“My mom died right after we were born,” Josie said, resting her head on the back of the couch. “I don’t know much about her. It always hurt our dad to talk about her, but he kept lots of pictures of her.” Josie smiled fondly. “Lizzie and I used to hide in his office while he was at work and flip through the photo album. We made up so many stories about her and who we thought she would be.”

Penelope reached out and brushed away the tears that had started to fall down Josie’s cheeks. Josie sniffled and collected herself.

“What about your parents?”

“Mine are … strict,” Penelope said, leaning back and looking down at the almost-empty glass of wine in her hand. “They don’t know that I’m into girls, but they did send me to an all-girls boarding school, so …” Penelope trailed off with a dry laugh. “They would disown me if they ever found out, and honestly … they pay for half my rent. I kind of need them to think I’m straight.”

“Well if you ever need to borrow Mg …” Josie joked half-heartedly.

Penelope scrunched up her nose and avoided eye contact. “Um …”

“Right.” Josie nodded. “Racist too. Of course.”

“Sorry,” Penelope said. She leaned forward and refilled her wine glass. “Didn’t mean to kill the mood.”

“I can think of ways to … revive the mood,” Josie whispered, leaning forward and kissing Penelope’s lips. Her cold fingers trailed down Penelope’s neck to the buttons at the top of her shirt. 

“Oh …” Penelope said softly. “It’s definitely working.”

They abandoned their wine glass on the coffee table next to the nearly-empty bottle and stumbled towards Josie’s room. They fell onto the bed in a soft heap, giggling as they landed. 

“Do you ever just want to do something wild?” Josie whispered, trying to catch her breath. “Something completely spontaneous and outrageous?”

“Strict parents, remember?” Penelope laughed breathlessly. “That’s basically my whole life.”

Josie smiled, staring into Penelope’s eyes. She couldn’t believe she was about to suggest this. “Do you … do you want to make a sex tape?”