Big City Dreams

Sitting across from me was Jared, my first and best friend in college. We were sitting in cafe rustica on Beacon St a few blocks away from Harvard University. It was the first Saturday of the winter semester and after a grueling week of classes plus the more than I had bargained for trip home over the holidays we were in need of some fairly serious catching up. Sure we'd talked and seen each other a few times during the week. We'd even gone out for drinks the night before, but Saturday mornings were a bit of a tradition.

It started six years previously at a different school and a different cafe. University of Massachusetts, Amherst; it was the college I'd wanted to go to since I started looking at colleges in my freshman year of high school. No one else in my class went there, then again, half of my graduating class stayed in the town I'd grown up in. Not that Prescott, Arizona is a small town. It just, wasn't a big city. It typically isn't even on the map. Two hours north of Phoenix, two hours south of Flagstaff, just right there in the middle. So while I was double majoring in Education and Theater at UMass Amherst, Jared was majoring in business and had decided to to go for law school at Harvard. Now, a friend of mine was at Arizona State University majoring in Philosophy and he convinced me to take just one class. I agreed on the condition that he would take a theater class, so I ended up in Philosophy 100 with Jared who had lost a bet and ended up in the class. The professor, it seemed, had a sense of humor because he partnered us up on some project that looking back I can't even remember, and so we ended up meeting at the cafe on campus on a Saturday morning. We've been doing it ever since.

Over the years, Jared and I had become very close. We spent as much time together as possible when we weren't flying home for the holidays or dealing with the various partners we'd had over the years. Jared was the kind of guy who would show up with ice cream and a movie when you'd been dumped. He would bring me coffee in between classes just because. He would always buy my first drink when we went out. I'd met his parents, and he'd met mine. When we didn't have a date, we were each other's. We'd been to movies and parties and football games together. We pulled pranks and played games. We were close. Truth be told the only reason I decided to further my degree and come to Harvard was so I wouldn't have to be somewhere without him.

So Jared and I were spending the first Saturday morning of term, sitting in our usual booth with enough coffee for six people.

"So what happened with your mom?" He questioned, sipping from his cup.

"Ugh. The whole week she bitched about how I was working on an education career that wasn't going to go anywhere because more and more teachers keep getting laid off and there was really no point in getting a Masters or even a Doctorates degree in Education. She would not shut up on how I needed to settle down with Michael so I could start having kids. Finally I gave up and drove to Michael's house, only to find him fucking around with some bimbo from Phoenix. It was just ridiculous. Finally I flew back early. I couldn't take it anymore."

"Shit, sounds like your holiday was a lot worse than mine."

"Why what happened?" I prodded, sitting up a little straighter and pulling my legs off of the seat of the opposite side of the booth.

"Well..." He started. I leaned forward and raised my eyebrows, giving him the "well, what?" look.

"Alright so my parents decided to invite Monica over for Christmas dinner, 'cause you know, her folks died a few years back and now it's either spend it with a friend, alone, or in a home with her deranged granddad that has war flashbacks. Well she used to spend it with us before we broke up and this year my parents invited her over and they kept saying how cute of a couple we were and how cute our kids would be and all that bullshit."

I shook my head. "Fuck bro." I muttered.

"I almost think I ought to just marry you so we can get the damn parental units off of our backs."

I studied him for a moment, deliberating on whether or not I should say anything. Finally, after a few minutes of silence he laughed.

"Crazy as it is you have to admit, it would work."

I nodded slowly.

"How?" I questioned.

"How what?" he looked confused.

"How would it work? I mean sure, it would get the parents off of our backs and I'm pretty sure we could make marriage work. Hell, as it is we act like we're married without the sex and romance and public displays of affection. How would it work?"

Jared shrugged. "I guess I'd take you out to a nice dinner, definitely not our Saturday morning breakfast, and we'd talk and laugh and then we'd probably walk around for a while, see a few sights. Eventually we'd come to a nice spot and I'd get down on one knee. I'd probably fumble with a little blue box and stumble over words that I'd spent the morning rehearsing in the mirror, you'd say yes before I could even finish and as for the wedding that'd be up to you, we could have a big one or we could elope in Atlantic City."

I stared at him, speechless, opening and closing my mouth. Finally I swallowed.

"You seem to have put quite a bit of thought into this."

"Allie, I haven't been able to stop thinking about this since the day we met."

Before I could say anything he leaned across the table, took my face in his hands and kissed me.