* * *

There was an intimacy to how far forward Cora leant, her attention stuck on Frazer as she regaled her with a story.

Her dress gaped slightly, and when Cora reached for her glass, Frazer couldn’t stop her gaze from dropping down and running, quickly, over the smoothness of Cora’s skin and up the slope of her neck. Under the table, Cora’s foot had fallen against hers yet hadn’t moved.

On their fourth glass of wine, Frazer had stopped keeping her words in check and instead relaxed. When she spoke, she held Cora’s eye, a finger occasionally resting on her forearm while explaining something.

Slowly, Frazer began to realise that Cora’s eyes were doing exactly what her own were. It was as if she could feel them tracing her skin and leaving it feeling uncomfortably warm.

Friends.

That word had disappeared after the third glass.

It was too easy to flirt, too easy to enjoy a tint of red that went down Cora’s neck and spread over her chest.

Frazer hadn’t done this in so long that it had taken her a while to realise what they were doing.

Which was probably a bad thing.

Consciously or not, Cora’s eyes stared at an angle far below her mouth. Had Frazer missed something?

Her brain was fuzzy and she stopped thinking of it.

“You slept with the football captain in high school? Frazer, how cliché.”

“She was really, really hot, if that helps at all.”

“I just never pegged you as so…predictable.” Her eyes were shining as she cocked her head. From here, Frazer could see how the outer iris was a rich, golden brown which deepened into almost black around her pupil. A kaleidoscope of colour. “Discovering you were gay your final year of high school with the captain of the girl’s footy team?”

“Hey.” Frazer smirked. “I knew I was gay way before that. Thanks to the goalie from the soccer team two years before.”

The snort Cora gave should have verged on unattractive, but there was something endearing about her when she finally let herself go in mirth. “Did you just make your way through all the sports teams?”

Frazer drank, rather than answer, and Cora’s eyes widened. “My God, you did. Did you turn any of them?”

Frazer dropped her gaze, chuckling. Cora was suddenly very interested in her sexual history. “Maybe—though you don’t really turn people.”

The look on Cora’s face was open, curious.

Frazer was trying. But Cora was making it way, way too hard.

* * *

On her fifth glass of wine, Cora forgot everything.

A voice in the back of her head, one that sounded much like Lisa’s, said something about how she had wanted to go find a toy boy to stare at. But instead, she just wanted to talk to Frazer.

That didn’t have to mean anything.

Each time Frazer touched her arm, warmth was left behind, an imprint patterning her skin. Their foreheads were close together as they shared anecdotes and stories Cora wouldn’t remember in the morning. When Frazer said something particularly funny, her lips quirked in a half smile, crooked almost. She had long lashes, black and thick without any evidence of make-up. There was something almost sensual about that mouth. Had Cora ever thought something like that before? The word sensual was not one she’d ever thought, she was sure. All her memories were taken up by Alec. Not that it had to matter. Things could be seen as simple distraction. Some fun. No harm, no foul.