Run, Girl (If You Can)

The day before the wedding Keeley invited her out-of-state friends over for a dinner she insisted on cooking herself even though she was exhausted from just finishing midterms. Aaron wanted to have it catered because of how tired she was but she put her foot down.

Lydia, Jeffrey, and their significant others were normal people and she was going to do this the normal way. That being said…it was incredibly awkward when they showed up because both of Keeley's friends were obviously trying to hide their terror at being inside Aaron Hale's house.

Keisha and Collin were more curious than afraid since they hadn't known Aaron in high school and weren't from New York. Everything they heard about the man came directly from Jeffrey and Lydia.

"Hey guys, come on in!" Keeley greeted as cheerfully as she could muster, reaching out to hug everybody.

Aaron stood to the side and shook people's hands instead. Jeffrey barely managed to accept the handshake. He was dressed down for the occasion, wearing jeans and a navy blue long sleeved t-shirt but Keeley could tell he was nervous and those nerves translated into ice.

Nobody else would be able to detect the nervousness, just the waves of cold radiating off of him. Ah, poor misunderstood Aaron.

"Thanks for coming," he said stiffly. "It's nice seeing you two again."

"Yeah, it's been a long time," Lydia said a tad faintly, making a sincere effort. "What have you been up to the past seven years?"

"College. Work. About the same as you, I would reckon."

Lydia and Jeffrey exchanged a glance. About the same as them? No way. He was Aaron Hale!

Dinah chose that moment to appear and Keisha, an avid animal lover, immediately rushed over to pet her. "Ooh, Keeley, when did you get a second cat? She's so cute!"

Keeley thanked the heavens for a timely intervention. "I didn't; Dinah is Aaron's. He got her a little over a year ago."

Everyone stared at Aaron who shrugged as nonchalantly as possible despite his discomfort. She could tell he was trying very hard to relate to these people for her sake.

"The apartment seemed a little empty with just me so my friend recommended adopting a rescue pet. Keeley helped me pick her out."

"She adores him," Keeley said helpfully. "It's really cute."

The tension in the room smoothed out a bit and they all moved to the dining area where Keeley had set up dinner. The meal consisted of lemon and garlic chicken and oven roasted potatoes. She even made brownies for dessert.

Her appreciation for Collin and Keisha rose tenfold because they helped keep the conversation going as the meal progressed.  Collin had studied marketing in college and worked for one of the many tech companies in the Bay Area. He knew a bit about the business world and was able to keep Aaron occupied while Keisha helped everyone else stay relaxed and laughing.

Lydia and Jeffrey slowly realized that the Ice Demon they knew wasn't going to do anything to them as he continued chatting with Collin with a calm expression. They were amazed how different Aaron was now.

Especially since he gazed at Keeley with genuine affection as she sliced up the brownies and bragged about how good they were. She was a bit embarrassed at the praise.

"I think you're biased," she said.

He reached over and squeezed her hand on top of the table. "Maybe a little but they'll always be my favorite anyway."

Keisha thought it was adorable and made no secret of it. "You two are the cutest! Why don't you like my baking this much, Jeff?"

"Because you can't bake to save your life."

She kicked him under the table and he winced, making Lydia laugh. "Tactless as ever, I see."

Jeffrey scowled, not enjoying being ganged up on. He changed the subject quickly, talking about the two couples' plans for the rest of the weekend after the wedding. They were going to see a matinee Broadway show on Sunday together.

Collin mentioned it was too bad that Aaron and Keeley couldn't come and that they should join them on their next couples' vacation. They hadn't hammered out all of the details yet but they were thinking about going to Florida next winter.

She looked over at her fiancé nervously. He had never liked going on vacation, let alone with other people.

To her surprise, he responded warmly. "That sounds fun. We might want to wait until the baby is a little older though so we'll feel comfortable leaving it with Keeley's dad for a few days. Maybe the year after?"

"Yeah, that would work. We usually go somewhere together about once a year anyway."

Lydia smiled, less nervous than before. "The three musketeers and their spouses, together on vacation at last."

They began discussing possible vacation destinations and debated over the merits of cruises versus resorts. It wasn't the most riveting discussion in the world and Keeley found herself yawning repeatedly. It was nearly 8 PM and that was around the time she usually went to bed these days.

Aaron noticed immediately and put an arm around her shoulders. "I think Keeley is about to fall asleep so we should call it a night. Thanks for coming over, everyone."

They all stood and said their goodbyes, offering congratulations and 'see you tomorrows' as they left. Keeley was glad everything went as well as it did but she was dead beat. She remained lying on the couch as Aaron put away the leftovers and cleaned off the table.

She was really impressed with the way he handled things tonight. He hadn't been messing around when he said he would support her friendships. In their first life, they had never hung out with her friends but he didn't ever say why.

It wouldn't hurt to ask. "You did really well with my friends tonight. Why didn't you ever want to hang out with them before?"

He stopped cleaning momentarily. "I would have thought it was obvious. They were terrified of me. It isn't exactly pleasant dealing with people who think you're the devil."

Keeley never realized how much other people's fear affected him. She thought he didn't care about such things. Once again it showed how ignorant she had been of his true feelings back then.

"Then why—"

"I promised you would have the life you want. If you want to spend time with your friends, I'll gladly make it happen," Aaron said firmly. "I really don't mind much of anything as long as you're there."

He returned to wiping off the table, leaving her awestruck. That was an awfully romantic thing for someone like him to say. She pulled herself off the couch and went up behind him, wrapping her arms around him from the back.

"You're too good to me," she mumbled into the fabric of his shirt.

He patted her arms. "Just doing what I should have done all along. Let's get you to bed; we have a long day ahead of us tomorrow."

Keeley nodded and released him, heading up the stairs to take a shower. After tonight she felt much less nervous about how the rest of her life would go. Marrying him hadn't been her first choice but it was looking like a better option all the time.