She lay out the cushions on the chairs and glanced out of the corner of her eye at the woman who sat just a few metres away, quietly saying nothing.

Alice figured she would speak, since through the open windows it seemed obvious that her house looked well lived in and she would therefore want to introduce herself, welcome Bette to the neighbourhood and perhaps give her the low down on the other two occupants who shared their private space.

But instead she said nothing, refusing to make eye contact as Alice intermittently stared, her head bent down towards the ground as she dragged deeply on the cigarette, clutching the rest of the packet in the palm of her hand.

“Hi …” Alice waved quietly, needing to break the silence,

The woman looked up, fixed her gaze upon her and then looked away, returning her eyes back to the ground,

“I’m Alice,” Alice offered, beginning to walk forwards as if she intended to walk around the pool and introduce herself in person,

The woman gazed up again and fleetingly looked afraid,

“My friend Bette … just moved in over there,” Alice tried to explain, pointing in Bette’s direction,

But the woman stubbed out her cigarette quickly and was gone, scurrying back inside, leaving Alice stood perplexed at the edge of the pool trying to fathom out what just happened,

“How rude!” she announced to Bette on returning inside,

Bette grinned at her, “What is?”

“She just … ran off back inside,” Alice explained, “never said a word, didn’t even catch her name,”

Bette couldn’t help but chuckle at her friend’s frowning face, “Maybe you scared her off?” she suggested, knowing it would rile Alice up,

“I never did!” Alice wailed, “all I did was try and be friendly, you’ll see …”

Bette grinned and nodded, not really caring either way, she hadn’t bought the apartment with the express purpose of making friends; she already had a good group of them and a job that kept her plenty busy. Nor was she looking for romance, though the quiet, solitary woman across the way intrigued her. Something about the way she forced her eyes to look away made Bette wonder what it was about other people that made her do that, was she shy or afraid, was she hiding herself from something or someone.