The poster said Bailter Space were playing. Peggy and Greta looked at it. They were playing at a bar, but surely if the two of them went and if the two of them went not to drink but to listen to Bailter Space – surely that would be okay. They rang Diane when they got home. Before they called, they talked about it for just about every available second, how they would ask. What was the best way of asking? Diane wasn’t the boss of them – she didn’t run their life, she made sure they understood that, said there was no way she could run anyone’s life, not even her own. But if they talked to her about it and she thought it was a bad idea, or if they didn’t talk to her about it at all, they’d never be able to get that out of their heads.

It was like the sex for money they were doing on the side. They talked to Diane about it because if they didn’t it would feel like an elephant in the room when they spoke to her – a massive hole in the conversation that they were stepping around. It wasn’t that Diane had opinions – it wasn’t that. She just knew things. Maybe it wasn’t even that. Maybe it was just that she’d done things, she knew what worked and what didn’t. Diane had definitely slept with some people for money so they felt like Diane wouldn’t sell them a bill of goods. But, also, they were still in that phase of wanting what they wanted and trying to work out the best way to get it and maybe thinking they had more power than they did to make people do things and say things – things they wanted them to do or say. Like, if they just asked Diane in the right way, they’d get the right answer.