Annie turned at the sound of the café door opening. The platinum-blonde, who she had confronted over Rohan, swaggered to the counter. She flicked her hair behind her shoulder and smirked at Annie.

"I'd like a cup of coffee to take away. Two sugars with lots of milk. I don't like it hot."

Annie clenched her teeth and picked up one of the Styrofoam cups. Who the hell did this woman think she was to come waltzing back into Ruby's like she owned the place?

"You might remember me. I work with Rohan."

"I remember you." Annie poured the milk into the cup. "How could I not."

"Yeah, how could you not." Sally sneered. "I want more milk. I told you I like lots of milk." She watched as Annie tipped out some of the coffee to make more room in the cup, and then said, "So you think Rohan likes you. I know he's not your babe."

"I don't think you know anything." Annie clipped the lid on the cup and slid it towards the woman with two sugar sachets on top of it. "Three fifty. Thanks." She lifted her eyes and focused on what she would have normally considered a very attractive face if it hadn't been for the spite she could see in the woman's eyes.

"Oh... I know a lot more than you realise because I'm his girlfriend," Sally snarled as she unclipped the lid and tore open the sugar sachets. She kept her eyes on Annie's while she poured the sugar into the cup, and then glanced away, picked up a plastic spoon, started to stir, and then focused back on Annie. "I can see why you'd have a certain appeal to him. Blonde. He likes blondes." She fluffed her own hair and added, "You need to know Rohan and I have known each other a long time. He's just pissed off with me at the moment because I stopped his ah... work place benefits, if you get my meaning, so he's sniffing around you." She looked Annie up and down with distaste. "From the look of you there is no way you'll be able to accommodate him." She put the spoon into her mouth, sucked on it, and then used it to point at Annie. "And don't let his little boy lost trick fool you. He's definitely not lost."

Anxiety gnawed at Annie's stomach. Surely Rohan wasn't like that. She wanted to claw the lying bitch's eyes out and wipe the stupid grin off her face but instead she said, "Three fifty."

"I'm Sally by the way. You'll want to know my name so you don't wonder who he's talking about when he calls out my name while he's... ah... lost in the moment with you."

Annie tried not to show any emotion so she focused on watching Sally's hand rummage in her pocket and pull four dollars out and put it on the counter. A feeling of nausea swept through her as her head pounded. She looked back at Sally's face and saw what she thought was sympathy.

"You're not the first and you won't be the last woman he's played up on me with. I can handle it because he always comes back. I just thought I should warn you seen he's got you thinking I'm the bitch." Sally turned around with a smirk on her face and wiggled her fingers at Annie. "Tootle doo. Keep the change. Consider it a tip."

Annie sank down behind the counter and gasped. She felt tears building in her eyes so she grabbed a serviette and wiped them away. Surely not? Rohan couldn't be fooling her. He would have to be a very good actor if he was. She'd ask him about Sally when he came in. Be up front with him and see how he reacted. Guilt was a hard thing to hide when someone springs a question you're not expecting. She took a couple of breaths and stood up. She called across the room, "Ruby I need to go to the toilet."

Ruby nodded as she looked up from where she was sitting at one of the booths eating her lunch. "You, okay? That was the bitch from last week wasn't it. What did she want?"

"Just coffee. I'll be back in a minute." Annie was glad it was a quiet day. She rushed to the toilet and washed her face. Closing her eyes, she breathed deeply in and out to make herself relax. Rohan wouldn't be like that. Not Rohan. Annie studied her face in the mirror. "I know people," she said out loud. "I'd be able to tell if he was conning me." She bit on her lip as Lyle's image flashed across her memory. Annie took another deep breath because she knew she wouldn't be able to tell. Lyle had been her boyfriend for two years and she hadn't the faintest idea he was having an affair. The biggest shock was that she had been the affair.

The pressure of a headache pushed against her forehead so she splashed some more water on her face and inhaled again. "Okay, Annie. If it's true there's nothing you can do about it. You ask him and tell him to bugger off if that's the case. The bitch is probably lying anyway." She grinned at her reflection, and then headed back out to the counter.

Annie looked up at the clock. It was close to one o'clock. Rohan would arrive soon if he was coming today. She rushed around the café and cleared any tables which needed clearing, and then filled up the coffee cups of the few customers who were sitting here and there.

"Hey, Annie! You want to play pontoon?"

"Not today, Harry. I've got a bit of a headache." She gave him a weak smile.

"Yeah, you don't look so good. Did you take a Panadol?"

"Not yet. I will if it gets worse." Annie went back to the counter and put a new filter in the coffee machine. She gazed out of the window to see Rohan making his way through the pedestrians on the footpath across the street. Annie hung her head, took a deep breath and thought, okay, here goes.

When she looked back up Rohan was standing in full view. Sally was standing in front of him with her hand on his chest. He was holding onto her wrist. Annie gasped; her whole body tensed as she watched the scene in front of her.

Sally was speaking and Rohan was listening, his face filled with stress. Sally touched her own chest. Annie could tell she was crying. She watched as Sally leaned into him and put her face hard against the middle of his torso and her arm around his waist. Rohan appeared to take a step backwards but then he put his hand on her shoulder.

Annie watched him look across at Ruby's. It was almost like their eyes met through the distance. He looked away, and then took Sally by the hand and led her back the way he'd come.

Desperate for oxygen, Annie inhaled loudly. It was true. Oh God! How could she have been fooled?

"Are you alright, Annie?" Ruby shook her. Annie gasped again as Ruby said, "What's wrong? Do you think you're going to faint?"

Before she knew it Ruby had led her to sit at one of the tables. Annie hung her head in her hands. "I'm okay. I just don't feel so great. I'm not going to faint."

"She said she had a headache." Harry's voice sounded close so Annie knew he was standing beside her, and then a hand touched her forehead.

"No fever. Annie is it just a headache?" Sid put his fingers on her pulse. "It's racing a bit. Let me look at you, Annie." He gently tilted her chin to lift her face as he said, "Bloody Swine Flu is going around." When he saw her tears he cooed, "What's up, Puss? What's going on? This isn't like you."

"It's... it's Rohan." Annie sobbed. "That... that... girl, Sally, said she was his girlfriend and not to be fooled by him. She said he was acting to con me. That he'd done it before... had affairs on her."

"What a bitch!" Ruby huffed. "She's telling you stories, Annie. I don't believe Rohan's like that." She snorted, "Come on, Annie. He's too weird to be acting. Well... not now weird but he was at the beginning. I don't believe it."

Sid patted her on the back as Harry took hold of one of her hands. "Ruby's right. He'd have to be one hell of an actor to pull that off."

Annie nodded, and then cried, "But... I... just saw them... across the street. She looked like she was crying and put her face on his chest. He put his arm around her, and then led her away. I... I... thought he hated her."

"She's right. I saw them too." Mal's voice filled the stunned silence as the others stood speechless.

"Oh, shut up, Mal. You're not helping." Ruby glared at him, and then looked back at Annie. "I don't believe it. Sid can a person fake an anxiety attack?"

"I wouldn't think so. Well... maybe, but not like the one Rohan had. I agree with Ruby. I think there's got to be an explanation, so don't go jumping to conclusions."

Annie nodded again and tried to pull herself together. Yes, there had to be an explanation.

"There's got to be a reason." Ruby sat down in front of Annie and took hold of her hands. "We saw how bitchy those girls were. Come on stop crying." She wiped Annie's tears away with her thumb. "I'm gonna give you the rest of the day off and I want you to take tomorrow too." Before Annie could say anything, Ruby continued, "You haven't had a day off since you've been here so you're gonna do this and let me handle Rohan. When he comes in, I'm gonna kick his butt."

"No, Ruby. I have to..."

Ruby chuckled and stopped Annie from talking. "I'm not gonna kick his butt but let me sort it. If he's genuine he'll have an explanation and if he's not you won't have to see him again."

"But I should. I should be the one to sort it."

"We'll say you're sick and I'll drop a hint I saw him with her. I won't let him know she spoke to you or that you saw him. I'll just ask him what it was all about. Okay? Then when you see him again, you'll be half prepared for the worst if you need to be."

"No, Ruby," Annie insisted. "I'm a big girl and I need to handle it myself."

"Okay." Ruby shrugged. "But you yell out if you need help and I still want you to go home now. Look at you. You're a mess and not much good to me like you are. The customers will run a mile if they see you all puffed up like a blow fish."

Annie couldn't help it but she burst into tears as she laughed.

Ruby shook her head. "You sure are one crazy white girl."

*

Well, well, well. If that wasn't a turn up for the books. Mal smirked. The blonde, who he'd seen with Bill Peters a lot lately, was after Annie's fellow. This certainly made things a little more interesting.

Sally!! Will you ever stop being such a bitch?

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