Rachel pulled her legs onto the sofa and turned to intently glance at Giselle. Giselle warily raised her eyebrows and stared back. "Just out with it. I can see it all over your face!", Giselle sighed and found herself dashing through all kinds of emotions. One of them making her feel like an adult in conversation with a kid that was too shy to speak what was on its mind. The realisation left her distracted and ponderous about why she ended up looking at her guest as a child.

"I guess I had hoped to figure out what had happened, but now I know less than before...", the redhead admitted and tilted her head slightly. Giselle just laughed and crossed her arms, "Honestly I'm avoiding the topic. Not that I don't mind telling you, you seem like a nice person, but I'm not quite sure what difference it makes". "One cannot truly reflect unless they verbalise it through written or spoken recollection!", Rachel responded. The expression on the woman's face suddenly changed and matured her. The brunette blinked uncertainly, "What now?". "Do you want me to repeat it?". "No no, I didn't expect this from you". The redhead giggled in amusement and shrugged. The usual, easygoing, slightly clumsy person was back and the mature person had vanished again. What a weird girl, Giselle thought to herself and sighed deeply.

"You may be right about the connection between reflecting and verbalising my thoughts...", she trailed off and wanted to say that she did have other friends, but stopped herself. It would be quite rude to tell her guest that. She did bring amazing cake. After another deep sigh, she said, "Alright, here goes nothing". Giselle went through a brief version of how she met Annie, decided to indulge her adventurous side, how Ian and Celestine set up a reunion and how that backfired on all of them. Ian's brief excursion to see his brother and return home, she just quickly put into "Tried to make it work again" and the whole story ended with Ian cheating, the divorce plans and Annie and her evolving into an item. "That's the story. And here I am, probably slightly happier than before, but who knows how long that'll last".

Her guest had stayed quiet during the story-telling and shifted her posture from time to time. The smile faded into a serious expression, the eyes became a pool of sadness. Her soft voice didn't seem like Rachel at all. "You realise that this was on you, right?", she pointed out and didn't flinch for a second. "I guess so. Who can tell now what would've happened a week later? Does that make me a bad person? You look at me like I killed someone". Rachel didn't move and just stared with those sad eyes, "Eye for an eye doesn't make it right. You're not going to get approval for cheating on your husband. Yes, it makes you a bad person!".

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The initial surprise on her face faded and Giselle felt guilty all of a sudden. No one had been this blunt until now, especially as this was probably the version of the truth many would see. Annie supported her, because her view of the world wasn't of the traditional conservative kind. Her mother supported her anyway. Laury was her friend and had enough unconventional problems on her own. It probably didn't occur to them that Giselle's view of the ordeal would be skewed and stamped by her affection for Annie.

Giselle tried to speak up, "I… I....", but didn't exactly know what to tell her guest. "I'm not sure what to tell you, Giselle. I know you can't fix this anymore, Ian is gone, your marriage with it. Maybe he would've cheated on you anyway. Maybe not. What he did to you and Celestine in the past was cruel and mean, but that doesn't mean you can just do the same to him whenever you please!". "Yeah, you're right", the brunette responded heavily. Her gaze wandered up and she felt the backrest support her body. It was comfortable, but today it restricted her. The cushions crept up her back and around to her sides. She let them swallow her body. "I think I'll leave. I don't know what I expected. Yes, there would be drama, but I didn't expect you to be responsible for everything in this way. Luckily we're just neighbours!".

Rachel pushed herself up, packed her cake and left Giselle together with the guilt ridden expression. The hostess stared at the guest, surprised, unbelieving and even a little angry. She let none of it show. After all there was a lot of truth to it. Her actions were mean and despicable when considered on their own. The fact that Ian ended up meeting Celestine and afterwards even had an affair with her didn't justify her adventure with Annie. It was an afterthought. But to her it was enough. Yet somehow the whole afternoon had gone to shit.