She laughed. “Are you referring to Melanie and Tracy?”

“Were those their names?” I asked. “I wasn’t paying attention.”

“Oh, but they were paying attention to you,” Rachel told me.

“Is that why the blonde one made it a point of telling me she could do amazing things with her tongue?”

Rachel burst out laughing. “She didn’t!”

“She most certainly did,” I said. “And the other one kept touching my arms and telling me how she could cut rocks on them.”

“To be fair, I thought the same thing,” Rachel said, but I could tell she was teasing.

I laughed. “So, what made you decide to come to Jaredly?”

“Uh… I suppose I had no place else to go,” she replied. “And since Brent lived here, I thought it might be nice to have a familiar face around.”

“Where were you studying again?”

“Virginia,” she replied.

“Right,” I nodded. “Did you like it there?”

“I liked the university I was enrolled in.”

“You did?” I asked, frowning a little. “Then why did you drop out?”

There was a second of silence on the phone, and I sensed that she was uncomfortable with my question. “You don’t have to answer that if you don’t want to,” I said quickly. “I was just being nosy.”

“I’m sorry,” Rachel said, and I was glad that she didn’t sound upset. “I just… I’m not really ready to talk about that yet. Is that okay?”

“Of course,” I said.

“You know what I haven’t done in ages?” I knew she was trying to change the subject and gloss over the nearly awkward moment between us, but I didn’t mind. I was just grateful she wanted to keep talking to me.

“Tell me?”

“Seen a movie in the theater,” Rachel replied.

I smiled. “Same here.” I nodded. “I love watching movies; my idea of a perfect day is sitting at home with a bunch of junk food and about ten movies ready to play.”

“You just described my perfect day,” she said. “When was the last time you had a movie marathon?”

“Geez… I can’t even remember,” I replied. “I must have been a teenager. I was over at a friend’s house for the day. We stayed in his parent’s basement and watched all three Godfather movies. Then we started on the Die Hard franchise.”

“Whoa…how many movies was that?”

“I think the fourth movie in the franchise had just come out,” I replied.

“So…seven movies.”

“Yup,” I nodded. “We were quite proud of ourselves. It was almost an accomplishment.”

Rachel laughed. “I love the old movies…Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Casablanca… There’s nothing like watching old movie stars on screen.”

“Do you have a favorite?”

“Audrey Hepburn,” Rachel replied immediately. “But Elizabeth Taylor was pretty amazing, too.”