"Wow, I had no idea you were bisexual." Belle leans forward in interest. "So, do you prefer the ladies or the gents?"

Georgie kicks her sister under the table. "What?" Belle says in an innocent voice. "I'm just curious is all and I bet I'm not the only one," her eyes flickering toward Charlie who had sat up straighter at her question. "I mean, both you and Martha have been with guys."

"One guy," Georgie reminds her.

"Whatever, but you now both identify as lesbian and Charlie's always been with women, so I was just wondering who Joey liked more seeing as how she can go either way."

"She's married, that should be a clue."

"That doesn't mean she prefers sex with men over women," Belle argues back, before adding with a cheeky grin that maybe Joey just hadn't met the right woman yet.

Joey chuckles. "It's ok, most people who know I'm bisexual are usually curious."

"So?" Belle presses.

"As someone who loved and married a man but has since falling in love with a woman, I must admit that I'm curious as well," adds Martha. "When I was with Jack, I never once thought I'd ever be with a woman, yet here I am."

"Didn't you kiss Sally Fletcher in school?" Charlie points out.

Georgie looks at her girlfriend in surprise. "You did?"

"Well, um," Martha stutters. "It was truth or dare."

"Did you like it?" Martha blushes, looking down at her drink. "Oh my god, you did," Georgie grins.

"Ok, so maybe I thought it was nice but it wasn't until we got together that I really felt something for another woman and now that I am with you, I can't imagine ever being with a man again."

Georgie leans over, kissing her softly. "For which I'm extremely grateful for."

"What about you Charlie, you've only ever been with women, but did you ever think of experimenting with a guy like Georgie did?" Belle asks, distracted from her original question.

"I was hardly experimenting Belle," Georgie interrupts. "I just didn't want to be gay so I went out with Heath."

"Why didn't you want to be gay?" asks Joey.

"I hung around with a bunch of guys who were always saying these nasty things about us and I always remembered the things my folks used to say." She shrugs. "I didn't want to be one of those people they all hated or lose the only friends I had, so I pretended to be someone I wasn't by sleeping with Heath and even though I hated it, I kept on sleeping with him for the best part of a month." She twirls the wine glass in her hand. "I guess at the time, I was living up to my mother's ways."

"You were just confused Georgie," Martha says, resting her hand on her arm.

"Not really. I always knew I was gay and I had zero interest in guys but being with Heath was the only way I knew how to fit in."

"You could have talked to me about it," Charlie says.

"No offence Charlie, but we hardly talked at all and you were just about to leave for the academy." There was no reproach in Georgie's tone, but her words once again made Charlie regret the distance that was between them back then and to a degree, was still there. "Anyway, after awhile, Heath twigged I wasn't into it and also the reason why. He was ok with it, pretended to be my boyfriend while setting me up on dates with girls he knew were into girls and were discreet about it, until Brodie was mouthing off one day about me being like my mother and servicing all of the Boys and I blurted out I was a lesbian. As soon as I said it, I nearly bolted, but Heath kept me there and threatened to beat up any of the guys who gave me a hard time. They still gave me hell for a few days until the novelty wore off and they decided that because I was a girl, it wasn't so bad to be gay."

"You've never said who your first girl was, so who was she?" asks Belle.

"Jesus Belle, do you need to know everything?"

"Oh please, we're all women here so let's talk first times. Mine was Drew but he was kind of a dud and it was over in about three minutes and the condom burst so I spent the next few months worrying that I would get pregnant."

"You never told me the bit about the condom," her sister says.

"I would have if I'd gotten pregnant but I didn't and the whole thing was embarrassing and I just wanted to forget it."

"Hugo," Martha says. "I wanted to wait until our wedding night, but he planned this romantic getaway and we ended up skinny dipping and doing it on the beach. As first times go, it wasn't too bad but sex with Hugo didn't really set my world alight so I'm very glad I called off our engagement or I'd have had to have learned to fake it."

"Janet Rose," adds Joey. "During a sleep over at her place and the first boy was a month later."

"Sally Fletcher," Charlie admits, causing Georgie to spit out her wine.

"Sorry," she coughs. "How the hell did that happen, I mean I know about her kiss with Martha now, but she's been with Flynn like, forever."

"It was just before she got with Flynn. Her brother Christopher had just come out and she'd just kissed Martha and it all had her questioning her sexuality."

"How exactly did you end up in bed with Miss Prim n' Proper though?"

"We were in a caravan to study for a test in peace."

"Biology?" Georgie jokes.

Charlie's blush confirming Georgie's guess. "Anyway, I wasn't exactly out at the time but most people knew and we kind of just," she shrugs. "Did it."

"But how did you get from studying books to studying her anatomy up close and personal?"

"You're as bad as your sister," Charlie glares at her cousin. "It doesn't matter how and for the record, it was nice, at least for me. For Sally, it made her realise she wasn't attracted to me or any girl in that way."

"So who was your first girl?" Belle asks again.

"Tegan."

"You're shitting me!" Charlie blurts out. "She was Brax's girlfriend all through school."

"They'd just broken up and she was sick of being jerked around by a guy. We dated in secret for about a month, then she found out she was pregnant. I knew the baby wasn't mine," she adds with a cheeky grin, "But we decided to end it. She always said she never regretted our time together but she just wasn't interested in anything long term or girls in that way."

"If Brax ever found out."

"They were already over."

"She's the mother of his daughter and you know how jealous he can be."

"Yeah and it didn't stop him sleeping around the entire time he was with Tegan."

"How did we get on this subject anyway?" Martha asks, hoping to avoid any argument between Charlie and Georgie.

They all turn to Belle, who looks over at Joey. "That's right, you never did answer my question." With all eyes on her, Joey sips her wine. "Come on Joey, ladies or gents," Belle prods her again.

"Ladies," Joey admits.

"Then why did you marry a man?" Charlie couldn't stop herself from asking.

"He asked," jokes Joey. "Seriously though, I married Angelo because I love him but I have always enjoyed sex with women more because for me, it's always been more intimate and tender." She avoids Charlie's eyes as she says this.

"What are you guys talking about?" asks Ruby, rejoining them at the table.

"First times," replies Belle at the same time Charlie said first crushes.

Ruby looks between them in confusion before her eyes stay on her sister. "Charlie, I'm not a little kid, so if you're talking about sex, I'm old enough that you don't have to hush up when I'm in ear shot."

"Fair enough but I think it's a topic we can move on from," Charlie says, Joey's reply still running through her head.

"This might be a good time for dessert. Belle, why don't you get it from wherever you hid it and Georgie and I will say a quick goodnight to our son while you do," suggests Martha.

"That went well," Belle says some hours later as she helps Georgie clean up.

"Yeah, it did."

"Joey seems really lovely."

"Martha can't speak highly enough of her."

"Charlie seems to like her." Georgie's hands still in the sink, having a fair idea where Belle was leading. "What's the goss on them?"

"How about you quit with the 24/7 job hours."

"Come on Georgie, with the way they reacted to certain things and their mannerisms toward each other at times, they're acting like a couple who has been intimate." Her eyes widen suddenly. "Oh my god, they're having an affair!"

Georgie rolls her eyes. "I hope you check your facts before you go to print with that imagination of yours."

"It's so obvious Georgie."

"Really? Because they're not having an affair."

"Damn." Belle casts a speculative gaze at her sister. "You're keeping something to yourself though."

"Doesn't that tell you that it's none of your business?"

"No, it just tells me I need to try harder."

"You're impossible."

"And I just figured it out," Belle says gleefully. "Joey is the woman Charlie's been pining over these past months."

"How would you know she's been pining, you weren't even here?"

"Between you, Ruby and Irene, I was kept pretty much up to date on the goings on here." Georgie winces. She'd forgotten she'd mentioned on a few occasions that Charlie had been bitchy ever since she'd had a memorable one-night stand. "I'm right, aren't I?"

"Joey wasn't married at the time and now that she is and to Charlie's boss, they'd like that little fact kept quiet."

"Hey, I can keep a secret."

"You used to blab and tell me what my birthday and Christmas presents were before I even got them."

"I was a kid then."

"It was only two years ago the last time you did it."

Belle shrugs. "So, what's our fair detective up to?" she asks, changing the subject.

"Why don't you ask him?"

"He'd just ask me out on a date."

"And that would be bad?"

"I want the story on the fires, but I don't want people to think I slept with a cop to get it."

"You don't have to sleep with the guy, just talk to him."

"Georgie, you know better than most the way this place is with rumours. If I talk to a guy for more than five minutes, we're dating, if I go on a second date, we're engaged and if I order dessert two nights in a row, I'm obviously eating for two."

"How do you intend to get your story without talking to the lead investigator?"

"Oh, I hate logic," mutters Belle.

"Tonight was nice and I really liked Joey," Ruby says while Charlie drove them home.

"She's great."

Charlie's enthusiastic reply has Ruby studying her intently. "Charlie, you don't have a crush on Joey, do you?"

"Of course not," Charlie says hurriedly.

"There's nothing wrong if you do have a crush on her," thinking of her own crush on Aden. "But she's married, so it's not like anything can happen between you two."

"I know that."

"Then you do have a crush on her."

"It's more complicated than that."

"Charlie, is there something going on between you and Joey?"

"Not anymore," she finally admits. "Before she was married, Joey and I kind of got together."

"You slept with the boss' wife!" Ruby screeches in disbelief.

"I told you, she wasn't married at the time."

"I thought there was something weird going on."

"That's mostly because of me. We never expected to see each other again and when we did, I kind of made things awkward between us but we've been working things out and are becoming friends."

"You really like her, don't you?"

"It doesn't matter Ruby. Joey loves her husband and she has no intention of leaving him, so like you said, nothing can happen between us."

"I'm sorry Charlie."

"It's my own fault. I've treated sex far too casually and it was only a matter of time before I'd regret it."

"If she wasn't married, what would you do?"

"She is married, so can we not discuss things that can never happen?"

"Sorry."

Fixing a nightcap, Joey can't help smiling. She'd enjoyed herself immensely. Georgie and Belle were hilarious together, Ruby was a great kid, Martha continued to be a good friend and Charlie was, she sighs. Charlie was never far from her mind if she was honest with herself. The entire time she was telling them she preferred sex with women, her mind had been on that night with Charlie and the words she'd left out, like exciting and earth shattering. She did love Angelo and as enjoyable as she did find sex with him, it was always in the back of her mind that it was nothing compared to that night, in fact, nothing before had ever compared to that night with Charlie. Maybe trying to be her friend was going to be too much and she needed to distance herself from Charlie until she could put that night well and truly in the past, but just the thought of not seeing Charlie was enough to cause a knot in her heart.

She nearly jumps out of her skin when arms wrap around her from behind. "Jesus Angelo," her heart still running.

"Sorry, you seemed miles away."

"I was."

"How was your night?"

"It was great."

"I know a way to make it better," running his hands along her hips.

"Angelo, I just got home and it's late."

Knowing it was best not to push Joey too hard when it came to sex, Angelo reluctantly dropped his hands to his side. It wasn't the first time this had happened in their short marriage that Joey just didn't want to have sex, he just hoped it didn't go on for much longer. "I'm going to stay up and watch a movie, why don't you go to bed," he suggests. Kissing Angelo good night, Joey heads to their room.

Checking in on her a short time later to make sure she was asleep, Angelo sneaks from the house.