“But what can we do?” How she managed to ask that, she would never know. She hadn’t even realised she’d thought it.

“I made an appointment. With a therapist.” He looked up now, his eyes oddly hard considering his tone of voice. The last few years, she could never figure him out. Cora had suggested a therapist, tentatively, a year ago. The reaction had been explosive, negative. “Come with me. Don’t put me through this.”

A headache built behind her eyes as she did everything she could to not look at the table again. She held his eye. “No” was on her tongue. No. It wasn’t good for them. For her. For him. It was time to end it.

She remembered Frazer, sitting on her, shirt open and mouth parted. Her hips moving. The way Cora came undone on Frazer’s tongue.

“Okay.” She said.

He nodded. “Okay.”

Hours later, in the bed with sheets different from the day before, Cora lay naked. Again.

Across that canyon that was always there, even when attempting to reconcile, her husband lay, radiating heat and breathing deeply. When he rolled, he pulled the sheets with him, the wall of his back cutting her off from him as she put her hand over her mouth and sobbed.

* * *

Monday morning.

Almost eight o’clock.

Again.

Today Frazer would find out the answer to her project. That she had to do with Cora. Who she had slept with three days ago.

And the answer would come from Alec, her husband.

How lovely.

Surly and a little tired, her muscles aching from too much swimming and a headache induced by a family meal, Frazer slammed her door shut. The sound bounced off the parking garage’s walls. Maybe she’d done that too hard.

So. She would find out. Then she would be happy or sad. She would look at Cora as if they were workmates who were building a friendship. Not only that, she would smile or scowl at Alec, only depending on the answer he gave her. Nothing would be about her mixed-up emotions about his wife. She and Cora would discuss the outcome. Frazer would snark with Tia, and all would be normal. Frazer would be a friend, as Cora had asked her to be.

Completely normal.

As she exited the stairwell, Frazer somehow managed to turn the corner that led them through to the main hospital building and come face to face with Alec.

She blinked at him. “Hey, Alec.”

I had sex with your wife.

Why the hell was he here early, for once?

On your table. And in your bed.

At least Cora never came in with him.

“Hi, Frazer.”

His face was a little drawn, a little pale. Would she normally notice that?

“Hey, Frazer.”

Oh, good God. Why was Cora with him?