That night they’d spent together haunted Cora. Ghosted over her skin, between her lips, settled low in her stomach and spread between her thighs.

When she was thinking of that, she wasn’t thinking of therapy, of Alec, of anything much. It was distracting and wrong.

Guilt followed Cora like a ghost, always lingering, always there.

What she remembered the most wasn’t the kitchen table, though. It was the elevator, the kiss they ignored, the heat of Frazer’s tongue against her own, the way her chest heaved under her fingers.

Then Cora was in the elevator again. Going from the eleventh floor where she had been with a patient to get her things from her office. Then she was going to meet Alec for lunch before their session with Doctor Massey. Because, goddamn it, Cora was trying, if nothing else. The wall of the elevator was cool against her back. Why did she go into the slow elevator?

She ignored the voice that said it was to reach Alec later, to spread further and further the time between seeing him.

It stopped after two floors and opened. Frazer stepped in, her eyes glued to her phone. As the doors slid shut, she looked up.

“Hey.”

Frazer’s smile was the crooked one, the one Cora had realised she did when it was genuine. It was almost lazy, with no force. “Hi.”

The elevator started to move again.

And then, there. Cora realised she didn’t want it to stop on the ground floor, that she didn’t want to get out and meet Alec.

She didn’t want to leave Frazer behind.

Don’t think. For once.

With sure feet, Cora marched forward and her fingers hit the stop button. At the same moment, her arm pushed Frazer back against the doors. It was more forceful than Cora had intended. The air rushed out of Frazer, and her eyes widened. A moment. A beat. That time in which Cora should have stepped back but instead buried her hands in Frazer’s scrub shirt. Gripped it in her fists and yanked. Pressed their lips together and felt the bite of teeth. And Frazer… Frazer pressed back against her. Ran her hands through Cora’s hair, tangling her fingers in it as if she wanted to pull Cora even closer.

Cora needed this not to end, but they were in an elevator.

With regret, she pulled back. An inch of space between them. Frazer’s eyes were bright. Green. Searching her own.