Run, Girl (If You Can)

Keeley shook Jennica out of her melancholy thoughts by asking if she wanted to take the babies to the park with her. She snapped out of it instantly. Going outside right now sounded like a good idea. Thinking about death made even this spacious, airy apartment seem stuffy.

She kept a close eye on her friend as they walked around the park, trying to see if she was still upset, but Jennica couldn't detect anything. Keeley had gone back to normal. She either wasn't the type to stay sad for long or she hid her true feelings so deeply that no one was able to access them.

Considering the fact that nobody knew anything about her feelings for Aaron until she suddenly announced they were getting married, the woman was ridiculously good at hiding things. Did she really trust anybody at all?

Jennica knew the answer to that question. Keeley clearly trusted Aaron. She had never explicitly said so but it was obvious from the way she acted around him.

You wouldn't notice the wall such a bright, happy person had up unless you had a point of reference for comparison. Aaron was the only person the wall didn't exist with. It was a bit difficult to put into words.

The wall had nothing to do with being friendly, liking the person she was talking to, or even feeling comfortable around them. The only way Jennica could describe it was that Keeley and Aaron were the only two people in the world who were in on a huge secret.

If you watched them interact closely, the bonds of trust between the two of them were practically tangible. But  most people probably didn't notice that because they were too caught off guard by how lovesick Aaron was. He acted like a completely different person around his wife.

Which one was his true self? The cold, detached business icon or the gentle family man who smiled at his wife like she was the only source of goodness in this world?

Maybe Jennica would figure it out the more she spent time with him. After all, she still hadn't interacted with Aaron all that much and when she did, it was usually in a large group. The more people that were present, the quieter he tended to be unless Keeley needed something.

Seeing her friend stop and drink in the scenery of the park as the breeze gently blew through her blonde hair made Jennica smile. Keeley was happy and that was what mattered.

"Isn't it a beautiful day?" Keeley sighed happily.

The sun shone brightly in the cloudless sky and filtered through the leaves on the trees casting fragmented shadows everywhere. The sounds of chatting, laughter, and cooing pigeons could be heard anywhere you turned. This scene encompassed all of the good things about New York City.

Jennica didn't love New York as much as her friend did since she hadn't been raised here but she had lived here long enough for it to feel like home. If she tried moving somewhere else at this point, the lack of background noise would feel wrong.

It had definitely taken some getting used to when she first moved here though. Many nights were spent tossing and turning because of cars honking at 1 AM. After a while, they were almost like a lullaby.

After moving in with Cameron and experiencing the sweet silence that came with the thick windows of a quality apartment she sometimes even missed it. Sometimes but not often.

She loved Cameron's place. Their place. Even though he had lived there longer, it felt like it belonged to both of them.

Moving to New York against her mother's wishes had absolutely been the right decision. Jennica had met the love of her life and a couple of friends who felt like the sisters she never had. Things had never been better.

After walking around for a while, Keeley set down a blanket for the twins to lie on and took them out of the stroller. She kept her babies entertained by making funny faces while Jennica people watched. You could find all types in Central Park.

"Do you believe in fate, Jen?" her friend asked out of the blue.

What an odd question. Keeley wasn't superstitious or religious as far as she knew. Why did she ask?

"What, that certain things will always happen no matter what choice you make? Seems a bit farfetched to me."

She let out a wry chuckle. "Yeah, it did to me too. But there are certain things that happened in my life that have definitely been outside of my control so I'm not as skeptical as I once was."

Jennica wasn't sure what Keeley was talking about. Could she be referring to the accidental pregnancy resulting in her marriage to Aaron? Birth control failure was definitely out of her control.

She didn't seem regretful though. If anything, she was laughing at herself for how well things worked out in the end.

"I suppose there are some things in our lives that happen for a reason. Literally running into Cameron at that Halloween party certainly seemed like a fateful encounter," Jennica admitted.

Her life would be very different right now if that hadn't happened. What are the odds that two such compatible people would be in the same place at the same time in order for that magical moment to take place?

Suddenly she really wanted to see her husband. She had been hit with a wave of gratitude for being able to meet him at all in such a huge city with so many people in it.

"Want to go surprise our husbands at work?"

Keeley raised an eyebrow. "Have you ever surprised Cameron at work before?"

"No, I've only ever been to Hale Investments for those lame shareholders meetings where I had to pretend I didn't even know him."

"We should at least have a viable excuse to go there," she mused. "Maybe we could stop by a bakery and bring them something."

Jennica nearly snorted. She was 100% positive that Keeley didn't need to bring anything but herself and her husband would be over the moon. She went along with her friend's suggestion anyway. A chocolate croissant sounded really good right about now.