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06:00 / dawn

Shannon shifts under the sheets, the bone moonlight taunting her as sleep keeps slipping away. She’d always hated summer in the city because the streets absorbed the sun and her air conditioner always broke without fail.

She turns again, the sheets sticking to her skin, and maybe she could forgive the heavy heat if it was another body putting her in this state. An internal rolodex flips through her head, of names and faces and shirtless backs, prodding the papery memory to yield one  that wouldn’t mind a… mutual arrangement, something akin to ‘you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.’ When dawn arrives shining and screeching hours later, Shannon’s mind is already clicking her tongue at bouncing brunette curls and green eyes.

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12:00 / lunchtime

The sound of Kate’s fork impaling the crisp lettuce of her salad barely even registers before her voice travels over the patio furniture.

“Okay so cut the bullshit. Why am I really here?”

Shannon smirks; she’s feisty and suspicious and Shannon admires both traits. Won’t stop her from dragging her along though.

“A girl can’t catch up with an old friend?”

Kate snorts. “We were never friends.” But she takes a bite of her greens and she seems to relax a little.

“True. But we could start now, couldn’t we?”

Kate crunches into a crouton and eyes her doubtfully. “You want something from me. I’ll figure it out at some point,” she says by way of a threat, pointing her fork accusingly, but Shannon only smiles slowly.

“No doubt.”

 
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09:00 / planned

The sun is melting slow and sticky behind an office building across the street, the top left corner of the cement walls cutting square shapes into the orb like slices from a lemon meringue pie.

Shannon didn’t know when she had fallen asleep, sometime after Kate had rolled over, her mischievous smile still in place as she drifted off. She’s almost surprised the other woman had stayed; she’d never had personal experience but from the island gossip she’d gotten the impression that Kate was a runner, an avoider, a “leave no trace” kind of one-night stand. But her tanned skin is still brushing against the clean white of her sheets, her eyes fluttering open and blinking once against the sun before she adjusts to look at Shannon.

“You planned this, didn’t you?”

And the green irises boring a hole into her skin through the dotted landscape of her freckled cheeks, the sharp press of the fold of her sheet just above Kate’s breasts almost makes her want to say no so this can happen again. Shannon flashes back to the other woman’s fingernails tracing stark patterns across her hips, the pressure of Kate’s hand snaking between her legs, the twist of Kate’s fingers in the bedspread.  

“Maybe.”

Kate nods and it’s enough for the darkening room to hear.

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19:00 / outdated

There’s a brown leather boot sticking haphazardly out from under her bed, then a faded pair of jeans and a red lace bra and a white tank top, leading in a Hansel-and-Gretel bread scrap path that Kate is following to the door.

“I’d say I’d call but…”

“You don’t have my home number and you wouldn’t call anyway.” Kate finishes for her, “I think we can skip the formalities. This isn’t the 50’s.”

“Did people even have one-night-stands 60 years ago?”

“Not everyone was a dutiful little housewife.”

“Right.” Shannon licks her lips and anchors herself to the doorway, keeping a safe distance. “We should do this again sometime.”

Kate smirks. “Unlikely. But I’ll keep it in mind.”

Shannon thinks it’s odd that the ease with which this is being handled, comparatively, is troubling her.

But she swallows the feeling and lets the residue out on a breath.

“Bye Kate.”

“See you around.”

The door shuts quietly and Shannon switches on a lamp, letting the light douse the living room as she goes to get changed in the dark of her bedroom and pretend she can see the stars through the haze of the city sky.

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