Chapter 5

"What the hell is her problem?" Alex asked baffled as he was watching Claire almost run out of the pub.

"It's nothing." Tess said avoiding Alex's eyes. "She's just had some difficult stuff to deal with back at Drovers. That can get to you, you know."

"I'm sure it can." Alex agreed. "She still seemed a little out of it today."

"Yeah, I know. I'm gonna go and talk to her." She said and headed out.

Claire was standing by the ute looking not very amused. Tess really felt for her, because the situation her sister found herself was really difficult. She was worried about Claire and about her relationship with Alex.

"Hey." She almost whispered as she walked up to Claire. "You OK?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." She answered, although Tess could see that this was obviously a lie. But getting Claire to admit she wasn't fine wasn't really Tess' main agenda for the evening. Whether Claire admitted it or not didn't really make a difference. "I'm sorry I ruined our evening." Claire added after a while.

"Don't worry about it." Tess assured her.

"I just couldn't stay there, drink beer or whatever and pretend like everything is wonderful and fine. Because it's not. Alex may not remember what happened, but I do and I just wanna scream. Not that this is gonna help the situation, but maybe it will make me feel better." She sighed and almost laughed at her own words.

"I can't believe he doesn't remember what happened." Tess continued the conversation.

"Yeah, me either." Claire sighed. "Or actually I do believe it. That's what happens when you drink one beer too many. I should have known better. I should have known he was not going to remember a thing. And first of all, I should have known that he was not being himself when he was saying all those things to me. I can't believe it took him a drunken love confession to get me to sleep with him. This is ridiculous. It's like I wasn't even myself when all of that was happening. Can you please explain that to me, because I can't even understand my own actions."

"Well, maybe subconsciously you wanted it." Tess tried to answer Claire's question.

"Wanted what?"

"Sleep with Alex."

"Are you crazy?" Claire seemed indignant. "Why would I wanna sleep with Alex?"

"I don't know, maybe you have feelings for him or something." Tess wondered.

"Do you even hear yourself?" Claire snapped. "You're being ridiculous!"

"Hey, you're the one who slept with him, not me. I'm just trying to figure out why, just like you asked."

"Well, I was looking for a more reasonable explanation like 'Someone possessed your soul that night' or 'You were temporarily insane' or something to that effect.

Tess laughed. "Now do you even your yourself?" she asked still with a smile on her face.

"What? Those are the only logical explanations of why I could have slept with Alex. I think I'm gonna spend the rest of my life wondering why I did that."

"Would you take it back if you could?" Tess looked at her sister questioningly.

"What do you mean?" Claire didn't seem to understand Tess' question.

"Well, if you could turn back time and relive that night once again, would you have walked away from him?"

Claire didn't really know what answer to give Tess. She hated the situation between her and Alex and she wished things could go back to normal, but when she remembered his touch from that night, she honestly didn't know whether she would have been able to do it any differently than she did.

"That's what I thought." Tess smiled devilishly.

"What?"

"You enjoyed it too much, huh?" she winked at Claire.

"Excuse me!" Claire was getting more and more annoyed with her sisters questions.

"Oh come on, Claire. Woman to woman, he was good, wasn't he? I know he was, I can see it in your eyes."

"Can we please not talk about this right now? Or ever actually." She said and hurriedly got into the car. "Let's just go back home, OK?"

"OK." Tess agreed. "But I still think you enjoyed the Alex lovin' and you don't wanna admit it." She said and took the front passenger seat next to Claire.

"OK, first of all, I beg of you don't call it Alex lovin'. And second of all, even if I did enjoy it, you will never know."

"Oh I already do." Tess grinned. "I can read your mind, you know. Seriously, your eyes say it all."

"I'll tell you what my eyes are saying now. They are saying 'shut up or I'll leave you here and you will be walkin' home'. That is what they're saying.

"OK, subject closed." Tess laughed and after a pause added. "For today."

"The night is quite warm, I think you will enjoy the walk." Claire said firmly as she sent Tess an icy cold look.

"OK, not a word more." Tess promised. "And I wouldn't give up that easily if you weren't that scary." She laughed.

"You think I'm scary now? You should see me on my bad day." She proclaimed.

"Oh I have and that's why I know how scary you can be." Tess winked at her sister and they both started laughing.