Clara listens to their laughter, forces her own. Sips her wine as they swig theirs. She gauges the right moment to make her excuse, feigns a yawn—it’s been a wild week, hasn’t it?

At home, alone, Clara lies in the dark, calms her breathing. Being absolutely fine is exhausting.

Lesley also has short fiction published online at 101 Words, Paragraph Planet, and Wensum Lit, as well as a number of competition anthologies. She grew up in the North East and now lives in Hampshire.