"What do you mean by that?" Sacha demanded.

Hannah put her hand over her eyes didn't get up from where she was, lying on the sofa. Sacha wondered if she knew that she was taking up the whole sofa, and forcing Sacha to sit on the arm-chair, which had a terrible view of the T.V. "I just mean" Hannah said, "that you're not really that much of a party animal." She tried not to sound non-judgemental: she didn't want an argument. "Are you?" she insisted.

Sacha straightened her glasses, which Hannah had started to realise was what she did when she was trying to avoid answering something: fiddled with her glasses; cleaned them, pushed them up her nose, straightened them. "Well no, that's true" Sacha said eventually.

"There you go" Hannah said in what she hoped was a placating tone. "So don't get snippy about it."

"I'm not getting 'snippy'!"

"There you go again" Hannah said, and Sacha got the feeling of having been lured into a trap; but there was Hannah, reclining languorously on the sofa, looking like butter wouldn't melt in her mouth. Looking impossible to side against. Sacha wondered if she did it deliberately; she was certain Hannah must have some idea of the effect she could have on people.

There was a knock on the door, and Sacha found out what it took to get Hannah off the sofa. "That'll be Shelly!" Hannah said gleefully as she bounded across the sitting-room to the front door.

"Why doesn't she just come in by now?" Sacha asked. "It's not like it's her first time here." But she was looking forward to seeing Shelly: she was happy to see Hannah in a healthy relationship for a change, and having her so clearly devoted to someone seemed, to Sacha, to make life so much easier and less confusing.