Gina and Olivia were not originally friends, no. Originally Olivia was Jake's girlfriend, and I'm not 100% sure why she was in the story, except I knew she needed to be there. Then it turned out that she and Gina were roommates in college, which is how Gina met Ivy in the first place-- I originally thought she met Ivy through Danny, I no longer remember how. The best-friends thing flowed from there and from my relationship with my own BFF.

Oh, and Olivia feared Danny and Danny disliked her. Their friendship is one of the more pleasant surprises in writing this.

While I write the winter commentary, was there any reason you chose that in particular?