Alain met Hannah on the corner of Collins and Elizabeth Streets on Friday night at 9:16 p.m.

"For fuck's sake" complained Hannah, "I've been freezing my arse off here. Where've you been?"

"It's the trams, man. I can't do anything about it."

"You could at least give me a call" said Hannah, holding up her mobile.

"Oops!"

Hannah put her 'phone away and put her hands on her hips. "Right" she said, "where're we gonna go?"

"Well . . ." Alain scratched his head, looking around. "Let's head north a bit, up towards the uni . . ."

Hannah rolled her eyes and groaned. "Oh no, are you gonna take me to another one of your fucking student bars?"

"Yeah, what's wrong with that?"

"Shit Frenchy, I can't stand student bars. They're always full of girls who think I'm making some kind of political statement by being a lesbian, or some shit."

"So what's wrong with that? Sounds like an easy way to score."

"It's insulting, that's what. It's basically saying that if I really tried to I could be hetero, I just choose to be a lesbian to 'strike a blow for the sisters'. It pisses me off. It's no different from someone telling me I could be 'fixed' -" Hannah made quotation marks in the air - "if I really wanted to be. I'm telling you, every time I go into a student bar I'm always hit on by some eighteen-year-old who's suddenly 'realised' she's always been a lesbian just 'cause that was the topic in this week's gender studies tutorial."

"Oh come on, you're exaggerating."

"You think so?"

"Come on, please?" Alain gave her a pleading look.

"Fuck, just 'cause you want to try out your pick-up lines on some poor undergrad . . ."

"Well what the hell else am I doing here? Anyway, it's almost 9:30 and I haven't even had a single drink yet."

Hannah sighed. "Fuck it, fine then. But -" she pulled Alain sharply by the arm before he could start off towards the bar - "if anyone in that place tells me I'm 'inspiring', you're buying for the rest of the night."