane observed her. She was beautiful. She had a milky skin and long dark hair. Her iris had a warm tone of green.

“What’s your name?”, Shane asked politely.

“Melissa Coles Smith. Are you Shane McCutcheon?”.

Shane nodded.

“What can I do for you?”.

Melissa blushed a little, looking down.

“Well… Someone told me that you… test people. Is that true?”.

She looked up again and Shane gave her another tiny smile.

“It’s true”, she confirmed.

Melissa sighed.

“Alright. Then I am in the right place. I need you to… test… my girlfriend. Her name is Carmen. Carmen Morales”.