“Thanks, Cora.” He held her gaze. “Like I told Frazer this morning, I really don’t know where I’d be without this programme…”

So Frazer had seen him. Why hadn’t Cora been able to find her all day, then? “And you’ll never need to know,” she said.

Cora left him then, when his uncle had messaged him to say he was on his way.

The next day, Cora sent Frazer another e-mail with more questions, pretending she wanted clarification about the programme.

No answer.

The third day, she did the same.

Nothing.

And now, four days on, and Cora still hadn’t seen Frazer anywhere. Nor had she been able to bring herself to ask about her.

Finally, though, she snapped and found herself edging towards Alec’s office, heading upstairs and trying not to let her heart beat out of her chest. The thought of seeing him made her feel nauseous, but Cora couldn’t think of anyone else to ask. Unless she could run into Tia, but even the thought of seeing Tia after everything made her hands go clammy.

But with everything going on in her life, Cora missed Frazer, and somehow, that burnt harsher than anything else. She had never been like this before, and she didn’t know how to deal with it.

Trying to look inconspicuous, and probably not managing it, Cora looked around the corner and saw the object of her search. Tia sat at her desk, tapping away at her computer with a bored expression. With all of her powers of avoidance, Cora had managed not to run into Tia too much since the day Tia had walked in on her and Frazer. Just the memory of it had heat crawling up her cheeks. It would have been less embarrassing to get caught by her mother.

She choked back a horrified noise. No. That definitely wasn’t true; if that had happened, Cora would have crawled into a ball and died right there. When Tia had walked in, it had simply felt like she’d died the death of a thousand humiliations.

Finally, Tia looked up and caught Cora staring at her. She raised her eyebrows, probably wondering why just Cora’s head was floating around the corner, staring at her strangely with bright red cheeks. “He’s not here.”

With a sigh of relief, Cora walked around the corner and stood in front of the desk. It felt a little like she was standing in front of the principal at school. She had to resist the urge to fidget. “Hi, Tia.”

“Hey, hun.”

Tia was softer than she had been the last time Cora had talked to her, softer even than when she’d told Cora it was okay to not be okay. Tension left Cora’s body at the smile on Tia’s face.

“How are you?” Cora asked.