Chapter 3

A couple of hours later Claire and Tess were in the kitchen getting some lunch before going back to work later. Claire was still pretty shaken up after what happened between her and Alex. She knew it was going to change the relations between them and she was terrified to find out to what extend.

"What am I going to do?" she asked Tess as she was pouring herself some coffee. "I can't look Alex in the eye ever again. Hell, I can't be in the same room as Alex ever again!" she said firmly.

"Yeah, like you will be able to avoid Alex for the rest of your life!" Tess said almost laughing.

"Then what am I supposed to do? What do I do? How do I act around him?" she started panicking. "He is my best friend, what is going to happen to us now? Bloody idiot! I'm a bloody idiot!" she was getting more and more mad at herself.

"Don't think like that, Claire." Tess tried to comfort her. "You are not an idiot. And getting mad at yourself is not going to change what happened. You need to focus on the future and how you're going to handle the things with Alex."

"The problem is I have no idea, Tess. My relationship with Alex was always clear – we were friends, we fought, we made fun of each other, we teased each other about our love life… But now everything is just going to be so messed up. Why did I have to be so stupid?"

"Claire!" Tess looked at her sister meaningfully.

"Right." She stopped. "Focus on the future." She paused for a moment. "Man, my life is gonna suck from now on." She sighed.

"Don't worry, we will find a way to work it out! You and Alex have been friends forever, there is nothing that can destroy your friendship."

"Except us sleeping together." Claire pointed out and Tess had to hand it to her how difficult that situation was going to bed.

Suddenly they heard Nick's voice.

"Ladies!" he called out as he apparently entered the house without knocking. "Me and Alex are desperate for some affection." He joked.

"I guess whatever way you decide to handle this thing with Alex, you'd better start working on it now." Tess said meaningfully as Claire started to really panic.

"Oh my God, I can't do this. I can't see him right now." She said as she hurried to get out of the kitchen, but it was too late. She already bumped into Alex on her way out.

"Now this is gonna be weird." Tess whispered into Claire's ear. Claire sent her a 'don't even start' look and quickly turned away to avoid Alex's sight. 'Man this is going to be interesting' she thought as she finally decided to face Alex. She knew she was going to have to do that sooner or later. And sooner seemed like a better idea.

"Hello ladies." Alex spoke after a minute of silence. He smiled as he reached out to their fridge for a beer. "What have you been up to?"

Claire was waiting for some kind of a comment, or at least a meaningful look, something that would indicate Alex felt as uncomfortable as she did. Unfortunately nothing of that sort happened. She was absolutely baffled by his behavior. How could he just come here and take her beer like nothing ever happened? Did it not bother him that they slept together.

"Nothing much." Tess answered, also a little surprised by Alex's behavior. He took the beer, opened it and sat at their kitchen table. She shot Claire a 'what the heck…' look, but Claire shot back an 'I have no idea' look, so they just waited patiently until Alex was going to say something about the previous night. He never did.

"So." Alex finally said as he took another gulp of his beer. "I'm not sure what you're ladies doing in the evening, but Nick and I figured we could go to the pub and have a little fun. It's been a while since we did that."

"Yeah, we thought it would be nice to spend some time together." Nick added. "What do you say?"

"I'm not sure it's such a great idea." Claire said looking at Tess meaningfully. "I mean there is so much work to be done here and all."

"Oh we know, we know. But you don't have to stay long and you don't have to drink very much." Alex cocked her eyebrows at her.

"Sure, that's your domain." She answered a little sarcastically, but Alex didn't seem to get the reference.

"We'll be there." Tess answered even though she was fully aware of her sister's facial expression.

"Well, we should head out. We just wanted to invite you in person. Have a nice day ladies." Alex said and walked towards the door.

"Yeah, have a nice day. See you at the pub hopefully." Nick soon followed his brother and the Ryans left Drover.

Tess and Claire for a moment contemplated what just happened.

"That was weird." Tess finally summed up the conversation.

"Yeah, but it wasn't the weird I was expecting." Claire said, still trying to understand Alex's behavior.

"I know!" Tess almost shouted. "It was weird, because it wasn't weird."

"Exactly." Claire agreed. "Why wasn't it weird? Why did he come here like nothing ever happened and drank our beer? Why didn't he look at me funny? Why didn't he say something weird? Why didn't he make a joke about yesterday?"

"I don't know." Tess sighed. "Maybe he doesn't want you guys to feel weird, so he decided to just put that night behind you."

"But how can he do that? I mean can we do that? Can we just pretend like it never happened? I don't think I can, Tess. Even if he's not weird, I feel weird around him." Claire paused for a second and added "Did I tell you how stupid I am?"

"Yes you did and no, you are not stupid." Tess assured her.

"Yeah, whatever." Claire said and finished her coffee. "Well, I gotta get back to work." She said after a while and it was obvious that she was going to deal with everything the only way that she really could – bury herself in her work. She couldn't help but think about Alex and why he didn't even seem to care about the whole thing. Sure, she wasn't a teenager whose boyfriend turned out not to be as cute as she thought he was, but still sleeping with Alex did meant something to her. It wasn't something that just happened and was not to be talked about ever again. She needed to know how Alex really felt about it.