Marianne looks at her oldest friend as she ponders how to reply. "You're always Lottie to me," she finally says to the face that is decidedly not Lottie's.
Lottie, with her elder sister's face, smiles a little. "Mary, I know, but it's different with you."
"I get what you mean. Come, let me remove the cosmetics and prosthetics from your face. Go remove your contacts first."
Relief flashes across Lottie's face, and Marianne would be a bad obtuse and obtuse friend if she missed it. "Go," she repeats, gently but firmly.
"On it," Lottie says with an unmistakable lightness in her voice as she all but hops off Marianne's bed.
Once Lottie is out of her room, Marianne begins to think. She doesn't want to show any signs of ambivalence or uncertainty before her friend.
