'So...' said Lucy. 'I suppose we'd better find out how to fly this baby ourselves and point her Earthwards.'

'So - what was going on between you and that that thing...'

'He's not a "thing" - he's just a perfectly ordinary alien and there was nothing going on.'

'He had his hands on your tits!'

'No he did not!' Lucy couldn't stand Dan at moments like this. Why couldn't he give her room? Why did he try and twist everything? What mattered was them: Lucy and Dan.

'What matters is us,' said Lucy, taking her cue from the previous sentence. 'You and me.'

'You and me and any other life-form you can get it off with!' retorted Dan.

'Jesus! Dan! You are so unpleasant!'

'I'm merely stating the facts.'

'Well, if you really want to know the facts: I never made love to Jurgen Zenzendorf.'

'I wasn't talking about Jurgen Zenzendorf!' Trust Lucy, thought Dan, to bring up another case that she could defend instead of the one they were actually talking about. 'I never even suspected you of going to bed with Jurgen Zenzendorf. I mean Jurgen was an asshole.'

'He was not! That's typical of you to denigrate my friends just because you're unbelievably, maniacally jealous!' Lucy was firing on all cylinders. Dan beat a hasty retreat.

'OK! OK! I accept what you say about Jurgen! He was a nice guy! I liked him. I liked his moth collection. I liked his mother. Jurgen was GREAT.'

'OrJimmy Clarke!'

'Ah! Now I know you're lying!'

'HOW CAN YOU SAY THAT!'

'Jimmy Clarke told me himself you'd been to bed together.'

'He's a lying bastard! Anyway! That was before I knew you! I don't want to talk about any of this!'

'Then why d'you start it?' Lucy was now yelling at the top of her voice. Dan found his drive to do whatever it was he'd previously felt driven to do shrivel into a limp rag of confusion. He'd actually forgotten what they had started arguing about.

'Oh, Dan!' Lucy threw her arms round him. 'Why are you always so far away?'

'I'm here, Lucy!'