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“Bing”

The lift door opened, and Carmen immediately ran out of the building’s back door into a small garden. She threw her hands up in the air and took a deep breath.

Laughing away, she spun around, glad to be in the open again. Shane instantly came up behind her to stop her.

“Careful there, peach.”

“Relax baby, and stop calling me peach.” Carmen chided in jest.

“But you are as cute as one!” Shane laughed.

“You just like Peaches. Admit it.”

“That too. But there is a difference. I love you.” Shane said sincerely.

Carmen smiled lovingly at her girlfriend before rewarding her with a kiss. She started twirling around again after she pulled away and Shane frowned.

“Hey, stop that.”

“Okay” Carmen giggled, then proceeded to skip around instead. Her hands came out to hold both of Shane’s, pulling her into a little dance.

“Carmen” Shane threatened.

“You would make an overly protective mother.” Carmen teased.

“Yeah well, right now, I am an overly protective girlfriend.” Shane reprimanded. “Now stop it before you start feeling faint again.”

Shane led Carmen to a bench and sat her down, and Carmen willingly went along, feeling all the love and concern that Shane was showing.

Carmen stared lovingly at Shane, who was busy opening the bag of cookies and scrutinizing the contents, oblivious to the fact that Carmen was tearing. As she handed her girlfriend a cookie, Shane saw the tears and panic bolted through her veins.

“Carm, baby, what’s wrong, ya in pain? Hurting? Where!” Shane screeched, tears instantaneously welling in her eyes. Her fingers dropping the cookie as she cradled Carmen’s face in her hands.

Carmen smiled as she shook her head slowly, leaning in comfortably into the arms of her pillar of strength.

“Thank you, for being here for me Shane. I love you.”

Shane relaxed when she realized that the love of her life was fine. She scooted in closer to fully embrace her girlfriend. They held each other for a few more moments before Carmen pulled away excitedly.

“I wanna eat the cookies. I feel so good now that I could eat anything.” Carmen wiped the tears off her face as she reached for the bag and looked at it’s contents, picking out the one with the most chocolate chips.