If Brent found himself in trouble, Mal was having trouble of a rather different kind. After his night with Angela, he was startled and somewhat pleased to discover that he was quite besotted with her: the pleasure was tempered, however, by the unfortunate fact that it was plainly not mutual. Oh, sure, she'd enjoyed their brief time together, and the morning after they'd even had sex again, of an almost accidental, dallying, giggling kind - but that appeared to have been sufficient for Angela. They'd spent a few hours together in the morning light, and then Mal had remembered he had a band rehearsal to go to, and Angela had said happily:

"Okay. Well it was nice to meet you."

"Ah, yeah you too I guess." Mal had frowned. It'd seemed an odd way to put it: 'meet' him. "Listen" he'd continued, "the rehearsal's only gonna last a couple of hours. Three, tops. Are you gonna stay here, or . . .?"

"Nah, I'll probably go out and get lunch somewhere" Angela had said, starting to flick through a magazine that was on the floor of her room.

She'd paused long enough to look up at him and smile pleasantly.

"Okay, cool" Mal had said. "Should I meet you somewhere? We can get lunch."

Angela had sighed, as Mal remembered it. "I dunno" she'd said. "I'm pretty busy. With uni. Exams, all that shit. Then getting ready for Honours next year, maybe."

"Next year?"

"I don't really have time to get involved in anything."

"Oh."

"I mean, it's nothing to do with you. I'm sure if I was looking for a boyfriend . . ."

"Right."

"And it's nothing to do with last night" she'd added hurriedly. Mal remembered her saying it hurriedly. She was a nice girl. "Last night was really sweet" she'd said. Sweet. Mal remembered that, all right.

"It's just you're busy."

"Yeah." Angela had smiled again, and cocked her head like she would to a dog, if she was explaining to it why she couldn't take it for a walk.

"Well, I mean, I'm pretty busy too" Mal had said, trying to level the playing-field. "But we could just hang out some time. You know, be friends." He'd much rather not be just friends.

Angela had drawn her mouth wide in a kind of grimace. She'd been trying hard to break the news gently. "I don't think so" she said.

"Right." Mal nodded. "Busy."

"Yeah." Angela turned back to her magazine. "You better get to that rehearsal" she said.