“So, what, you waited, like, a week to start this up? An entire week into your planning before you seduced the poor, sad woman—”

“Hey!” While she was in no position to be self-righteous, that didn’t mean she liked where this was going. “There was no seducing.”

Tia actually rolled her eyes, the action somehow harsh. Frazer shut her mouth.

“Three months, Frazer?”

“I know, Tia.”

“Do you?” The words were hard, biting.

“It’s not like it’s something I’m proud of!” Frazer hissed.

“You didn’t look like you were trying to push her off you.”

Frazer threw her hands in the air. “Exactly! She was on me. It is a…was a—a mutual thing. Something that should have been ended long ago.” Only Frazer never had.

“So why didn’t you end it?”

Damn it, Tia. Why did she have to ask that? Those cigarettes were looking tempting all of a sudden. “I don’t know.”

“She’s married, Frazer. To your boss.”

“I know.”

They leant against the wall silently. Watched the people mill amongst the concrete to fill their lungs with air that was very much not fresh then hurry back to busy shifts.

“Do you know?”

Frazer looked at Tia and asked “What?”

“You say you know. But do you really?”

“I know she’s married.”

“But do you really know what you’re playing with? There is another person involved in this. Someone who is unaware of what you two are doing behind his back. Have you talked about this? Is she leaving him? Are they separating? Is she interested in women?”

“We haven’t talked about it.”

Tia’s looked hardened. “So you’re not even promised a world of love—you’re what, Frazer? Horny?”

“I—” Frazer had nothing to say to that. The point was a good one. She’d been promised nothing. In fact, she’d done the promising. Friendship, while giving Cora…whatever it was they were doing.

“I’m disappointed in you.”

Frazer looked up sharply. And wished she hadn’t.

Tia dropped the butt to the floor and stamped it out, burying her hands in her pocket as she walked away.

“Tia!”

Without turning, Tia replied, “Don’t worry. I won’t say anything.”

That hadn’t even been what Frazer was going to ask. Or had it?

“But you two should.”

Teeth worried at her bottom lip as Frazer watched Tia disappear around a corner. Swallowing hard, she kicked the wall. Which only hurt. “Fuck!”

* * *

For hours, Cora walked around with a lump in her throat. She got a message from Alec, telling her he would be at work planning a presentation until the early hours, and that he might go out for a drink afterwards to blow off some steam. It was the only moment of the day Cora felt relieved.