Her head dropped back against the chair. Even the slight swivelling motion was starting to make her nauseated. One minute of closing her eyes wouldn’t hurt. The darkness was soothing. Silence was addictive.

All at once, both her pager and her mobile trilled. With a groan, she took a glance. Both messages were from Tia, telling her not to fall asleep and to hurry up.

Frazer cursed. That woman had eyes everywhere.

Leaving her sunglasses behind with a stab of regret, Frazer pulled on a clean scrub shirt as if it could give her the air of credibility she was lacking. She squared her shoulders. No hangover would defeat her. She yanked her door open and stepped through it defiantly. Probably too defiantly. Her coffee and her body collided with someone who had been innocently walking by, the lid popping off and coffee sloshing everywhere. Mostly over—

Shit. It was Cora.

They stared at each other for a minute, coffee dripping on the floor, Cora’s eyes as red as her own.

Her lips twitched. Cora’s mimicked hers.

They cracked up.

“I’m so sorry.”

“No—seriously Frazer, I’m barely awake. I’m sorry.”

“I stormed out and spilt coffee all over you.”

Glancing down at herself, Frazer grimaced. Somehow, her shirt was completely clean—how had that happened?

“That kinda day for me, I’m guessing.” Cora cocked her head, looking her up and down. “You feeling as rough as me?”

“If you feel like you did the first time you pushed tequila too hard, then yes.”

“I feel worse than that time—I was nineteen when I first did that. I had a far better constitution then.”

A beeping came from her pocket. Frazer closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. When she opened them, Cora was giving her a knowing look.

“Meeting?” Cora asked.

“Meeting.” Frazer nodded. “I was considering wearing my sunglasses in there. Too unprofessional?”

“If you get to, so do I.”

“Think the boss will allow it?”

A look too quick to discern flashed over Cora’s face. “Probably not. I have to run and change my shirt—”

“Again, so sorry.”

“Stop, it’s fine. I love the smell of coffee, so I’ll just embrace it as my perfume for the day.”

“Still, sorry. Meet you in there?”

“I may miss it—I’ll be late anyway. My clothes are in the car.”

“Benefits of sleeping with your boss.” Frazer winked, feeling cheap even as she did so.

“Yeah, something like that.” Cora’s face was unreadable. “See you around, Frazer.”

With a final grimace in the direction of Cora’s coffee-covered shirt, Frazer walked down the hallway. As she turned the corner, she remembered something through the haze of conversation last night.

Cora had mentioned wanting to leave her husband. Yet, there was Frazer making jokes about having special privileges because they were married.

Really, being hung-over should be an excuse not to face the world. It meant her foot lived permanently in her mouth.

And, oh God, the meeting was on statistics.