After half an hour of sipping distastefully at her bottle of V.B. and smiling and nodding at everything an increasingly wide-eyed Jessica said and wondering with steadily decreasing patience when Jessica would grow bored and leave her alone, Hannah managed to drag Alain out of the pub.

Alain looked over his shoulder at Anne-Marie and Jessica as he walked out the door. "Man" he complained as Hannah set off along the footpath, "I was in with a chance there."

"Ha!" scoffed Hannah. "Enough beer and you'd think you were in with a chance with me."

"Hmm . . ." Alain sized her up out of the corner of his eye.

"Oh, get over it!" Hannah snapped. "You're not drunk enough to be that sleazy."

"Yeah, yeah." Alain trotted a few steps to catch up with her. "Where're we going?"

"Brunswick Street. It's almost 11 o'clock: cocktail hour."

"Cocktails?"

"What's the matter?"

"Sounds a bit . . ." Alain mulled over the words in his mind. "You're not gonna take me to, like, a dyke bar, are you?"

Hannah turned on him and looked him up and down disdainfully as she waited for the lights on the pedestrian crossing to go green. "I can't believe you. Do you even have any friends other than Mal?"

Alain laughed and clutched his heart in mock-distress. "Hannah, baby! How could you say such a thing?"

They walked for a little while, and when a bus rushed past something suddenly occurred to Alain: "Man, why are we walking like losers? We're living in fucking public transport central here."

"You lazy bastard" said Hannah without breaking a step or turning to face him. "It's like, fifteen minutes walk, tops."

"Oh, man!" Alain started to drag his feet in pointed weariness.

Hannah sighed and shook her head. "Oh, shut up."

Eventually Alain got sick of complaining and changed the topic of conversation. "So who d'you think was cuter? Jessica or Anne-Marie?"

"They were both thick as bricks."

"Yeah, but it's Saturday night so who gives a shit about that. Which was cuter?"

"I'd say . . . Anne-Marie was less irritating."

"Oh, sure, but Jessica had . . . You know?" He held his hands up to his chest.

"God, you're so fucking superficial!"

"Hey!" Alain exclaimed defensively. "I saw you checking them out!"

Hannah shrugged. "I know." She grinned wickedly to herself. "She was so busy making sure you didn't check 'em out, she didn't even notice me!"

"You see!" said Alain, "You're such a bitch to me, and I'm so good to you."