"So I said to him 'I need it buster and I need it now!" Lilah slurred.

Kate ate the olive out of her Martini "And?"

"Lindsay said he'd put it back in my drawer after entertaining a client"

"So the point of your story is that you got your gin back?"

"True but that's a frantic 5 minutes I'll never get back!"

Kate finished her drink as Lilah's bucketful of whiskey was rapidly finishing her. She had a few hours to kill before her flight to Maine.

She looked forward to seeing her cousins again, childhood memories of building snowmen and sledging giving her a nostlagic pang. It would be

nice to live somewhere with proper seasons again.

She actually found herself quite nervous at the thought of being a real estate agent but she figured if she could handle being a cop it should be

be no problem. And she could always strip part-time, it was how she had got herself through college.

She gestured to the barman "Hit me again and put it on her tab!"

She indicated Lilah who was staring into her ice cubes. "So these 3 sailors walk into a bar..." Lilah began.

"I think I heard this joke"

Lilah looked at her puzzled. "What joke? I was telling you about my weekend"

Kate laughed.

"It's all his fault" Lilah decided. "Him and his brooding good looks..."

"And his dark eyes..." Kate agreed

"...and his earnest nobility..."

"...and his strong arms..."

"...and his English accent!" Lilah concluded.

"English accent?" Kate wondered, baffled.

Lilah wasn't listening. She turned to Kate and gazed into her eyes. "You're so pretty"

She leaned forward and gave an unresisting Kate a ravishing, devestating, all conquering kiss. She tasted like an extremely sweet distillery.

Kate sat back, stunned. Lilah collapsed on the bar top.

It was her last night in LA. She would never see Lilah again. And she was hurting, she needed someone, needed them so badly. Plus she had a few hours to kill.

"Where can we get a cab to her place?" she asked the bartender. He indicated a phone at the end of the bar.

Whilst Kate was calling the taxi the barman approached Lilah who was now singing "On the banks of the Ohio"

"Miss Morgan, about your bar bill?"

"Oh yeah, what did we agree on again?"

"$1000 or the end of the month, whatever came first"

"Is it the end of the month already?" asked a befuddled Lilah.

"NO!" replied the barman pointedly.