And that was okay with Frazer. Because she had known what this was going in. Had known Cora was married. Had known it couldn’t go anywhere. Had known she was Cora’s personal Band-Aid for a marriage that was struggling.

Sighing, she pulled a pillow over her face. Her hair was in her mouth, uncomfortable, and she ignored it. She was too hot, and she ignored that too.

Maybe she could also ignore what she was doing with Cora.

The weekend passed slowly, relaxed. She had lunch with her friends and batted away their enquiries. She drank too many beers and had an afternoon nap. Jemma convinced her to go to a family lunch on Sunday. Her mother asked her when she was going to get married, and Jemma had put a comforting hand on her leg under the table and asked, “Did you know it’s one in two marriages that end in divorce now, Mum?”

Really, Frazer did love her little sister.

Sunday night, Frazer got a message from Cora asking if she was free. Instead of saying no, like she should, she said yes.

Cora and Frazer were friends. Frazer really did feel like she could say that now. They ate lunch and had the odd drink and shared messages. Discussed likes and dislikes. Gossiped.

But, when they were alone, which they managed to be every day that week, they had sex.

Really, really good sex.

But it was so compartmentalised. They’d finish, and for one amazingly comfortable minute, they’d lay pressed together, naked and sweaty, if the location allowed such things. Then Cora would stand, slip on her clothes, and slip Frazer a smile and slip out.

She was slippery.

They didn’t lay and laugh easily in bed like they did at lunch. They didn’t whisper. Didn’t stroke at hypersensitive skin in silence while the world went on around them.

And it made it easier, somehow, to look Alec in the eye.

By the time Cora knocked on her door, Frazer had already had a wine.

Would this be being friends today? Or was this sex?

When she opened the door, Cora was on the other side. She had a hooded jumper on and looked like she was settled for an evening at home. As you would be at nine o’clock on a Sunday.

“Hey. Alec was called into work…”

It was for sex.

Frazer wanted to say no. A week had passed since this routine had begun. She wanted to make this the time that she put her foot down.

But the arch of Cora’s lips was almost coy. The smell of her perfume drifted in from outside and instead, Frazer stood to the side to let Cora in. Shut the door after her.