“Hey. What are you doing up?”
Nichole jumps, spins around. Her pale pink night gown swishes around her legs. “Sorry!”
“It’s fine?” Wendy yawns, shuffles into the living room. Her baggy gray sweat pants are hanging low on her hips, shirt sliding down on one shoulder. “You should’ve woken me up. I’d have come out here with you, if you were having a hard time sleeping.”
Nichole blushes, fingers curling tighter around the camera. The strap is biting into the back of her neck in a way that’s comfortable and familiar. “You and Bebe were up late –“
“I went to bed, like, five minutes after you. She stayed up talking to Heidi.”
“ – and I wasn’t up for any bad reason, or anything. I had to pee and then I saw the frost on the window and I just really wanted to take a few pictures. This is the first frost of the year, and you have a really nice looking yard, so…” Nichole shrugs, shoulders bunching up around her ears.
The frost is clinging to the edges of the window, creating a natural white frame. There’s fog on the inside of the glass pane, catching and warping the light from the lamp that Nichole turned on earlier. Wendy walks over, leans up against the sill. “You want to see something that’s really cool looking?”
Before Nichole has a chance to answer, Wendy presses her finger against glass, draws a large heart in the center of the fog. She writes her name inside of it and then, under that, she writes Nichole’s name.
Nichole’s face is burning. She ducks her head down, just a little, but her hair is pulled back and there’s no mane of curls to hide behind.
“See? That’s a way better picture.” Wendy grabs at Nichole’s wrist, tugging until they’re both standing in front of the window.
Flustered, Nichole snaps a messy, off-center picture of the window. “Yeah, it is. But, uh – you should come here.”
Wendy wraps an arm around Nichole’s waist. She rests her head on Nichole’s shoulder when the camera gets held out, turned around backwards. The flash goes off once – twice – three times before Nichole lowers it.
The fog is starting to fill the lines of the heart back up. Outside, it’s starting to snow. Wendy doesn’t let go of her grip on Nichole’s waist. “You want a cup of cocoa? I think I have a couple of packets in the cabinet.”
Nichole nods. “Sure. I can put popcorn in, if you’re going to stay up?”
“We’ll watch a movie,” says Wendy, agreeably. She presses a quick kiss against Nichole’s cheek before pulling away, heading towards the kitchen.
Nichole turns off the flash and takes a picture as Wendy goes.
