"Clothes for a kid, huh? A little boy, you say?" Ann said while searching between the hangers. "Do you have a specific style in mind?"

Her customer was a young woman, probably on her twenties. She had long brown hair and green eyes. Ann thought she was beautiful. Prettier than Marina, she had to admit But not prettier than Ann herself.

"He"s a really cute boy, so I wanted something to highlight that. Huh, is it weird to call him cute?"

"Not at all. But cute, huh? Finding cute clothes for a boy is always a challenge. Let"s see, how about this?"

The woman examined the clothing Ann pa.s.sed to her. She gave a smile.

"Yes! This would suit him a lot! I can almost see him wearing it."

"Is this boy your son?" Ann asked and the woman threw a confused look at her. Suddenly her face became serious. "Huh, a brother, maybe?"

The serious look her customer gave made Ann nervous. She looked somewhat bothered and Ann wondered if she had stepped out her borders.

"A brother, yes," the woman said with a faint smile, making Ann feel relieved. "A really cute brother. I love him so much and promised him a gift."

Ann let out a sigh. She didn"t realize Marina approaching them, so she was startled as her girlfriend roughly pulled the customer"s wrist. The young woman gave her a scared look. Ann looked at both of them confused.

"M-Marina?" Ann tried to say, but Marina"s eyes were glued on the woman.

She didn"t say anything. She just kept staring at the woman with a scary look at her face.

"C-Can you please let me go? What is wrong with you?" The woman said while pulling her arm, trying to escape Marina"s grasp.

Marina released her grip, allowing the woman to get free. The customer looked at the two women with a confused expression.

"What is wrong with this store? I"ll never come back!"

She turned away and rushed outside the store. The manager, who was called in the confusion, called out for Marina. Ann tried to follow her, but Marina turned to her girlfriend and, with a smile, asked her to wait.

When the day was over, before changing to go home, Ann looked for Marina. She found her without her shirt on in the locker room. Now that Ann thought about it, she never saw Marina changing clothes before. Staring at her girlfriend"s exposed olive skin with to top of her back hiding behind her l.u.s.trous black hair, Ann forgot what she was there to say.

"Ann?" Marina said, putting her shirt on and turning to her girlfriend. Ann sighed.

"W-What was that before?" Ann asked. "Were you jealous or something? I did find that woman pretty, but you"re the one I…"

Marina hugged Ann and kissed her lips, cutting her words in the middle. She patted her girlfriend"s blonde hair while resting her head on her shoulder.

"Ann, can you skip work tomorrow?"

"W-What? Why?"

"I want you to come somewhere with me. I don"t want to explain it now. Do you trust me?"

Ann hugged her girlfriend, put her fingers on her back. She could feel Marina"s warmth on her own body. She also couldn"t stop thinking about Marina"s b.r.e.a.s.t.s pressed against her. Her smell was so close that Ann felt a desire to bite her.

When she heard Marina"s giggle, she realized all her thoughts were caught up.

"O-Okay," she said, trying to ignore it. "I trust you."

Marina gave another kiss on Ann"s lips.

"Thanks. I"ll get you tomorrow, then. Wait for me at home," Marina left Ann alone and walked away.

***

Marina came sooner than Ann expected. She had an explanation to give her manager if necessary, but the truth was that both of them had days off they could take in the month and neither had used it yet. So they weren"t in trouble after calling their manager and saying they wouldn"t work.

They spent the whole morning together. Marina didn"t explain anything yet. Ann was confused but enjoying her girlfriend"s company. She decided to cook for her again.

It was the beginning of the afternoon when Marina invited Ann to go on a walk with her. To Ann"s surprise, Marina took her to the front of an elementary school close to their store. Marina"s eyes were glued at the entrance gate. The cla.s.ses were going to be over soon and kids would cross through it.

Not understanding what was going on, Ann held her girlfriend"s hand. Seeing how serious Marina looked, she didn"t try to distract her, surveying their surroundings instead. Suddenly, her eyes caught a familiar figure.

"Hey, isn"t that woman…?" Ann asked, pointing with her head to a sole figure waiting in front of the school. It was the woman Ann attended the previous day. The one Marina scared off.

"Yeah, let"s go," Marina said, pulling Ann by the arm to get closer to the gate.

A ring announcing the end of all cla.s.ses sounded and soon all kind of kids were walking out through the gate. The woman had her eyes on them in silence until she gave a smile and walked in the direction of a little boy. Ann couldn"t hear what she was saying, but she realized the boy looked confused and scared at first, but accepted the hand offered to him after she finished talking.

She pulled the boy with her away from the school and Marina rushed to catch them. She ran and grabbed the woman by the wrist just before they crossed the street corner. Ann ran after her girlfriend. She arrived in time to see the woman throw an angry glare at Marina.

"You again? What are you doing?" She hissed, but Marina ignored her and took the little boy"s hand instead. She still had a grasp on the woman"s wrist using her other hand.

"Your mom will be here soon, dear," Marina said with a comforting smile. "You shouldn"t go with that woman."

The boy looked confused, not knowing to which woman he should listen

"If you won"t let me go, I"ll call for help," the woman said, trying to pull her arm.

"Do it," Marina said with a defiant look. The woman pressed her lips.

Suddenly Ann understood what was going on. She was ready to say something when she heard a voice behind her.

"Fred!" A middle-aged woman ran towards them. Her face was pale and confused.

The little boy gave out a big smile and ran towards the woman, throwing himself in her arms.

"What is going on here, Fred?"

"That miss told me you asked her to get me," the boy said while pointing to the woman on Marina"s grasp.

"I suggest you call the police now, misses Green," Marina said, not letting the woman go.

***

They spent the whole afternoon and a part of the night explaining everything in the police station. When they were allowed to go home, Ann invited her girlfriend to spend the night at her house.

The woman they caught had been stalking the little boy for days. His mother told the cop she saw the woman several times but never thought she was planning something like that. When they pulled her file, they found out she had been caught once accused of pedophilia. After hearing that, misses Green started to cry.

Before parting ways, the mother thanked Marina with tears in her eyes. She couldn"t understand how Marina knew about it but said she had her grat.i.tude forever. Ann watched everything without hiding how proud of her girlfriend she was.

"You were like a superhero there," Ann said giving a cup of tea to Marina, who was waiting on the couch of her living room.

Marina took the cup and gave a vague look inside it. She seemed shaken about that situation.

"I"m not a hero," she took a sip of the tea. "I just couldn"t let it go this time."

"Don"t say that. You saved that little boy. You were amazing," Ann sat beside Marina and threw a smile at her. Marina shook her head.

"This one time, yeah. But a hero always helps people who are in trouble. Can you imagine how many times that happened when I couldn"t do anything?"

"Oh," Ann put her hand on her girlfriend"s shoulder.

"This one time we were lucky. On that day, she was thinking the whole time how she was planning to kidnap that kid and," she stopped and took another sip. Her lips were shaking. "She was planning to…"

"You don"t need to say," Ann said and Marina nodded.

"But in several occasions, I heard thoughts like that. Like girls thinking about being beaten by their boyfriends or someone thinking about getting revenge for some petty reason. Some of them are terrible, but I can"t do anything. Sometimes they"re just a pa.s.serby. Sometimes I know nothing about their lives and where they live. I"ve made some anonymous complaints in the past. That worked as well as you would expect. The police won"t investigate something seriously without some kind of proof."

Marina finished the tea and placed the cup away. She looked at Ann and gave a bitter smile.

"I have seen and heard a lot of s.h.i.t inside other people"s minds."

"T-That"s…"

Ann hugged her girlfriend, pushing their body together.

"I"m sorry. I didn"t know," she patted Marina"s hair. "But you know. I really think you were amazing there. Now I know you"re actually a nice person who cares about others."

"I"m not. I know what you were thinking and you were right. I can"t help hating people."

"That"s not true. You went that far to help that boy. I did think that, but isn"t that hate born from caring about others? I mean, if you didn"t care, why would you hate them for hurting each other? You hate them because you care."

Marina placed her head on Ann"s shoulder and let out a sigh. She gave a tired smile.

"I don"t want to deal with anyone else today," she said. "I"ll spend the night here."

"Sure, I wouldn"t let you go home, anyway."

"Thanks. For tonight, I want to listen only to your pleasant thoughts."

That made Ann blush as she hugged her girlfriend"s body.