Going outside.

     Going out into the public.

     Sure, she’d been ‘outside’ in the last two months, but…but there was always a purpose. Talia was going somewhere, or doing something, or…or Parker was with her. Facing the great outdoors on her own…? Then again, Melbourne CBD was hardly ‘the great outdoors.’

     “I can chuck a sickie and go with you,” Parker said. “I’m sure Carter wouldn’t mind.”

     Talia really wanted to say yes…but she needed to do this without Parker or Carter as a support network. If she was going to become an independent woman and take control of her life, then she needed to do it without the scaffold of,...