Norma spend an absurd amount of time getting ready for the winter festival. Especially absurd considering she then had to add a coat to the outfit, that covered up the dress she had spent 45 minutes choosing. She had applied red lipstick three times before wiping it off, deeming it entirely too much for the occasion. She had growled in frustration at her curling iron, as she tried to get the short curls to frame her face exactly how she wanted them. Expensive perfume had been dabbed and dotted in crucial places, and her underwear matched her prettiest coat, the impractical one with the furry cuffs and collar.

Stepping out of her car, Norma wasn't sure what she had expected but it wasn't this. A canopy of twinkling lights had been set up, and delicious smells wafted towards her from where a crowd of people were eating and drinking and dancing. General sounds of merriment drifted over to her, and for a moment, Norma decided that she was just happy to be here, despite all the complications with her... "marriage."

Her heels clicked along the rain soaked sidewalk as she made her way over to the thick of the crowd, her eyes scanning the throngs of people for Alex's face. Her eyes eventually landed on him, standing on the outskirts of the other side of the event, where she could only just make him out. She waved, immediately feeling calmer now she had seen him, but he didn't see her, engrossed in conversation with someone Norma couldn't quite make out.

"Ooh. Excuse me. Pardon me. Thanks." Norma started pushing her way through the crowd, making a mental note to grab a hot toddy later on, as she passed a stall that smelled like christmas.

"Oops, excuse me." She trilled, as she bumped into someone, her hair momentarily tangling in their light-adorned umbrella, something she desperately wanted now she spotted how many people had them. A dreamy image of her and Alex slow dancing, while she twirled a fabulous whimsical umbrella flashed through her head, as she smoothed her hair back out, her eyes seeking Alex out again.

She frowned as she could finally make out who he was talking to - a pretty red head who kept leaning in and giggling girlishly at him. To his credit, Alex looked annoyed more than anything at the woman's advances, his arms crossed defensively across his chest, and Norma felt a swell of pride in her chest, as she continued pushing her way towards him.

Her eyes trained on him, she was only a few feet away, preparing to shout his name, when the atmosphere between him and the redheaded woman changed abruptly and Norma stopped in her tracks.

She watched as his hand shot out to grasp the woman's elbow roughly, his eyes flashing dark with either anger or passion, Norma couldn't quite tell. The woman laughed brightly, reaching up on her tip toes to whisper something in his ear, as Norma stopped dead in the middle of the makeshift dancefloor. Softly swaying couples bumped into her as she watched Alex talk to the woman, still too far away to make out anything that they were saying, but it was obvious they were quite close from the way his hand stayed glued to her arm and she leaned up to speak close in his ear, her body brushing against his. Norma's vision went blurry as unwelcome tears sprung to her eyes before she could stop them.

They're just talking, she told herself. He hasn't done anything wrong.

She was almost convinced, until Alex looked around, over his shoulder like he could sense her there, and she ducked on reflex, twisting out of sight behind a tall, spinning couple. Peeking out, she watched him glance all around shiftily, before digging his fingers into the woman's arm, dragging her away from the lights and the music and the crowds.

Norma didn't want to know where he was taking her. She didn't want to know who the woman was, or how long it had been going on, or what they were heading to do, but her traitorous feet had other ideas, and she was surreptitiously following them before she could convince herself not to. She watched from a distance until they rounded a corner, him clearly dragging the somewhat unwillingly-looking woman along, down a dark alleyway, away from the lights and the merriment.

Norma walked on tiptoes as she recognised his voice from just around the bend, along with the softer sound of the woman's voice. She still couldn't make out what they were saying, and she wasn't sure she wanted to - She just wanted to see them, to witness it with her own eyes so she could convince herself that Alex was just like all the rest.

Peeking round the edge of the brick wall, her eyes trying to get used to the gloom after the bright twinkly lights of the festival, Norma watched just as Alex gripped the woman's arms, slamming her back against the wall with a force that he had never shown to her. A breathless squeak escaped the woman's mouth and through the gloom, Norma could just make out the woman's triumphant grin, before deciding she'd seen enough.

"Oh Sheriff." The woman whispered, mockingly, as Norma turned and stalked away, feeling sick to her stomach. There it was. She had seen it with her own eyes. And it was as expected. Alex was just like the rest. She wasn't surprised. How could she be, when this was all she had ever known from men? Then why did she feel so devastated, her mind replaying the moment he had pressed her against the wall when they had been arguing that night at his house, comparing it with what she had just seen. She was just one of his women.

She was back at her car before she knew how her numb feet had gotten her there, and she paused, glancing back to the festival, before making a decision and turning back.

"One hot toddy please." She said decisively, taking the drink from the smiling woman's hand and downing it in one, not caring that it was about 50 degrees too hot to drink and apparently mostly whiskey. She coughed and screwed up her face, wiping her mouth on her fluffy cuff, before setting the polystyrene cup down on the counter and staring at the woman with a defiant gaze.

"One more. Hit me." Her eyes narrowed as the cheerful woman hesitated, her smile faltering slightly, before she poured the drink and handed it to her hastily, like Norma might bite her hand off.

"Thanks." Norma downed the second one, prepared for the burn this time, before reaching for her purse to pay the woman.

"Oh no. These are on us." The woman trilled happily, apparently ignoring Norma's strange behaviour.

Norma frowned, confused for a moment, before the woman reached out and patted her hand.

"Congratulations on the nuptials. We've all been hoping the Sheriff would settle down for some time now."

Norma glared at her for a moment, before rearranging her face into what she hoped was a smile.

"Oh. Uh... Thanks."

She turned away before the woman could say one more well-meaning word.

"Goodnight, Mrs Romero!" The woman shouted after her, and it was all Norma could do not to turn back and choke her. She didn't though. She was a married woman now. With a sense of decorum. So she stalked away without another word, waited till she was far enough away that no-one was watching her, and then kicked over a trash can, screaming in frustration.

The whiskey and the heat of the drinks and the hot sting of betrayal burned in her stomach and she half hoped she would get pulled over on the way home, just so that the Sheriff would have another problem to cover up.

She didn't though. She stuck to the speed limit, and belted out Fleetwood Mac and dissolved into tears about halfway home and stumbled into bed before the hot toddys could wear off and she had to really think about the last twenty four hours.