Tina squeezed her hand and Shane continued, wiping away her tears, “She told me before that she had some assignment with the studio in the valley this weekend and I wasn’t worried when she didn’t call me after a few days. But when she didn’t show up for our date on Monday and didn’t call me, I knew something was wrong. So I drove to her place and spent two hours waiting for her until one of her neighbors, Mrs. Hill, told me that she came from the market on Saturday and went to Carmen’s apartment to give her some fresh bread and she found Carmen beaten up and bleeding. Neighbor called 911 and Carmen was taken to the Cedars but was incoherent about what happened to her until Sunday morning. She talked to the cops and just told them that she was raped but didn’t recognize her attacker. I got to the hospital on Monday and she was still in such a bad shape that doctors wanted to keep her there for the rest of the week, while also providing some counseling.”

Shane went quiet for couple of minutes as if getting all her strength together to continue, or maybe everything she just said brought back the vision of Carmen in the hospital, alone and in pain.

“I talked to her,” Shane carried on with her story, “and she told me that she couldn’t recall everything because she was pretty wasted but she remembered Eric bringing her home, taking her inside, practically dragging her to bed and undressing her. Suddenly, she felt his lips on her neck, and then he moved on to her breasts.”

Shane stopped again and added as an after-thought, “Fuck, such an ugly and unexpected attack from somebody you presume to be your friend is a strong catalyst to make you sober fast, that’s why I knew she haven’t imagined it.”

This time Shane didn’t fight her tears but let them run down and again Tina was there to support her, while saying with assurance, “She’s okay now, that’s what important, we’ll be there to take care of her, you’ll be there to take care of her and that’s why you have to be strong. You love her Shane, don’t you?”

Shane just looked at Tina and sighed, “She’s all I have and I can’t lose her.”

“You won’t,” Tina replied, speaking softly, “You were lucky to find this kind of love, hold on to it and we’ll be there for you always to help you both to move on.”

She looked at Dana who was in a state of complete shock all the way to the hospital. Tina snapped her fingers right before Dana’s face and exclaimed, “Feel free to jump in anytime, Dane.”

“Oh, ditto,” Dana replied absently but after getting the look from Tina, she added, “I mean, yes, we’ll be there for you, Shane. We love you.”

“Thanks guys, I’m so lucky to have such great friends,” Shane responded with a smile but quickly her face turned serious again and she hesitantly said to Tina, “Carmen didn’t name Eric as her assailant yet, she wanted to talk to you first.”

Tina nodded but her mind was filled with one thought only, ‘Eric, where the hell is Eric?’

TBC…