Juniper looked over at both of them with a smirk on her face, “Yeah, the neighbors will be thinking, ‘Three short brunet girls running down the street… where do they think they’re going?’”

Lillian was quick to point out, “Well, Juni, seems to me you only be holding weight in the sections that matter most… .”

Evelyn glanced at the antique clock ticking softly on the mantel, each second slipping away like sand through an hourglass, marking the inevitable march of time. “Speaking of time, shouldn’t you be heading back soon?”

Juniper hesitated, her gaze drifting to the frost-covered window, the world outside a blur of white, the snow swirling like the thoughts in her mind. Outside, the barren trees stood stark against the leaden sky, their icy branches reaching out like restless fingers grasping for something more. The ground was dusted with a thin layer of snow that sparkled faintly under the dim afternoon light, a delicate beauty that belied the chill in the air. “Yeah, I suppose so.”

“Stay,” Lillian urged, her voice cracking slightly, her eyes reflecting a hint of wistfulness, a longing for things to remain unchanged. “It’s been ages since we’ve all been together like this. You haven’t been to bingo night in weeks.”