Sacha met Hannah at their usual place - or rather, what had once been their usual place, back when their lunch appointments had been the usual arrangement. The staff there still recognised Sacha, and made comments to the effect of how they hadn't seen her much recently - and she wondered if Hannah had been coming in without her, and to what end, and that set her wondering what the purpose of this meeting was; and then she felt guilty for assuming it had to have a purpose beyond the merely social.

It'd been a little while since Sacha had seen Hannah, but Hannah remained the same as ever. She came into the café (Sacha, being the first to arrive, having taken a table as per their past agreement) in a gust of extravagant compliments and gleaming teeth, her grin as ever seeming to be a mixture of public welcome and private joke. It was good to see her again.

"How have you been? What have you been doing? You've been hiding from me!" Hannah laughed as she sat down and placed a hand warmly, affectionately, on Sacha's arm. "Tell me everything that's been happening."

It was an overwhelming request. Sacha's mind went blank. What had she been doing? "Not much, to be honest" she said. Then, grabbing at the first thing that came along, she added: "Still writing my column for the Word, but Si's made it monthly instead of weekly so that's a bit of pressure off."

"Well that's something" Hannah smiled.

"Though when I do write it, it has to be twice as long" Sacha said. "Other than that, just working. Same old."

"Still living in that little flat?"

Sacha frowned. It seemed a strange question. "Yeah" she replied. "Still there."

"I hope it's well insulated. With all this freezing weather we've been having."

"Good enough, I guess." That was something of an exaggeration: after her underwhelming first winter in Melbourne last year, the city seemed to have decided this year to show her what it was really made of. Though it still wasn't as cold as Canberra, it was certainly enough to set Sacha shivering. Her flat was not well insulated. The only way she'd kept warm at nights in the past couple of months had been by piling layer upon layer.

"I worry about you, sometimes" said Hannah. "Living in that place all by yourself."

"Worried I'll catch my death and no-one will find me for weeks?"

"Sacha!" Hannah looked at her, aghast. "That's a horrible thing to joke about!"

Sacha gave Hannah a cross-ways look. She'd thought Hannah would appreciate the joke, more than most people. "Sorry" she said.

"Listen" Hannah continued, taking a deep breath. "You know how a while ago I said you could move into my house if you wanted?"

"Yeah."

"Well - turns out my housemate's just given her notice. I need someone to move in straight away. And I wanted to offer it to you before I offered it to anyone else. I mean, I'd like you to move in. I'm serious."

Sacha didn't say anything for quite a long time.