When they were inside Alexis brushed snow off Lara’s jacket in the dark entryway. They wordlessly took off their coats. Underneath her jacket, Lara was wearing a tight purple ribbed sweater that showed off her figure. Alexis reached out to brush some snow off Lara’s shoulder in a gesture that became an acquisitive, indulgent stroke down to Lara’s waist. They locked eyes and Alexis, smiling like she knew a secret, pressed Lara against the front door and kissed her briefly, then pulled away.

“Upstairs,” she said.

The stairs creaked. Lara couldn’t see very much in the dark rooms. She felt like a teenager again, sneaking around in someone else’s house.

Alexis’s room was huge and had a double bed inset into a big bay window, through which Lara could see that it was only snowing harder now. In between were bookshelves and bean bag chairs, an open violin case, posters and prints on the walls. There was a shelf full of childhood things — oil pastels, asymmetrical handmade ceramics, two dolls with stringy yellow hair. When she flicked the light switch, two red Chinese lanterns hanging from the center of the ceiling lit up.

“My childhood bedroom,” Alexis said, with only some irony. She sat down on the edge of her bed, and Lara sat next to her. Alexis stroked Lara’s thigh with her hand.

“It’s, like, a preservationist project of my mother’s,” Alexis went on. “It’s important to her that I be reminded that I was twelve once.”

Lara rested her head on Alexis’s shoulder. Alexis turned and kissed her again, and then nudged her down on her back. She straddled Lara’s hips and grasped the back of her head while sticking her tongue in Lara’s mouth. Lara liked it but wasn’t sure where to put her hands, eventually settling for Alexis’s waist. She just left them there, and lay there, and didn’t do anything until Alexis stopped, pulled away from her, and looked down, her silky hair forming a curtain around their faces.

“Is something wrong?” Alexis said in a soft voice, a voice that was the opposite of the nasal growl she normally used.

Lara didn’t say anything, but her facial expression must have conveyed something, because after a beat Alexis said, “That’s fine. I’m too tired anyway.”

They both lay down next to each other, looking up at the snow collecting at the top of the bay window the head of the bed was set into.

Alexis said, “I’m so sorry if I did anything that, you know — ”

Her voice was so soft, so gentle, so genuinely concerned and unguarded.

“Don’t worry about it,” Lara said.

Her bed was soft and deep. She felt like she was being swallowed. Lara lay her ankle over Alexis’s, who in response curled her whole body up against Lara’s — a familiar, affectionate gesture.

“Is this ok?” Alexis said.