"Are you sure that's all he said?" Miranda asked doubtfully when she got home. "Just - 'The socket needs to be changed'?"

"Well, and something about the wiring" Rona said. "The wiring in the socket. But he said it definitely wasn't the switch. I dunno, I don't understand about all that stuff. He's a professional! He knows what he's doing."

"I bloody hope so" Miranda said. Somehow, Rona realised, they'd swapped roles: now she was relaxed and Miranda was nervous. She wondered if Miranda had had another bad day at work. "But it's fixed now?" Miranda asked.

"He said it was. I trust him. He didn't seem dodgy."

"Well, okay. I guess there's nothing we can do about it, anyway."

"Just don't go playing with any of the sockets" Rona said.

"Thanks" Miranda said sarcastically. "I was thinking of sticking a fork in one of 'em but I guess I'll have to think again."

"What are we doing tonight?" Rona asked, choosing to ignore Miranda's comment.

"I dunno - what did you have in mind?"

"Let's go out for a drink" Rona suggested. "Let's give ourselves a budget of, say, twenty bucks, and just go out and get a drink. We never just go and sit down somewhere and drink."

"That's because it's cheaper to do it at home."

"Come on!" Rona begged. 'What, are you just gonna wait for some handsome guy to come and knock on the door?"

"He doesn't even need to be that handsome" Miranda grinned. But she liked Rona's idea: "Okay, that sounds like fun. Where d'you wanna go?"

"No need to go over the top. Let's just go down the road. Keep it stumbling distance."

"'Stumbling'? Rona, just how drunk do you think you can get on twenty dollars?"

"Okay, so running distance if I suddenly realise I need to go to the toilet."

"They have toilets at bars, you know."

"Yeah but ours is nicer."

"Well that's true." Miranda started heading towards her room to put her shoes on. "Right now?" she asked.

"Uh - sure!" Rona said, taken aback by how easy it had been to persuade Miranda.
Miranda shook her head. "Coffee, coffee, coffee; beer, beer, beer. That's all it is in this town."

"That and football."

"God, don't remind me. The guys at work talked me into joining the tipping comp this year and I am hopeless at it."