“I can feel you smiling.”

The blonde let out a giggle and lifted Fin’s tank top, attempting to fit her head under it. The other woman chuckled and slid her hands under the cover to tickle Tess’s stomach, who yelped loudly as an immediate response and pulled out her head.

“Okay, okay, I surrender,” the blonde placed her hands in front of her, as a defensive barrier.

“Don’t get me wrong, I’m actually fine with staying in bed all day,” Fin grinned and interlaced the fingers of one hand with Tess’s raised ones. “But don’t you want to spend some time with your friends?”

That was true. She hadn’t seen much of them lately, not even Frankie, her flatmate. No, she hadn’t even slept there for quite some time.

“You reckon they’re mad at me?”

“Don’t think so. But we could, you know, get together.”

“Really? Is that alright?”

“Why not? I like them.”

“Oh, brilliant!”

Tess reached over to the bedside table to get her phone. Yes, Fin had seemed to like her friends back at opening night. She had worried a little when she’d had to leave her alone with them, but everything had gone smoothly. Flicking the phone open, she thumbed her way to Frankie’s number.

Fin peered at the small screen and cleared her throat. “You’re, uh, calling Frankie.”

“Oh God, don’t tell me you don’t like her.”

“No, babe, of course I like her. it’s just…” she scratched her head.

“What is it?”

“Look I… I hate being a bigmouth, but I saw something last night, in your flat.”

“What?”

She shifted uncomfortably. “Frankie was… with someone.”

“Oh. Oh! Don’t tell me it was fucking Jay.”

“What? Jay? No, no. Not him.”

“Then who was it?”

“Well…” she cleared her throat again. “Cat.”

What the…? Tess felt her mouth drop. Cat? With Frankie? Late at night? At the apartment? This was huge, and she didn’t know how to digest it. Of course she couldn’t call Frankie, or Cat – what if she was still at the apartment? She leaped out from under the covers, threw a blanket over her body like an improvised ghost and sped out of the bedroom, phone in hand. Fin went after her, getting under the blanket and walking with her towards the window, where they both crouched and inspected the other flat. It looked empty. Or they could still be in the bedroom. What now?

“I think I’m going over there. Wanna come?”

“Are you sure?”

“Well, it’s my flat too, it wouldn’t be suspicious.”

“Yeah, but… I don’t know, wouldn’t it be very uncomfortable?”

She nodded, even though she’d been hardly listening, and then glanced down at her phone. Her thumb wavered and then pressed a button.

“What are you doing?”

“I don’t know, my automatic response is to call Ed.”

Fin moved under the blanket and covered Tess’s hands with her own. “I know they’re you’re friends and all, but are you sure?”

“Not really.”

She turned to the window again and observed the stillness of her apartment. There were more questions than answers here. Sadie seemed to be out of the picture, but what about Sam? They were living together, for God’s sake. This was cheating with a capital “c”. But hadn’t they been dancing around each other ever since Frankie’s return, with Cat acting weirdly and asking questions and Frankie hiding photos of Cat not-so-secretly? Was this thing bound to happen? Should she let it follow its natural course?

Tess glanced at Fin and snapped her phone shut.