She made a pot of coffee, toasted a bagel and sat at the island staring into space. Amid many more important issues, one thing she needed to lock down was what she was wearing on Saturday. Bette had defaulted weeks ago to a black tux, no shirt or blouse. Maybe the one she wore to their wedding? God, that was sexy . . . Tina ran her tongue absently along her upper lip. And there were emails to do. One yesterday from a mentee needed a substantial reply. Also, the General. She needed a response or she’d be on the warpath when she arrived for work . . .

She took a sip. It wasn’t fair on Bette, to ignore tickets. Tina knew that. She also knew she should state openly what she wanted – but what did she want? A vacation? Sex? Bette to hire a proper fucking sous chef?

Sounds of movement above and Bette appeared. Normally she was spritely down the stairs, but this morning she was holding the banister and moving with deliberation. Tina watched, and very soon she saw why.

‘Bette, my God!’

‘I know.’

‘Honey . . .’

‘I know.’

Tina rushed to her. Bette’s left eye had swollen shut, like a shiny purple cowrie shell. 

‘Let’s go. Hospital.’

‘I put saline in it, but it’s really sore.’

‘Yeah, this is a hospital situation.’

‘I can’t, they’re coming to install staging.’

‘Dani can manage that.’

‘It’s f—’

‘Bette.’

She’d been pulling away, but now she stopped. Her face crumpled. Pain, exhaustion, fear. 

‘It’s okay,’ Tina soothed. ‘Honey, you’re okay. We’ll get you fixed up and you’ll be fine.’ 

‘Is Alice all right? She was really hammered last night.’

‘Oh. Yeah, I saw the bottles. Okay, I’ll look in on her. You get in the car.’

Bette moved to the door as Tina raised a ticket to the second-highest level to let everyone know that they were both off-site, minor A&E visit, update when they could.

***

In the chalet, some time later, Alice woke up to find gravity had aggressively recalibrated overnight. Her limbs felt like they’d been cast in lead, while her stomach felt entirely weightless, sloshing like a bucket of bilge water with every microscopic shift of her body.