Chapter 2

Claire woke up about 5:30 the next day. For a second she seemed to forget where she was, but when she saw Alex lying next to her, she immediately realized what she had done.

'Oh My God.' she thought as she jumped out of bed in panic. She hurriedly gathered all her clothes and got dressed, trying to make as little noise as she could. She needed to get away from there, she needed to get away from him. She couldn't let him see her like this. Not yet anyway. She knew that sooner or later they would have to face it, talk about it, but now was not the time. Now she needed to get away from this place that was suffocating her. She took one last look at Alex and left.

When she got into her ute, she felt like she was having a panic attack. Her hands were trembling and she couldn't collect her thoughts.

'What have I done?' she asked herself, but couldn't come up with a logical answer as to why she slept with Alex. This was so unlike her, she couldn't understand herself. Alex was her best friend and now their friendship was ruined because of what she had done. Sure, Alex had initiated it, but she was the one who let it happen. Plus he was drunk and she was sober, which makes it completely her fault. 'So stupid!' she hit the steering wheel with her left hand. The same hand that Alex was holding yesterday for so long. 'Geez, I have to stop this.' She thought to herself again and started the car.

When she got home she wasn't at all surprised to see Tess and Meg already up in front of the house. After all, it was after 6 and they were running a farm. Tess was doing something with the saddle and Meg was getting stuff for breakfast from her veggie garden.

"Where in God's name have you been?" Tess asked as soon as Claire got out of her car.

"I… I dropped Alex off last night and I didn't feel like driving home, so I spent the night over there."

"Well I saw you driving off with Alex, but we were still a little worried about you." Meg explained. "Is everything OK?"

"Yeah, it's fine. I was just really tired last night, so I didn't wanna risk driving."

"Of course." Meg smiled. "Well, I'm gonna go and finish breakfast. It will be ready in about 15 minutes."

"Thanks Meg." Claire smiled back.

"Are you sure you're OK?" Meg asked again.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm sure." Claire replied and sent Meg an assuring look. Meg headed back to the house. As soon as she was gone, Tess looked at Claire meaningfully.

"Oh you are so not OK!" she almost screamed and gave Claire 'Tell me right now' look.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Claire tried to pretend everything was fine, but she knew her sister wasn't that stupid to believe her.

"Oh give me more credit, big sister. I could see just from the way you were driving that something was not right. What is it? You can tell me." Tess pleaded. Claire looked at her sister with the most intense expression on her face. Tess didn't remember Claire being that tense in a long time. She knew this must be big.

"Will you promise not to judge?" Claire looked at her with a serious look on her face.

"Oh do I ever…"

"Just promise." She begged.

"OK, OK, I promise." Tess swore and looked impatiently at her sister. Claire took a deep breath and couldn't really believe she was going to say what she was about to say.

"IsleptwithAlex!" she said as fast as she humanly could. There, she said it.

"You what?" Tess couldn't believe what she was hearing. This has got to be some kind of a mistake. Claire couldn't have…

"I slept with Alex." She repeated, this time slowly and making sure that Tess was hearing everything right. She got her proof of that when Tess dropped her saddle straight on her foot.

"Ouch!" she shouted disoriented and didn't know whether to take care of her foot and the saddle or go back to staring in disbelief at her sister.

"Are you OK?" Claire asked concerned, as the saddle dropping looked quite dangerous.

"I'm fine, really." Tess answered as she moved her foot to make sure she really was OK. "But please tell me you're joking about Alex."

"I wish I was, trust me I do. But it happened. It was so stupid and irresponsible, but it happened." She said, still not being able to come to terms with the fact that she slept with Alex Ryan.

"But how? Why? I mean I knew Alex was drunk, but I didn't know you were too?"

"The thing is that I wasn't."

"That's too bad, 'cause that would explain a lot." Tess still couldn't believe this whole thing. After a while she asked "What were you thinking?"

"I wasn't thinking." She sighed. "I don't know how it happened. But when he kissed me and told me that I was beautiful and that he loved me, something just broke in me." She said with the saddest expression ever.

"Alex told you that he loves you?" Tess continued with the questions, trying to make sure that everything that she was hearing was right.

"Yes. But he was drunk and he didn't mean it and I know that. I know that, but I still couldn't resist him. Why Tess? Why did I let this happen?" she asked as small tears started rolling down her cheeks.

"Hey." Tess hurried and gave her sister a hug. "It's going to be OK."

"No, it's not going to be OK, it's not." Claire continued. "Because Alex and I are best mates. And now we slept together and it's gonna screw up everything, our friendship, our business… Everything!"

"No, it's not. You'll work it out." Tess tried to comfort her, but it wasn't an easy task.

"You know what the worst part is? That he didn't know what he was doing, because he was drunk. I, on the other hand, have no excuse. I was perfectly sober and still I let that happen. Oh he's gonna hate me. Tess, what am I going to do?"

"He is not going to hate you." Tess assured her. "But I am if you are not going to get breakfast with me." She smiled. "We'll talk about this later, OK?"

"OK." Claire smiled back and they walked towards the house.