“Hey, baby,” Ashley said as she sat down next to Spencer. She was clutching her phone to her ear, but from Spencer’s angle, it seemed as though Ashley was speaking directly to her.

“What?” Spencer’s eyebrows cocked up.

Phone, Ashley mouthed, laughing silently at Spencer’s reaction. They were lounging around Ashley’s apartment. “I miss you too, Delilah. You’ll come see me soon, right? Okay mon amour, I’ll talk to you later.”

Ashley hung up and looked at Spencer, who was clearly trying to pretend she hasn’t been eavesdropping on Ashley’s conversation with her French girlfriend. “What, Spence?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Spencer said, the picture of innocence. “But like, you had this slight French accent…”

“I was on the phone with Delilah. She’s my girlfriend. From back in France?” Ashley said. “She got a little mad at me this morning. I told her about last night.”

“What? Why? I thought we were pretending it never happened and all,” Spencer said, feeling uncomfortable.

“Delilah and I have no secrets,” Ashley shrugged. “I’m gonna get into something more comfortable. Um, make yourself at home. We could watch a movie or something. DVDs are by the wall,” Ashley said, pointing at the shelf stacked to the top with DVDs.

Ashley made her way to her bedroom, pausing to plant a kiss on a photo by her bedside. It was taken nearly a year ago, a black and white shot of Ashley chasing Delilah around the park at the Eiffel Tower’s base. It was taken candidly by one of their friends, Ashley can’t remember who it was anymore, but she loved the photograph. It somehow managed to capture the emotions Ashley was feeling at the time, so full of joy.

Ashley flopped down on her bed. It wasn’t so bad in LA. She had only moved there for about a week, and was missing Delilah like crazy. Thank God for the nerds who invented Skype, Ashley thought. She had spent the last week buying stuff to fill her large studio apartment with, in an attempt to make herself feel less lonely. She wasn’t living with her parents, and she was just fine with it. In fact, she was the one who put them up to getting an apartment for herself. Ashley slipped out of her jeans and pulled on her comfy boxers instead.