Shane dropped the sponge and twined her arms around Carmen’s waist, drawing her in close.

Tracing a path down along Shane’s arm, Carmen interlocked each of her own fingers with that of Shane’s, and they both stared at their hands making love to one another.

Though Shane wanted the tranquility of the moment to last, she was still very troubled by the distaste that Carmen had shown. She decided that this would be a good time to broach the subject when they couldn’t see face to face.

“Carmen”

Carmen just murmured a ‘mmm’, still basking in the moment.

“Is something wrong?”

Fingers froze in mid air, and then Carmen dropped them back into the water and submerged beneath the foam.

“No.”

“Then is it something I have done?” No answer. “It’s just that ***** I feel like you are shutting me out.”

Still no answer.

Exhaling silently, Shane made a move to get out of the tub. Her arms dropping away from Carmen and Carmen didn’t stop her. She dried herself sadly with a towel from the cabinet and laid one out for her girlfriend. As she turned back to look at Carmen one last time, she saw that her girlfriend was looking at her, expression unreadable. Shane sighed.

“Don’t stay in the water too long.” And she left the bathroom.

——————————

After dressing in a dress-shirt she used as a nightgown, Carmen followed the smell of chicken soup into the kitchen.

Shane was chatting lightly with Jenny. Upon spying Carmen standing by the doorway, Shane clutched her beer bottle tightly. Jenny jumped up immediately and hugged her friend.

“Carmen, I’m so glad you are back!” Placing a kiss on Carmen’s forehead, Jenny took a look over her friend and smiled.

Carmen couldn’t help but smile back as she allowed Jenny to guide her to take a seat at the dining table. As she sat herself down, Shane had already scooped a bowl of soup and set it in front of Carmen.

“Here, have a taste of the soup Jenny made.”

“Thank you.”

“No problem”

Jenny could feel the chills in the room. It was as if nothing was different. She was still doing her little loving things for Carmen, but Jenny could tell something was going on, they were too polite to one another.