Shane

"So do you think she could be involved in any way?" Willem asked Shane as he drove them to a nearby sandwich shop. "Nope." "I don't think so either. Unless she's an Academy Award kind of actress, she really did seem as in the dark as one could get when we hit her with the note." "Yup." Shane kept staring out the windshield, yet he could feel his partner's curious glance cast his way. "You like her, don't you?" "Yup." After Shane didn't go on, Willem laughed. "She looks great for her age, but remember, dude, she's married." Shane finally glanced at Willem, smiled and said matter-of-factly, "Yeah, I know she is." More silence and then Willem added, "I think she likes you, too." "You think?" "Seems to, though it's pretty pointless being married and all that." Shane chuckled bitterly and said, "The hot ones always are. Or they're not interested. But it's not like we can pick and choose who we're hot for." "You still miss Celestine?" Shane shrugged. "Not particularly." "You were together a long time." "Yes, but that was finished over a year ago. Time to move on." "Move on to what, though?" "Whatever fate has in store for me." "But you don't get out much." "I get out enough when the job allows me to. What about you?" "I get out enough, too." "I don't mean that. I mean, what's up with you and Maeve? You still think she's the one?" "Definitely." Shane smiled. "Good for you. And for her, of course." "Yeah, I'm a lucky guy. Don't worry, though. We're not going to let you grow old alone." Shane laughed. "I'm not even thirty, Aaldenberg. I think I've got a while before you guys need to start worrying about me growing old alone." After they were seated in the sandwich shop, Willem went to use the men's room, leaving Shane alone with his thoughts of Markayla. He didn't have a particular type, but this was the first girl of mixed races he really found attractive. Also, his first older attraction, unless some of the older celebrities counted. It sucked that she was married, but even so, he couldn't help his thirst for whatever knowledge he could dig up on the lovely lady with the exotically dark eyes and dark, endlessly long tresses. She was average in both weight and height, but again, he didn't usually have a preference. He'd had girlfriends and fuck buddies of all body shapes and sizes. As long as they weren't morbidly obese or taller than he was, not that that would be hard to avoid, since he was six two, he'd take them so long as they weren't crazy or on drugs. Celestine had been the only one he'd gotten serious about… until she'd broken his heart by revealing that she had fallen for someone else and wanted to leave him. She simply wanted to trade him in like she had traded in her old car for a new one. Shane learned that Markayla was from a tiny town in New Mexico close to the Mexican border. Her parents were deceased, and like him, she didn't appear to have any siblings. She had a clean record, not surprisingly, and so did her seemingly perfect husband. Her Facebook profile was private and she didn't seem to be active on other social media. She had a Twitter account but hadn't tweeted anything. He did find her blog, however, which was updated every few days or so. She spoke mainly about trivial things like the weather, home improvement projects, and chats she'd have with friends or neighbors. There seemed to be no drama at all in her life from what he could find. From all appearances, Markayla was a very healthy, smart, articulate and all-around good gal. Probably too good for him, married or not. But no one's life was perfect. Whatever wasn't quite right in Markayla's life simply wasn't evident to the naked eye. Maybe she wasn't as happily married as she seemed to be. Or maybe she had money troubles. Or maybe she watched something she'd always dreamed of sail by her, forever out of reach. Shane wasn't used to not getting what he wanted in life. To think of Markayla as being off limits and untouchable seemed unreal. Especially since she seemed to like him at least on a friendly basis. Maybe she wasn't aware that she'd given herself away, but Shane had picked up on the way she'd looked at him, as subtle as she'd been about it. Every sense of his logic told him that Markayla was out of the question and that he shouldn't regard her as anything more than the occasional piece of eye candy until his job was done. But that's not what his gut instinct was telling him.