Confused and disappointed by Shane’s somewhat insensitive response, Carmen sucks up all of her mind boggling emotions and starts to realize that maybe she gave Shane more credit than she deserved. Maybe what she thought or more so had hoped was more than just *****, was nothing more than mere ***** to Shane. Distracted by the new realization that her strong feelings for Shane may never be returned, Carmen puts all of her deep thoughts aside for the moment, slaps on a fake smile and searches for the instructions in the box. Shane, not as oblivious as she may seem to be, notices the pain that squeezes past Carmen’s artificial smile. Knowing that she can’t stand to see Carmen unhappy, Shane is overcome with her tenacious desire to express her undeniable feelings towards Carmen. She wants more than anything to just take Carmen into her arms and tell her every little detail about herself, share with her secrets that she’s never told anyone else, take Carmen on a journey through the labyrinth known as the mind of Shane McCutcheon. Knowing that this unbearable burden would soon have to be released in one way or another, Shane decides to take a chance and come up with a different game to play.

Carmen: “Okay, so let’s get this party started.” Carmen begins to read the instructions. “Welcome to Scrabble, the world’s best loved crossword game!”
Shane: “Yeah, hold that thought, how about we play a different game, just this once…Scrabble will always be around and we can play that next time, I promise.”

Carmen: “Well, what do you want to play, Monopoly? Dammit I knew I should’ve brought that too”

Shane: Shane laughs. “Naw, I was just thinkin’ about how you decided on this whole wholesome activity stuff all on you own. How about we play this little game that I had in mind and the winner gets to decide how we handle future Friday nights together.”

Carmen: “I’m listening.”

Shane: “Okay, so maybe you’ve heard of this game,” She chuckles and smiles, “A friend of mine taught me how to play it, it’s called too hot. Now granted, we may have to bend our strictly friends rule just a little, but the object of the game is to see how long we can kiss without touching one another. Whoever touches the other person first loses, and the winner gets to do whatever they want to the loser. This time we’ll have to raise the stakes though. Have you ever played this game, think you’ll be interested?”

Carmen: “Yeah, I’ve played before, I think I taught some chick how to play a while ago, can’t remember the girls name though. I think it was Jane or something like that. Yeah, Jane, that’s it.” She let’s out a little smirk.

Shane: “Yeah, I bet. So are you interested?”

Carmen: “I don’t know. I don’t think you know how serious I am when I say strictly friend business.” Knowing that her resolve to refrain from physical activity is weakened whenever she’s in Shane’s presence, Carmen continues, ” What are the added stakes anyway?”

Shane: “Well, if I win, not only do I get to do whatever I want to you, but you also have to consider going back to how we were, a little more than friends but not a full blown couple. Cool?”

Carmen: “Okay, and if I win, I get to do whatever, and I do mean whatever I want to you and you have to agree to respect my decision to keep things on a platonic level from now on. If, I’m sorry, when I win, that means that as long as you’re hooking up with other girls, there can’t be anything sexual going down, especially you. Agreed?”

Shane: “Cool with me. There’s just one last thing…” Shane walks toward Carmen.

Before Carmen could squeeze out a response, Shane had backed her into a wall and kissed her softly, but with enough passion to tell her everything that she so desperatly wanted to yet couldn’t muster up the strength or courage to confess.

Shane: Shane stops just long enough to say, “Let the game begin.”