Peter reached for his drink after swallowing another bite of his sandwich. He and his aunt were eating at one of his favorite restaurants; he'd stumbled upon the place during his junior year of college; he was out as Spider-Man on a normal patrol one night when he caught a few guys trying to rob the place. After easily dispatching them, the store owner was so grateful that she'd offered him a free sandwich then and there. He ended up loving it so much that he decided to make it a lunch rendezvous with May about once a month, a pattern they had kept up for the most part since then.

Fortunately for Peter, his aunt ended up loving the place too, though probably not as much as him. That was impossible.

"If it wasn't for your crazy metabolism, I'd tell you to slow down," May said. "Then again, when have you ever listened to your old aunt."

"Hey now," Peter said after he swallowed his food. After all these years, his aunt was still concerned about some of the same things she did when he was a kid. However, she'd also developed a certain level of sarcasm as well, especially over the last few years.

"What?" May questioned, a loose smile threatening to betray her otherwise serious demeanor. "Am I wrong?"

"Well, there HAVE been times when I should've listened to you," Peter conceded, "but that was when I was young and stupid."

"Now you sound like Ben," May said as she took a bite of her sandwich.

"No, his thing was that boys do stupid and dangerous stuff," Peter corrected.

"Oh, and what are you?" May asked.

"A man...at least when I have to be," Peter teased, producing some chuckles out of his aunt.

"Anyway," May said after sipping some of her drink, "how've things been recently? Oh, and by that, I mean other than the same old thing you give me."

"Well," Peter said, "I am pleased to share with you that I actually had dinner with my coworker Eddie and his wife Anne last week, who makes a DELICIOUS lasagna by the way."

May's eyes widened as a smile spread across her cheeks.

"Peter, that's great!" she said. "Did you have a good time?"

"Yeah, it was...it was good," he replied. He and Eddie hadn't made specific arrangements for similar endeavors in the future, but after that night, Peter had gained a newfound appreciation for his coworker after seeing him outside of the workplace. Plus, he had no idea just how GOOD it would feel to do something like that again.

"Well, I'm happy for you," May said. "I don't suppose you had any more thoughts on the girl front?"

Peter let out a huff of air.

"Not really," he said. The truth was that he didn't really know exactly what his thoughts were in that regard. He had run across Mary Jane a couple times this past week, where they would exchange their usual surface level pleasantries with the occasional back-and-forth banter mixed in. The woman was extremely beautiful and had a fun, easy going personality that made her easy to be around, but anytime Peter's mind would start to dwell on these things, he'd force himself to refocus on whatever he was doing.

Still, the thoughts kept returning occasionally, but he wasn't ready to share this with his aunt just yet.

"What about you?" Peter spoke up before May could pry further. "You still tearing up the town every weekend?"

"Huh, yeah, if you mean meeting with the girls for occasional game of bridge here and there, sure," his aunt replied. "Honestly, we've been kind of busy at the hospital recently, and not even because we've been having more patients than usual."

"What do you mean?" Peter inquired, taking another sip of his drink.

"Oh, there's just a bunch of talk going around on some kind of transitionary power source we're getting," May replied. "You know how we kept having issues here and there back when Oscorp controlled all the city's power? Well, supposedly we're going to get some big power source that'll help the hospital and all its equipment function completely independent from anything else."

"Wow," Peter said, "that sounds cool."

"Assuming it works," May said, not sounding quite as enthused. "If it does though, it will definitely be a huge blessing."

"Yeah, definitely," Peter said. However, another thought soon came into his head that wasn't so pleasant. His expression must have changed, because when he looked back up at his aunt, she was giving him a particular look.

"What is it?" she asked.

"It's just, thinking about all these tech thefts that have been going on for a while now," Peter began, "whoever is behind it is going to need something to power whatever is they are planning to build or whatever. They could come for that thing, and..."

"Peter," May said, putting her hand over his, "relax. Not everything is some doomsday scenario where I'm going to be in danger because of a wrong place wrong time kind of thing. Besides, they're still discussing a lot of the formalities, and I think they said the thing still has one or two more tests to pass before the people in charge at the hospital said they'll approve it. They don't want the place to be some big test for this thing."

"Yeah, makes sense," Peter said. None of that was going to stop him from worrying though, so he made a mental note to try and find more information on this thing later.

Mary Jane sat the last box down, completing the pile.

"Alright, I think that's it," she said, stepping back to survey her and Liz's work. Her best friend didn't respond immediately, instead remaining focused on counting the number of boxes in each group. While her best friend had counted the drawers for the day, M.J. had tasked herself with dividing up a recent shipment they'd received of new athletic wear, separating them into different sections in their storage room. Liz had just come back to count it up and make sure it was correct to their order.

"Well, everything looks in order," Liz said.

"Anything else?" M.J. asked.

"I think we should be good," Liz replied, "other than a good once over just to make sure everything stocked up outside before we open tomorrow."

"Alright," M.J. said, and the two ladies left the room, heading out into the main area. It was the custom of whoever stayed to close the store for the day that they did a quick check to make sure that nothing needed to be immediately replenished. Normally, only one of them was there, but both ladies had thought it was the others' turn. They had just decided to both stay, since neither side had any plans that evening.

"Hey," Liz called out at one point from across the room, "how's it going with that neighbor of yours?"

"Liz, slow down," M.J. replied. "We've only had some conversations here and there, which have been nice, but we still don't even know each other that well. Don't worry, I promise you'll be the first to know when or if anything even changes."

"Just asking," Liz said somewhat defensively, M.J. glancing over to see her best friend holding her hands up. "After all, you seemed so eager to see him that night you ambushed him."

"Oh my goodness, will you let that go already?" M.J. asked in an annoyed tone as she tried to focus on what she was doing. "I told you, it wasn't like that."

"Alright," Liz said plainly, "well, what do you guys talk about anyway?"

"You know, just basic stuff," M.J. replied.

"Okay, so, like, what your favorite color is?" Liz questioned, though the tone M.J. picked up in her voice didn't make it seem like one. She elected to ignore it as she responded.

"That, among other things."

"So, let me guess, you haven't given him any REAL indication of who you are?" Liz asked.

M.J. paused her circling of the clothesline she was going through at the time, head down for a moment before she answered.

"We're getting there," she said, but the truth was, she had no idea what that would look like. M.J. was enjoying her and Peter's steady, pretty surface level conversations right now. They were plain, they were easy, and most of all, they were fun.

At this point, Liz walked over to her, abandoning the rack she'd been looking over.

"Okay, I'm not trying to rush you or anything," Liz began. "Like you said, you two are still getting to know each other. But M.J, if you want to ever get past the phase you're in, you two are going to have to start opening up to each other a little more."

M.J. smirked, but beneath it, she knew her friend was right.

It was just...hard.

"You know, for someone who is dead set on never ever getting married, you seem to have a lot of relationship advice to offer," M.J. quipped.

"I mean, you taught me everything I know," Liz replied.

M.J. tilted her head.

"How's that?"

"You showed me everything NOT to do," Liz answered, a playful but still sincere smile on her face. M.J. could only close her eyes and shake her head. She couldn't even be mad, because she knew her best friend was right. Still, Liz's thoughts didn't take away from her intention to ease into this. M.J. hadn't even known Peter for a month yet, so in her mind, it was way too early to know if there was even real interest on either side just yet.

The two ladies then returned to their work, since the hour was starting to get a little late. Once they finished, they grabbed their stuff from the back room and walked out the door, with M.J. grabbing her keys to lock the doors.

"Oh, I almost forgot," M.J. spoke up as she turned the key, pulling to make sure the doors were locked properly, "when do you want to meet next to go over how we're doing on the budget? You know I can't stand that side of things, but the sooner the better in my opinion. Anyway, I wanted to see what you thou..."

M.J. was interrupted by a repeated frantic tapping against her arm. She turned to her friend.

"What?" she asked, only for Liz to point ahead of them in response. M.J. looked ahead, and she couldn't believe what she saw. The world around her seemed to fade out as a familiar figure came walking up to her and Liz, stopping about fifteen feet in front of them.

It was her father.

"Liz, can you give us a minute?" M.J. said, not taking her eyes off him.

"M.J. are you su..."

"It's okay," M.J. said, cutting her off, but she was only barely paying her best friend any mind. Thankfully, Liz didn't put up any further protest, walking on ahead, though M.J. did notice her friend give the man a look as she walked past.

Now alone, he finally spoke.

"Hey Mary."

M.J. didn't respond, still trying to process that this was really happening. Even given the distance he was keeping between them, she could see his somewhat formal looking button up shirt and nicer pants, and he appeared to be cleanshaven, so he at least looked better than the last time she'd seen him.

"It's been a long time," the man finally spoke up again.

"Five years," M.J. said, the length in no way forgotten by her.

"So, you're running your own business I see," her father said, starting to walk towards her, causing M.J. to instinctively back up a step or two. The man didn't seem to notice as he continued: "I can't say how proud I am of you."

"That's more than I could say for you," M.J. responded as he stopped a few feet from her.

"I wanted to show you something," the man said, reaching into his right pants pocket, pulling out his wallet. He pulled a card out and showed it to her. It was an AA card, specifically one that indicated he had completed a rehabilitation course.

"I've been clean and sober for a month now," her father added.

M.J. swallowed. She'd often wondered if this day would come, but now that it was here, she still couldn't believe it.

"Good," she finally said in a quick and cut off tone.

"Listen, I was wondering if we..."

"No."

"Look," her father said, "I know I..."

"You don't know," M.J. replied, cutting him off again. "You have no idea what you put our family through, especially after mom died."

"I know I've made mistakes," her father said, "but I'm a different man now. All I'm asking for is a chance to prove it."

M.J. needed to leave; she wasn't ready for this. She started to walk past him, but then she felt a hand grab her arm, stopping her. It was a familiar feeling, though it wasn't as tight as it used to be.

"Mary."

M.J. spun her head around to face him, rage starting to turn into adrenaline in her body.

"Take your hand off me," she in a low tone.

Her father slowly removed his hand, lowering his arm.

"Please."

"No," M.J. said, turning and walking away. Thankfully, he said nothing else; she didn't know how she would've reacted if he spoke again. She eventually caught up to Liz, who immediately started walking with her.

"What did he want?" she asked.

"Nothing he's going to get," M.J. responded.

Hope you guys are still enjoying it!

Continuing to pray for you all; stay safe and healthy!

"The plans of the righteous are just, but the advice of the wicked is deceitful." Proverbs 12:5