Mary’s honeymoon ended the next week, much to her annoyance. She had wanted to stay for an entire month, but neither she nor Josh could afford to be away from their jobs for that long, so back to Pittsburgh they came.

“I’m retiring to Hawaii,” Mary announced when she called me at the office upon her return. “And I’m so glad that Josh and I lived together before we got married. Can you imagine coming back to work and trying to move in together at the same time?”

“Nope,” I said, making a mental note that if Asher and I were serious we should probably move in together soon.

It had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that I liked Asher’s apartment way better than mine, with its massive shower and balcony and a living room finally big enough for all of my friends to come over and have a movie night. Nope. Nothing at all.

“So, I was thinking,” Mary said, her voice a little muffled as she continued to unpack from her trip, “Why don’t you and Asher join Josh and me for dinner tonight? If you’re free?”

I had told her about how Asher and I had made up, and Mary had squealed on the phone about that for what felt like hours. She was still pretty giddy about it, if the tone of her voice rising an octave just now was any tell.

“We should be free,” I said, simultaneously typing out an email to Asher.

Now that he was working in an actual hospital, he wasn’t as free all the time, but we were making it work. He’d admitted to me that he had planned on ducking out of the wedding early with an excuse of being called in for a patient in labor, so that he could avoid meeting Mary and continue his ruse. He hadn’t wanted to disappoint me and miss the wedding, but he had also wanted to avoid getting caught out. The fact that he had been caught out so spectacularly—well, that, he hadn’t predicted or planned for.

I got an email response back a moment after it sent. Asher must have been at his desk, then.

“Yes, we’re free!” I told Mary, who gave a whoop of delight.

“I can’t wait to see what you two are like together!” she gushed. “I’ve never gotten to see you when you’re a part of a couple, Jess; this is going to be great!”

She sounded almost as excited as my parents had when I’d explained the entire story to them—with certain parts heavily edited. As far as they knew, Asher had been assigned by Mary to ‘lighten my mood’ since I was stressed with work. He had fallen in love with me, but had been unable to find a way to tell me the truth of how we’d met, and then the whole thing with the wedding had happened.

They hadn’t minded the whole subterfuge aspect, stating that he clearly was in love with me the entire time—they could tell from the dinner they had accidentally crashed. My mom wanted him to come over so that she could cook us a proper meal and learn all about him—as if they hadn’t done all of that already at the restaurant.

“I’m sure we’ll all have fun,” I told Mary, and then relaxed—because this would be fun.

It was my best friend, her new husband who I really liked, Asher, who already knew and liked Mary and who I was sure would get along well with Josh…what was wrong with that picture?

Absolutely nothing.

We decided to eat at the Italian place that Asher had taken me to for our first date, since we’d both enjoyed the food and Mary wanted to give it a try.

The first thing she said when we sat down was, “I am so sorry.”

“Mary,” I chastised her. “How many times are we going to go over this? You can stop apologizing.”

“But I know how much you hate being the center of attention,” Mary said. She then leaned in towards Asher. “Don’t propose to her in public; she’ll kick your balls straight up into your throat.”

Asher blinked, then nodded, and I laughed at the look of mild horror and confusion on his face.

Mary turned back to me.

“I humiliated you, and I’m so sorry about that. I’m sorry to Asher as well, for outing you in that way, but mostly to you, hon. You know I love you and I was just trying to help. But you’re right—it was manipulative, and I want to do whatever I can to make up for it.”

“Mary, honestly,” I said, grabbing her hands. “It all worked out. Asher and I are together now and in love!”

A grin slipped across my face before I could stop it, and I wondered if that would always happen when I talked to someone about Asher and me.

“It’s all water under the bridge. Really, it is. You’ve been such a good friend to me over the years. This is nothing.”

“Okay,” Mary said, reaching over and giving me a hug. “But you’re letting us pay for dinner.”

“Deal.”

The rest of the evening was lovely. Josh and Asher got along well, as I’d hoped; their minds worked in similar ways, since they both had a passion for science. They also both had similar taste in television, and by the time dinner was over, they’d made plans to have a viewing party together for their favorite show’s season premiere.

Mary looked over at me, beaming.

“It seems that things are going well for you two.”

“They are,” I said. “I mean, we’re still in the beginning stages, and we’re both still really new at this, but we love each other and we’re making it work.”

There were times when we had to do things that neither of us had anticipated. We had different schedules, and sometimes one of us would be in the mood for sex and the other one wouldn’t, or Asher would find my piles of cosmetics in his kitchen annoying, or I’d hate how he sang in the shower at five in the morning, waking me up. But there were also the times when I woke up to him singing and loved it, and he’d see me with my products all spread out and he’d take a picture, laughing and calling me adorable.

We were making it work.

“So, when you two get married,” Mary began.

I heard Asher choke a little on his gnocchi.

“You’re going to make me the maid of honor, right?” she asked.

I looked over at Asher.

“It’s a little soon to be talking about marriage,” I pointed out. We weren’t even two months into our relationship, and we hadn’t even really been calling it a relationship for most of it.

“Anything could happen,” Asher said, taking my hand and smiling.

He was always good on the recovery.

“We’re taking things slow, since this is my first serious relationship and it’s Jessica’s first as well. We’re kind of figuring things out together. But never say never.”

“We’ll see,” was all I said, leveling a mock-glare at Mary.

She’d be the kind of person to start planning my wedding right away in her head.

Then, Asher squeezed my hand, and I found myself smiling again. It didn’t matter if Mary and my parents were kind of rushing things, or that we were still figuring it all out, or that we were not even two months into this thing. It was like I had seen with Mary and Josh at the altar, and had felt with Asher holding me as we’d watched everyone dancing at the reception.

It was as if nobody in the world existed except for Asher and me, staring at each other and just feeling, and being, together.