Let us write a story sentence by sentence.

hamish was learning fast. he wouldn't say anything to antagonise beth. she knew too much about him. he smiled.

'just leave beth. please just go.'

just then tanya appeared in the doorway.

'not now tanya.'

tanya didn't move. she stared at beth almost daring her to say something. she must have overheard the conversation. how could she not?

hamish loooked at tanya. he could see this situation blowing right up in his face. tanya had no idea what she was in the middle of. hamish walked to tanya and ushered her out of the kitchen.

'no. it's nothing. just a difference of opinion between friends. beth was just leaving. weren't you beth?'

hamish looked back at beth hoping she'd take the hint.

'who i choose to sleep with is not your business beth.'

beth was almost through the door when she heard tanya say something. it was almost a whisper. but one of those whispers where the person says it loud enough for the other to hear but quiet enough to deny having said anything of consequence at all.

with beth in her face, tanya suddenly felt less valorous. she didn't know beth and so didn't know what she was capable of. but still she wasn't one to back down from any challenge. she looked beth right in the eye.

'i called you a bitch.'

tanya smiled.

'i'm missing something here, i know i am. why am i such a threat to you?

hamish sighed. he almost had beth out the door and now he had a situation that was fast getting beyond his control.

'am i invading some sort of sacred turf here. is it that have a thing for hamish and can't imagine him wanting to be with anyone else? tell me. what?

tanya defiantly folded her arms across her chest.

as soon as beth was over the threshold, tanya slammed the door behind her. she turned to hamish, who was looking more than a little repentant.

'look hamish i don't want to know what that was all about. it probably really has nothing to do with me.'

the look that came over his face told tanya that she was wrong.

'do you want to tell me what's going on? it was a great night of sex but anything further than that i wasn't looking for. if i don't need to know. don't tell me.'

with this girl standing in front of him wearing nothing but his t-shirt, hamish found it a little difficult be straight with her for fear of scaring her off. when she leant forward and kissed him, his decision was made for him. when tanya walked him backwards to the sofa and sat astride his lap, all thoughts of beth disappeared from his head.

the minute i walked into the kitchen they both stopped talking and looked towards me.

'hey don't let my presence stop you two bonding.'

i walked to arlo. he placed his hand on my hip as i reached up to kissed him.

'i don't want to sound like some sort of shrew but it would be appreciated if i had some alone time today. i need to do some work and there's been too many distractions around me lately.'

'we can talk later freya. i really need this time for myself.'

the look on her face told me freya wasn't too thrilled with my rebuttal but too bad. it was enough that she was living i my space. i felt arlo squeeze my hand. when i looked at him he raised his eyebrows. i knew what the look was for but i wasn't going to change my mind.

'i'm going to take a shower. you can join me if you want arlo.'

with that i walked out of the room so no one would try and make any more demands on me.

arlo asks me this while running a soapy hand down my back. what did he expect my reply to be, i wonder? i turn to face him, tracing my fingers over the dragon tattoo on his hip.

'will just sleeping be involved? or do i have something more to look forward to? '

'don't push me arlo. i said i'd talk to her later.'