like a pact

"Are you serious?" Jane looked at Audrey as if she must have gone off the deep end. "You can't have a Valentines Day wedding. Not this year, anyway."

"We don't want anything big." Audrey was out to lunch with Jane. They were at their usual hangout. This time eating burgers with grilled onions.

"We? You mean, Aidan?" Jane was serious. This was a wedding. It needed to be big with family and friends.

"No, I don't..I don't have to have anything of grand proportions." Audrey assured her.

"Then don't get married on Valentines day. Wait until May or September. Think about this. Its cold in February." She looked out the window at the gray to black snow on the street. It was disgusting.

Audrey shook her head, no. It would not wait.

"Where are you going to live?" Jane sent her a humph look.

"Well, above his parent's garage." Audrey sounded as if not much would change.

"Really?" Jane bit into a fry she'd dabbed in ketchup.

"You two need to get this situated." She sighed.

"What about you and Asa?" Audrey didn't want to talk about her wedding anymore as she gobbled down her juicy burger.

"What about us?" Jane winced.

"You know?" Audrey was being mysterious. Jane scowled hoping she wasn't asking about their sex life, but she knew Audrey would.

"One day at a time. One day at a time." She said it as if it were her new mantra she couldn't get enough of.

"Any more from Duncan?" Audrey wanted to know.

"Do you have to mention his name?" Jane eyeballed Audrey.

"You know, Aidan and I saw him in the grocery store before you two broke up. He seemed really serious about you." Audrey mentioned.

Jane didn't want to talk about him. Yes, it was a bad experiment that didn't have a chance in hell of being a success story.

"Why didn't you say something, before? You could have told me about him?" Audrey sounded hurt now. Jane kept staring at her, thinking they'd had this conversation before. Did Audrey have to be on repeat about Duncan?

"Look, he..he would get these ideas, then..then he'd go away." She didn't want to say he'd go on a bender. But there were a lot times, she thought they were finished, and then they weren't. He wasn't much different from all the step-dads she'd known. Maybe Duncan was just like her real dad. She felt as if she'd been on rewind all her life. And now she was with Asa. She still wasn't sure if she wanted to think it was completely real, but it was.

"I don't know how you do it." Audrey shook her head.

"God, I can't believe you said that. I remember some of those guys you'd slum with. And you think I had bad taste?" Jane said before she took a mouthful of burger.

"I didn't say that." Audrey looked at her even lipped. She took her glass of iced tea. "Lets just think of good times ahead, OK?"

Jane clanked her glass against hers. She wanted more than good times, and she knew Audrey did too.