Suddenly, fingers wrapped around her wrist and tugged. Cora spun around, and Frazer stood, clutching her wrist more gently than the look on her face indicated she wanted to be.

“Tell me again, Cora.” Frazer hissed the words. “Tell me you want it to end, properly. Tell me you want to walk away.”

The touch of Frazer’s hand was sure, steady. Her thumb swiped along the inside of Cora’s wrist, just once, in a motion that was smooth and easy. It sent tingles up her arm that felt like they’d stay for days. Her eyes were bright—challenging her, staring her down as if it were Frazer’s place to challenge her.

It was as if they were back in that room, back in that elevator months ago. But this time, Cora stepped back instead of forward.

“I’m straight.” Cora said.

“That’s not what I asked.”

“You’re fucking other women in bathrooms.”

“To forget you!”

The words were an explosion that should have blasted them apart, that should have sunk enough into Cora’s brain, made an impact. But Cora pushed those words away, far enough away so they couldn’t touch her.

Cora took a deep breath and wrenched her hand away. “I mean it.”

And to show she did, Cora walked away.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

“Jemma, why the hell are you smiling?”

It was unsettling. Jemma popped a piece of carrot in her mouth, chewing with the same wide grin. “Oh, please, that woman is so into you.”

“She’s not, Jemma.”

“Oh, but she is. She really is. It’s why she had to demand you stay away from her, because she can’t do it herself.”

Rather than acknowledge that comment immediately, Frazer sucked Coke through a straw, her brow furrowed. It didn’t matter what Cora had meant by it, because Frazer was done. She was done with it all. She’d tried and had become a person she didn’t like. She was the lesbian who was into the straight girl, the friend Cora slept with when it was convenient for her. Cora had turned her into someone’s secret, a person who felt so dirty that she sometimes showered three times a day. A cliché. Okay, maybe that wasn’t completely fair. Frazer had played a hand in turning herself into that, too. But that wasn’t the point. That point was, she wasn’t that.

Not anymore.

No.

Instead, Frazer went out for dinner with her friends. Saw her sister. She greeted Cora at work and treated her like a co-worker, always asked her how she was, gave her a big smile, and then disappeared. They communicated about the programme via e-mail. They avoided each other or spoke on the phone only if it was really necessary.