Shoulders brushed past, and the hot press of people was almost suffocating. Cold air washed over them as they exited, and Cora took a deep breath in. It filled her lungs like relief. The door closed behind them, the sound muting to a dull roar inside. Cora glanced at her watch, wincing at the late hour. At least it was the weekend. She was going to need a day in bed, judging by the way the earth was spinning. She chuckled. The earth was always spinning, that was just physics. Though she was certain you weren’t supposed to be aware of it. Did that make her the best physicist ever?

“Want to share a ride?”

Cora stared at Frazer, whose eyes were a little fuzzy at the edges. Green and fuzzy. Or maybe that was Cora’s vision. “Everything’s spinning.”

“Everything’s blurry.”

“How many glasses of wine did we have?” Cora was absolutely certain it wasn’t too many.

“Three?”

“I remember five.”

Frazer’s face fell. “Ah, well. That’s a discrepancy.”

A taxi pulled up, its charges spilling out in a messier group than theirs. One guy tripped and fell, half pulling his female friend down with him. She shrieked with laughter as she teetered on heels too tall to be considered safe at any level of sobriety. The driver leant over and called through the window at Frazer and Cora. “You ladies need a taxi?”

Still giggling at the display of the drunken group, Cora nodded at him and slid inside. Frazer followed suit, staring out the window as they watched the group make their way inside. “That woman looks like a baby giraffe in those heels,” she said.

Cora laughed, then snorted and slapped her hand over her mouth, cheeks already hot.

Frazer’s head whipped around. The grin on her face was wicked. “Did you just snort? Again?”

“No?” The words were spoken through her fingers and were muffled with mortification.

“Drunk baby giraffe.”

Another snort, amplified by tightly pressed fingers, was all it took for them to dissolve into laughter.

An annoyed voice came from the front. “Address, ladies? And no chundering in the car.”

* * *

Suddenly, the taxi pulled up at the house. Surely that hadn’t been a twenty-minute drive? As Cora was the only one with cash, she won the fight over who was going to pay. Frazer made a mental note to get the next one, as their fingers fumbled with seatbelts and door handles and they finally got out, the annoyed glare of the taxi driver easily left behind.

It didn’t help the laughter.

On the front porch, they hovered as Cora hunted for her keys, then finally yanked them out in delighted victory. Eyebrows pressed tightly together, she closed one eye as she lined the right key up with the keyhole.

And missed.