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As it turned out, the one night spent at Avery's found itself stretching farther, longer into two, three and finally four nights. It was a pleasant vacation away from Mena, spent with bad '00s karaoke, endless marathons of 'Friends' and 'the Mindy Project' and, yes, lots and lots of strawberry popsicles.
The popsicle part wasn't on purpose, either. It was a (not so) happy coincidence, but the Michigan winter wasn't going down without a fight and Mother Nature effectively dumped over one foot of snow all throughout the city and its surrounding suburbs. Who said mid-March couldn't be snowy?
While looking down at the twinkling lights of Downtown Detroit from her vantage point in the warmth of Avery's high rise dorm room, Winter thought back on Mena.
Why couldn't she stop thinking about the woman and why couldn't she figure out what she wanted to think about her?
Almost as though Mena's ears were ringing, knowing her step-daughter was thinking of her, the phone began buzzing. Winter gazed down to it and actually felt a shock of surprise jolt through her after realizing it was Mena.
Avery was shocked too and, while turning the TV's volume down, murmured. "What the hell does she want?"
"Dunno. Should I answer?"
"What, and run the risk of the wrath of Mena if you don't?" The curly-haired girl questioned. "I'll pause the show. You go."
"Okay." Winter agreed while getting off the couch. She walked to Avery's balcony, opened the sliding glass door and stepped out into the unforgiving nighttime air. "Hi, Mena."
"Hello." Mena's voice greeted. "Where are you?"
"Still at Avery's." Then, the girl grew hopeful. Stupidly so. "Why? Is my dad there?"
"I'm afraid not. The investigators were by the house today again." Mena said.
"Oh? What did they want? Did they have any news?"
There was a pregnant pause.
"No. They just took pictures of everything."
"You mean evidence photos?" The mere concept caused Winter's heart to race.
" I suppose so. They didn't make it seem like it was that big a deal, however; they said they needed to see if he left a trail."
