Anger flashed across Giselle's face. Sometimes she hated how perceptive Laury could be. Actually, she hated it most times. The tiny nuances, the details, it scared her. Disregarding whether it was true or not, she felt like she needed to defend herself now. That was a position she never liked to be in, not with Ian, not with Laury, not with anyone.

"I am not. I may have a light crush on her", she responded. She was miffed at her coworker and showed it. Laury's offended expression changed into a frown and a weak smile soon. The woman took one pile of clothes and carried it into the entrance area of the store. "Sure, just tell yourself that. I'm sure Ian won't notice", Laury's words were harsher than the expression she wore. They stirred up more inside Giselle, "Even if I was, this is none of your business!". This made her coworker stop in an instant and turn on her heel, glaring at her with a piercing stare. Immediately the brunette pulled back, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean that. I don't know what came over me".

Laury held up a finger in a gesture to say she'd be right there. With practiced hands, the clothes vanished between others and when she came back she towered before Giselle, dominant and imperious. The woman was not taller, but the aura changed. It was intimidating. "I know what came over you. You always lash out when something comes back to bite you! I've known you for years now. Just get a grip, Giselle! Unless you face your emotions, you'll always feel like everything is slipping from your grip!", her coworker preached to her and Giselle felt very small. She didn't dare respond. And only after Laury sighed and changed back into her usual self, did she return to sorting through clothes.

Emptying the counter happened in silence and Giselle tried her best to avoid eye contact. Then her coworker and friend suddenly stood next to her and chuckled, "That's so not like you". The brunette started laughing, "Well, neither was your speech there". "True", the other woman joined in and both laughed the tension away. "Where did you pick it up, a movie?", Giselle raised both eyebrows and put her hands on her hips. "Not a movie, but I guess I stole it", came the sheepish response. "I knew it!", the brunette said more enthusiastically than she intended, "Thanks anyway, Laury". "Anytime, love, anytime!", her friend told her and turned around to serve the first customer of the day. Giselle went into storage and started to reorganize some of the boxes, get new stock into the shelves and ponder about the speech.

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On her way home in the evening, she realized that her feelings for Annie wouldn't just fade. She had hoped they would, especially once she turned her focus back to her husband, but they hadn't subsided. Her thoughts circled around ideas how to accommodate the feelings without jeopardizing her already strained marriage. It occupied and distracted her enough to make her walk like a zombie. From the bus stop into the apartment building, up the stairs to Annie's apartment door. She caught herself staring at it. It made her feel even more lost than her spiral she'd been driving her mind through since Laury had preached to her.

Giselle pushed herself through her own door and found the space empty. Ian probably had a longer day. That wasn't unusual. She took her heels off and fell into the comfortable cushions of the sofa. While pulling her thin socks off, her phone made the speaker play a soft lo-fi tune. She massaged her feet and noticed a message that had come in half an hour earlier. She must have been distracted.

Ian: "Something's come up, I'll be home late"

The text made her sigh. Didn't he want to fix their marriage? Maybe not as badly as she wanted to. Also he hadn't done anything to break it. At least not recently.

"Oh, this feels great", she muttered to herself as her fingertips hit a tense spot around the ball of her left foot.

When she finished caring for her sore feet, she glanced up at the ceiling. The evening sun illuminated the room and cast long shadows through it.

The room went quiet. For minutes, there was no movement except Giselle's shallow breathing. Then she slammed her hands onto the couch with all her might and grumbled a loud, "Aaaaaaaargh!". With it went a lot of the frustration and stored anger. Her face fell into her hands and she took a deep breath, "What the fuck am I doing?".

Finally she remembered a text. It had been forgotten. Or rather she had pushed it into a corner of her mind and decided to forget about it. She took out her phone and started typing.

Giselle: "Hey Annie. I'm free now. If you're still up for it!"