"See isn't this fantastic!" Rona said when she and Miranda got to Brunswick Street. Brunswick Street again - she'd said she was sick of it, but in a pinch she'd naturally gone for what she knew best.

"There's nobody here" Miranda said, looking down the almost empty footpath.

"Exactly" Rona grinned. "It's like we've got the city to ourselves!"

"Do you ever wonder about that?" Miranda asked. "All the people hidden behind closed doors? And if you ever see someone you'll probably never see them again, even though they might only live one suburb away?"

"Fun, Miranda" Rona reminded her. "Now where's Mal?" She got out her 'phone and checked it for messages, but there were none, so she called Mal. "Yeah, we've just arrived" she said into the 'phone. "Yeah, Miranda too. We just got here. No, taxi. Yeah, splashing out! Where are you? Okay, we'll come find you." She hung up and looked at Miranda. "Mal's just up the road" she said. "Having a beer. Let's go join him."

"Sounds good" Miranda said, though she didn't really like to drink beer.

They walked up the street, and Miranda looked in through the window of a café. All the chairs inside were upturned on the tables. "They're closing up, Rona" she said. "Places are starting to close up."

"Only some of them" Rona assured her cheerfully. "And anyway that just helps us make a decision where we're gonna go after we've met Mal. Any place that's shutting at -" she checked the time on her 'phone - "ten o'clock is probably dead, anyway."

"Well, yeah" Miranda said because it seemed obvious to her. Looking down the street she saw more shut doors than open ones. "I guess the taxi down here wasn't too expensive" she consoled herself.

Rona turned to her again. "Listen, Miranda, you're not taking the long view" she said. "This is how it is: this is gonna be a good year. We're gonna have a good time. We're gonna meet boys and break their hearts and sometimes if they're lucky we'll invite them back to our place and we're gonna make new friends and maybe we'll have our own hearts broken sometimes too and it's gonna be awesome and at the end of it we're gonna look back and think 'Fuck yeah, that was a good year.' But it's not gonna happen all by itself. It's gonna happen because we're gonna make it happen, you and me, ourselves, together. And we're gonna start tonight. Maybe we won't have the night of our lives, but we're building a house here. A new house. And that starts with putting down the first brick. Tonight's the first brick. Okay?"

"Okay!" Miranda yelled, and Rona couldn't tell if she was humouring her or if she was genuinely excited. They continued walking down the street in silence for a few moments. Then, warmly, teasingly, Miranda said:

"'A new house'? Seriously, Rona?"

"Okay" Rona laughed, conceding Miranda's point. "Maybe that was a bit over the top."