"Just the coffee?"

"Yes thanks."

There hadn't been any chit-chat, no enquiries into how her day had been or how life was in general - just business. It'd been a relief, to be honest, for Rona not to have to talk about herself for once. Not like when she was in Melbourne, and she went to her local café: oh, sure, most of the time she loved it, how they all knew her face there, how they stopped by her table and cracked jokes, made wry remarks, smiled and winked when they brought her whatever she'd ordered. But sometimes it was nice just to be completely anonymous, not to have to raise yourself to anyone's expectations. Like when she'd sat down at that café in the Five Ways, in Paddington, back in Sydney, end of last year. Just: "Coffee?" "Yes."

"So I heard through the grapevine" Rona said to Hannah, while Sacha was in the kitchen putting the finishing touches on their dinner, "that something happened between you and Janine."

"What? How the hell did you hear that?"

"I just heard it."

"Right. Man, that's a little bit freaky, you know?"

Rona hadn't told Hannah that she'd be going up to Sydney, of course. Now, months later, she still hadn't told her why she'd gone there. It just seemed easier that way. She didn't want pity: she couldn't stand the thought of all that pity that was bound to come her way. From Hannah, from Sacha, from Phuong . . . God, it would wash off them in waves! How was anyone expected to keep going under all that weight? She wouldn't be able to handle it. Not after all the work she'd done to get her head back above the water-line. When she'd first come back to Melbourne in the new year, she'd gone to her local café and the head waiter there had said:

"Haven't seen you in a while."

"No" Rona had replied, and there'd been a pause while she'd thought hard about how much she wanted to tell him, how much she wanted to tell anyone. "I went home for Christmas" was what she settled on eventually, and that'd been the story ever since. It was nice, it was discreet, it was sterile. Couldn't argue with going home for Christmas. Couldn't question it.

"Well, the truth of it" Hannah said, "is that I broke up with her. I guess you were right, right from the beginning. It wasn't doing me any good, being in that relationship.

"And this happened - what, days ago?"

"God, I'm sorry Rona, I should've rung you up and told you straight away. I mean, I know it's the kind of thing you'd want to know about. But . . . I dunno, I just didn't want to talk about it, I guess. Not then. It's weird, I dunno. I'm sorry though, okay? I should've told you when it happened."

Just the coffee?

Yes thanks.

Rona shrugged. "Hey" she said, "don't worry about it. You don't have to tell me everything."