Page 103 of In Sheets of Rain

“Ambulance. All of it.”

I studied my coffee and nodded my head.

“I miss the camaraderie. The friendships. I miss that.”

“Yeah. It’s like a family.”

I smiled. “A family with a black sense of humour.”

“There is that. Plus, they’ve never heard a rumour they didn’t like.”

I took a sip of my coffee.

“You wanna know the latest?” Steph asked.

“Sure,” I said, the coffee tasted bitter all of a sudden.

“It’s about you,” she said, and I lifted my eyes to her face.

“Yeah?” I murmured.

Steph leaned forward. “Everyone reckons you had an affair. That’s why you left Sean.”

“Do they?” I said.

“Yeah.” She studied me. “Did you?”

“Did I what?”

“Have an affair? I mean, why else would you leave him, right?”

“Why else,” I said, nodding my head.

And wondered when I had stopped being a friend and colleague, and become fodder for the Service grapevine.