To tiptoeing around somewhere she should stride through confidently, wondering how she got here and wishing she was anywhere else.

If Lisa wasn’t around to drink wine with her, Cora would just drink wine alone. She could do that.

Cora could be alone.

Even if that wasn’t something she’d done, well, ever.

* * *

Lauren was exceptionally pretty. She had a body to die for.

She was also, sadly, incredibly dull.

Taking a sip of her drink, Frazer tried to stop her eyes from drifting around the bar. Normally, she tried to avoid a bar filled with workmates, but Lauren had suggested it and Frazer had figured why not? If she was going to make her bed, she might as well lie in it. Roll around in it. Sleep in it, even.

Nights out with co-workers fed the rumour mills during the day, and looking around the bar now, Frazer was sure it would be spinning tomorrow. The gossip of who went home with whom and who had cheated on their spouse ran rampant in various departments, and she was sure she’d seen a clinical nurse from her ward disappear out the door with one of the obstetricians. Juicy.

With a nod at something Lauren said, Frazer tried to stop staring around the room. Really, she wasn’t one to partake in gossip. But she just couldn’t concentrate on the woman in front of her. It had been so long since she’d been out with work people, though. It had been easy to forget that in bars, coated in alcohol, things were said that should have stayed in bedrooms, the words flying around and people grasping at them to piece together stories so sensational, others couldn’t help but mention them.

No wonder Frazer usually avoided them.

As Lauren talked about a trip she’d been on (“The beaches were even better than here, if you’d believe it”), Frazer saw Tia with another secretary, one Frazer was sure she recognised from a private hospital.

Apparently, Lauren realised Frazer wasn’t paying attention anymore, because she turned to look at what had caught her eye. She chuckled. “Is that Sam and Tia?”

Sam! That was indeed who it was. With a nod, Frazer sipped her bourbon, amused.

“Don’t their husbands hate each other?” Lauren’s interest was back on Frazer as she waited for an answer everyone knew the answer to.

“They do—and apparently they hate their wives being together. Clearly, their wives don’t care.”

“Sam’s husband screwed over Alec in some kind of deal years ago, didn’t he?”

They both watched the two women laugh loudly over their martinis. Heads close together, they looked like conspirators. Tia’s eyes were lit up, and Frazer wondered what titbit she’d learnt.

“Yeah, that was him.” Frazer said.

Lauren stared at them a second longer.

“I wonder if they’re lesbians…”

Curiosity laced Lauren’s tone and Frazer almost choked, unable to completely restrain herself. Tia was one of the only people at the hospital Frazer really liked. “Doubt it. I accidentally walked in on Tia and her husband in the kitchen at the New Year’s party the year before last—definitely seemed to be enjoying what he was doing.”