“Okay! Sorry!” Lisa squeezed her even more firmly. She swayed back and forth until Cora got herself together and pulled away.

“Wanna sit down?” Lisa asked her.

At Cora’s nod, they walked down to the lounge room, Cora dropping onto the beanbag like she always did.

“Wine? Chocolate? Beer?” Lisa cocked her head and looked down at her. Cora was sure she was a mess. Whenever she cried, her eyes swelled up and her face went hideously blotchy. “Vodka?”

“Water.”

Lisa’s eyebrows raised. “Just water?”

“Yeah.”

She appeared a minute later with two large glasses of water and some chocolate tucked under her arm. “Just in case.”

When she sat opposite her on the couch, Lisa leant her elbows on her knees. “Cora. What the hell is going on?”

Cora took a huge gulp of her water, cool and soothing. She pulled in a shuddering breath. “I’ve been having an affair.”

She stared at Lisa, absorbed Lisa’s shock as her mouth dropped open. Lisa pulled back, away from the words, as if they could physically touch her.

“Please don’t hate me.”

Lisa shook her head quickly. “God, no, sweetie. I don’t hate you. Never hate you. Just give a girl a minute here.” She took a sip of her water. Broke off some of the chocolate and ate it quickly. “An affair?”

Cora nodded.

“Like sex?”

Cora nodded again.

“Not with Alec?”

“Not with Alec.”

“How long for?”

This time, Cora couldn’t look at her when she answered. “Three months.”

“Jesus, Cora. Three months?”

Cora winced. “Yeah.”

“When I said to get a toy boy, I was joking. Or meant, you know, if you broke it off.”

“I know.”

“Is that where you disappeared to?”

God, she wished that was where. Sighing, Cora shook her head. “Things with Alec have been…harder.”

“He was always too damn controlling.”

Cora looked up sharply. “You thought that?”

“I’ve tried to bring it up a lot of times, Core. You didn’t seem to want to hear it.”

Sinking into the bean bag as deeply as she could, Cora put her glass of water on the ground. She ran a hand over her eyes. “I didn’t.”

“What did he say?”

How did she explain it? “He just… He complains I don’t make time for him. Since this programme I’m involved in has started up, he’s worse, which I hadn’t thought was possible. He expects me to be at home waiting for him.”

“He always did.” At Cora’s inquisitive look, Lisa expanded. “At university, it was always on his terms. I heard him once, guilting you into staying with him when we’d planned lunch.”

Heat crawled over Cora’s face. She bit the inside of her cheek, looking up at the ceiling. “I thought it was normal.”