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so much. She was an expert at relieving tension with silly remarks. She was starting to feel a bit ridiculous, crying over a woman she barely knew. She’d spilled enough tears on Rita—she wasn’t wasting any more on her.
    “I can’t believe I stormed out of there.” Alex buried her face in her hands. “She must think I’m one of the crazy ones.”
    “Trust me. No one will ever accuse you of being crazy. You are the most grounded, sane person I know. If only we all had a bit of Pozzato in us, the world would be better for it.” Nat coaxed Alex's fingers away from her wet face. “Now, tell me what happened. I was just lacking some inspiration and there’s nothing like a good dose of lesbian drama to get me going again.”
    Alex told Nat about the discovery of Maddie’s flaws and her own—admittedly—somewhat disproportionate reaction to them. She collapsed back into the couch while uttering a big sigh.
    “Wait here. Don’t move.” Nat walked to the liquor cabinet and poured a generous amount of Amaretto into a glass. She padded back and offered it to Alex. “Drink this.”
    Alex didn’t protest. She brought the glass to her lips and let the sweet alcohol soothe her.
    “I fully realise I often abuse it, but booze is not always bad for you.” Nat plastered a crooked smirk on her face. “What do you say we get out of here for the rest of the weekend? I’ll check with Henry if his place on Lantau is available. Just you and me, the beach, some books and some really bad movies.”
    “It’s not because my taste in cinema is different from yours that it’s necessarily bad.” Alex threw a cushion in Nat’s direction, intentionally only hitting the side of her arm.
    “Let’s agree to disagree on that one.”

PART TWO

    MADDIE

    Maddie could hardly ignore June’s existence. She was there, in the office, every day of every week, with her low-plunging necklines and well-shaped calves, and she looked good. She glowed. As if her body had suddenly decided to thrive after Maddie’s last break-up with her three weeks ago.
    For Maddie, on the other hand, those weeks had been the loneliest in a long time. So lonely, in fact, she’d begun doing research on going back home. Back to Melbourne, where her sister lived with her two boys. Her parents. And Emma.
    Maddie let the memory of Emma swamp her. Five years ago she’d been convinced of making the right choice: her career over love. Emma didn’t want to relocate to Singapore with her. Fine. She’d go alone. Piece of cake. Yeah right.
    Expat regret, Maddie called it, when she browsed the internet for job opportunities in Melbourne. For the first time ever, after a year in Singapore, two in Shanghai and two in Hong Kong, she realised she had sacrificed too much. It’s not as if happiness was that easy to come by for anyone, and Maddie had made it especially hard on herself.
    A great view over the harbour was not happiness. An after-hours fumble against her office door certainly wasn’t happiness. Going home to an empty flat was most dreadful of all.
    Perhaps it was Alex who’d made her face the truth about herself. Good-hearted, wholesome Alex who needed organic food and honesty. She’d felt it with Alex—that glimmer of instant attraction. That afterthought, after first meeting, that this could be more. That it had potential. And then it had just faded out before it even started.
    A knock on the door yanked Maddie out of her pensive mood.
    “Come.” She straightened her posture.
    June walked in and closed the door behind her. Maddie cast a quick glance at the wall clock. It was eight-thirty, well past regular office hours.
    “Can I talk to you for a second?” June slanted her body against the door, like she’d done so many times before. What did she want? Was this the time for rekindling their affair? Maddie wasn’t really in the mood for that.
    “Sure.” She gestured at a chair. “Please, have a seat.”
    June took a deep breath and strutted