There was a knock on the door, and Sacha went to answer it. She could hear Hannah showering loudly, even from the other end of the house where she'd been: the water rushing out under high pressure, Hannah singing a song that Sacha had never heard before. She'd been in the shower for ages. People here, Sacha found herself thinking, didn't seem to be so aware of just how dry the country was.

There was a peephole in the front door, through which Sacha had sometimes seen Hannah spying on the people over the road late at night when there was some untoward noise or other over there; but Sacha didn't even think of using it as she pulled the door open. In Melbourne? In Brunswick? There was nothing to be afraid of.

There on the other side of the door was Janine. "Oh, hi" she said coldly when she saw Sacha. "Sarah, isn't it?"

"Sacha" Sacha replied. She knew Janine had made the mistake on purpose.

"Is my girlfriend around?" The last two words were stressed heavily, pointedly. Sacha sighed: she'd managed to arrive at some kind of unspoken understanding with Hannah, and now she had to deal with Janine? It was a hassle she could do without. "She's in the shower" she replied.

"Oh" said Janine without smiling, but with a certain tone of superiority in her voice. "Maybe I'll go and join her, huh?"

"Is she expecting you?" Sacha asked by way of reply. Really she should have said something more placating, but she wasn't in a mood to be nice to somebody who was so clearly hostile to her - especially if Janine was going to be so unnecessarily crude.

"She doesn't need to expect me" Janine said.

"Really?" Sacha folder her arms across her chest and leaned in the doorway. "Sounds cosy."

"Are you gonna let me in then? You can't just tell me I can't come in. I've probably been in this house more times than you have."

"You paid rent any of those times?"

"Paid in kind" Janine said, finally smiling smugly and with an unmistakable absence of friendliness.

"Oh. That kind of relationship, huh" Sacha muttered.

"What?"

Sacha sighed again and rolled her eyes. Come on, she told herself, snap out of it now. "Nothing" she said, and then, with a sweetness that made no attempt to hide the sheer artifice behind it, she added: "Would you like to come in and have a cup of tea?"