It was the woman Shane almost ran over more than a week ago.

“Yeah we’ve met.” Casey said with a big toothy smile as she reached out her hand for a shake.

“Yeah, sorry about that.” Shane clasped her hand for a firm handshake.

“No problem, nothing broken so no harm done.”

They both glanced over at Carmen who was wearing an expression that was part fear and part confusion. “I almost hit her with my jeep when I was buying groceries last week.”

“Oh! Okay that’s just strange. Small world though huh?” Carmen was rambling on, she tended to do this when she got really nervous but only Casey knew this.

“So how did you two meet?” Casey offered as a change in subject.

“At work. I’m a hairstylist and I was doing this woman’s hair for a talk show on KTLA and Carmen was her pseudo personal assistant for the day.”

Casey rubbed the right side of her neck, a nervous habit she had acquired from her younger years that Carmen was all to familiar with. “Wow, that’s great.”

Shane had let her jealousy go and was beginning to let her protective wall down when Casey brought her hand down from her neck and indicated that she had to switch the song for a second.

There, in black cursive letters, was the name Carmen. ‘Carmen. My Carmen? What the ***** is going on here.’ Her body tensed and her grip around Carmen’s waist became noticeably tighter.

Carmen, who was already having a inward freak-out was not helped by the tightened grip of her girlfriend. She knew Shane saw the tattoo, she also knew they had to get the ***** out of there before anything blew up. Before she could say anything though, Shane spoke.

“So, how do you know Carmen?” she asked as Casey turned around to face them.

She quickly glanced over at Carmen to find her eyes wide with horror at impending situation, but Casey wasn’t stupid, she knew how to handle this. “We went to school together.” ‘The simple answer is often the best answer.’ she thought to herself.

Shane nodded her head and Carmen knew it was time to leave. “Alright, well we’re going to go dancing and I’ll catch up with you about the playlists later okay?”

“Great, you two have a good time tonight.”

“We will, nice meeting you.” Shane said as she extended her hand for a goodbye handshake, never taking her deep green eyes off of Casey’s chestnut brown orbs.

Casey took her hand and noticed the increased pressure in this handshake, she could’ve squeezed back and broken every bone in the woman’s fingers but she wouldn’t, not in front of Carmen at least.

Casey turned her attentions back to her mixing console as Carmen and Shane made their way to the dance floor. Carmen immediately turned around and pressed her back into Shane’s front, grinding in time to the music. She needed to take her mind off of what just happened, and so she lost her self to the rhythm.

Shane placed her hands on either side of her girlfriend’s hips and moved with her, she wanted to forget everything as much as she knew Carmen wanted to.

They swayed and swiveled and ground to the beat of the song as Shane slid her fingers along Carmen’s thighs, feeling the toned muscles underneath the black dress pants. She quickly looked over to the DJ booth to see if Casey was watching; she wasn’t, and Shane was glad.

She didn’t like this feeling, this jealousy. What did she have to be jealous about? Carmen loved her and only her. What ever Casey and Carmen might have had before was in the past. Right?

She was brought out of her thoughts from the feeling of Carmen’s hand tangled in her hair, bringing her head down towards caramel colored skin. She took her cue and placed delicious opened mouth kisses along her neck, causing Carmen to bite on her lower lip and moan appreciatively.

Shane raised her head and nibbled on her lovers earlobe, “Let’s get out of here.” she offered in the lowest sultriest voice she could muster.

Carmen simply nodded her head and allowed herself to lead out of the club and away from Casey.