Hannah checked her watch, and then looked up guiltily at Rona. "Actually, I gotta go . . ." she said. "Sorry. It wasn't long enough, was it?"

"We'll do it again" Rona said happily.

"It's just, me and Shelly are going to see a film" Hannah explained.

"Oh really? I didn't know there were any lesbian flicks on at the moment" Rona joked.

"Shut the fuck up!" Hannah grinned.

"What are you gonna see?" Rona asked.

"Batman."

"Oh, yeah. Poor Heath."

"It's not really my kinda film" Hannah said apologetically, "but Shelly really wants to, so . . ."

"Bullshit" Rona said. "You'll love the hell out of it."

"Yeah, I know!" Hannah grinned again.

In fact, she couldn't wait to see Shelly again. It'd been lovely to see Rona, of course, to catch up with her; but ever since Hannah had got up that morning (only just morning) she'd been counting the hours until she got to see her girlfriend. She hadn't seen her for a whole day! She felt silly being so smitten, but she loved it, too. She wondered how Shelly put up with her being so happy: Shelly seemed so much cooler about everything. Adoring, sure, but more relaxed about it. It was the role Hannah had traditionally claimed for herself in any relationship, so it surprised her to find that she was adopting the opposite attitude, and so readily.

It seemed like such a fluke, being where she was now. How had she lucked into this relationship? She supposed it was just her winning personality; she knew she was hard to resist. Still - Shelly seemed too good somehow. Sacha had called it their 'honeymoon period' - before going on to observe that a honeymoon implied a marriage, and that obviously there was the whole gay marriage issue, and Hannah had tuned out while Sacha had gone on some tangled socio-political monologue which Hannah got the impression was at least fifty percent Sacha apologising for perceived or potential faux-pas. Hannah had smiled and nodded, but she was thinking of Shelly's eyes; the lines on her brow when she smiled really hard; the first time she'd watched her undress, not for sex, but just because she was having a shower, and Shelly and Hannah had the house to themselves and Shelly had nothing to hide any more.

It was good to be going out to seeing a film today, though. That was real couple stuff. They'd tried doing it earlier, when they first started going out: they'd rented a D.V.D., but they'd never even opened the case. They opened up to each other, instead, because back then that was more exciting than any film.

Still was now, really, Hannah thought as she wondered whose house they'd go back to tonight. Still, it was nice to be doing the couple stuff, too.