“Frazer’s in talks with a few doctors who are going to volunteer once a month each, which means we’ll have a doctor in every week.” The idea was growing, taking hold, and the community was going to be better for it.

It was so much bigger, so much better, than what they could have built with the hospital breathing down their necks, demanding statistics and budget reports and constant updates. What they’d dreamed up huddled together over desks was exactly this, what it was becoming.

Cora loved it.

And being around Frazer every day was a bonus; she couldn’t deny it.

Doctor Massey was looking at her strangely. And then, Cora realised.

She was trying to bury a smile.

Unable to control the one that tugged at her own lips, Cora gave a laugh. “What?”

Leaning back in her chair, Doctor Massey clasped her hands over her clipboard in her lap. “This is the first session we’ve had in which you’ve talked like this—this passionate.”

That made Cora pause.

It was true.

When she was with Doctor Massey, Cora had been allowing herself to talk. Talk and talk and talk. She let out all the things that she had bitten back for years. Some of them were things she didn’t even think anymore, but discharging them felt like freeing herself. It was as if with each intense, angry, frustrated, hurt emotion she let out, Cora started to let it go too. She was being given the tools to build her life back up, and she built with vigour.

And yet, in today’s session, Cora hadn’t felt that need. Words had tumbled unfettered from her mouth, focussed on the clinic and everything they were doing. The smile on her face tugged harder at her cheeks, and Doctor Massey gave her a nod.

“Cora, how would you feel about going from seeing each other once a week to once a month?”

“That would feel great.”

With nothing left wrapped around her chest, breathing freely, Cora left her appointment.

In her car, she pulled out her phone. A message from Frazer lit up the screen, asking if they were still on to have a quick meeting that afternoon. Cora sent back a quick affirmation and started her car.

She felt light, even if she couldn’t get a feel for what Frazer was thinking.

It was like the days before they’d slept together. Or during, but without the sex. They flirted, or at least Cora definitely did, and she thought Frazer was doing so too. Cora brought Frazer coffee all the time, and when Frazer disappeared for something to eat, she always dropped something on Cora’s desk that she’d picked up for her.

But she did for Tia too.