"What do you do at Christmas, anyway?" Hannah asked.

"What?" Sacha laughed. It was the strangest question she could remember ever hearing.

"At Christmas" Hannah repeated. "What happens? What's the deal? Is it just, like, a feast, or is there praying, or what?"

"How old are you?" Sacha asked suspiciously.

"I'm twenty-six" Hannah replied.

"You're twenty-six and you seriously don't know what happens at Christmas?" Sacha said wonderingly.

"It isn't a big thing where I grew up" Hannah pointed out.

"Well . . . Okay." Sacha blinked. "There's no one thing you do. I mean, it's different in different countries. And for different types of Christianity, I guess . . ."

"Are you stalling?" Hannah smiled.

"No! I'm just trying not to give a simple answer where one isn't warranted."

"Oh, it's warranted" Hannah insisted. "I'm a simple girl, Sacha. Don't make things complicated."

"I don't think you're as simple as you say you are" Sacha replied.

"Come on girl, out with it already! What about your family, what do they do?"

"Usually we stay in Canberra. Sometimes we go up the coast -"

"I don't mean where you go, I want to know what you do."

"Well the where is the what" Sacha said. "My family's not religious, so it's usually just an excuse for a holiday."

"Why do you celebrate Christmas if you're not religious?"

"It's a cultural thing! Anyway, hasn't Rona gone through all this with you? Didn't you spend Christmas with her a while ago?"

"She spent it with me" Hannah corrected her. "There's a difference. And mainly we just ate and drank."

"Yeah, that's about it" Sacha nodded.

"Really? Man, that's not very much."

"Are you and Rona hanging out again this year?" Sacha asked.

"I don't know" Hannah admitted. "We haven't talked about it."

"Well I guess you're not as close as you used to be."

"What?" Hannah sat upright in surprise and stared at Sacha. "What do you mean?"

"Well . . . You're just not, are you?"

"We are so!"

"When was the last time you hung out with her?"

"I've been busy! This is the busiest time of year for shops. Plus she's got that new job so . . ."

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry I spoke. I didn't mean it. Obviously I'm wrong."

"Fucking oath you are. God. That's such a horrible thing to say, Sacha! How could you say that!"