She wanted out of her marriage, not an affair. Or she thought she did. That’s what she had told her husband.

But she wasn’t out of it; not at all.

Yet that grey area was pooled around her, and her arms and legs felt stuck in it. If she moved a part of herself, it just landed in a part even greyer.

Essentially, she had just cheated on her husband. Even if she was planning on divorcing him. Even if it had been just for a distraction.

Or did that make it worse?

And why a woman?

Cora groaned, rolling over and burying her face in the pillow. The pain in her throat as she screamed, the ache in her head, were like a penance. She was straight. That wasn’t the problem. Man or woman, she had cheated. She had taken that step, one she had seen people at the hospital take, one that had seemed dirty, deceiving, and far from her. Maybe if she hadn’t let Lisa’s words get in her head Cora would have just stared at men too young and only in the realm of her imagination, then gone home and not fallen into bed—or on the table—with a woman she’d barely become friends with.

But she needed that friendship.

It was only recently that she had been finally able to breathe. Was it selfish to want a friendship after that? Would Frazer want to be her friend?

Should they be friends?

Really, it was all too hard to think about. There was a churning in her stomach as everything around her pitched and rolled. Why was Alec’s stupid tie there?

Cora only just made it to the bathroom in time to throw up everything in her stomach. An hour later, trembling, she was still retching on and off as she clung to the cool porcelain.

None of it tasted like last night’s alcohol; it was guilt that burnt her throat.

* * *

“Come out, Frazer.”

“No.”

Frazer switched the phone to her other ear and shoved her bag into the gym locker. An old lady in the corner glared at her as half the stuff tumbled back out with a crash and Frazer swore loudly.

“God, no need for the f-bomb. Just trying to get you outta the house.”

Pinching her nose between her fingers, Frazer took a moment. Her sister was just trying to be nice. Jemma liked to think she helped.

“Jem,” Frazer said, “I’m out of the house.”

A beat of silence over the phone. “Are you at the gym?”

For a moment, Frazer considered lying. But she didn’t want her entire day to be one big regret. “Yes.”

The groan over the phone sounded as if Jemma was in agonising pain. “See? The gym’s your second home these days. Come out for a drink.”