tw: minor internalized homophobia/biphobia but it's addressed !
Chapter Fourteen: Heart of Gold
"When I am with you, there is nowhere else I'd rather be. And I am a person who always wants to be somewhere else." — David Levithan
December 14, 2012 - St. Christopher Community Center - New York, NY
"Can you tell us a little bit more about the Avengers Project?"
Lauren Henwick, of Channel 4 news, thrust her microphone into Audrey's face, nearly hitting her in the teeth with the foam head. She'd never been a fan of being on camera—especially not since coming back from Europe—but Pepper had attempted to train her with a prepared response.
The Avengers Project began as a recovery project following the Battle of New York, but eventually spiralled into a larger network of nonprofits that Stark Industries financially supports. In September,we started planning a day of service that all the Avengers would participate in, and which has drawn a record-number of civilian volunteer signups. Smile. Look at the reporter, then at the camera, then back.
Audrey knew the response; she had devoted time to learning it by heart. But she couldn't seem to say it. Steve seemed to sense that she was struggling; he jumped in, abandoning the Christmas gift he'd been wrapping to step in front of the camera. "The Avengers Project is a day of service," he answered, taking on his familiar Captain-America voice. "The fight didn't end with Loki—and there's more than one way to do your part."
"And what are you guys doing here, today?" Lauren asked, grinning brightly in a way that severely unnerved Audrey. She fixated on the straight line of Lauren's top row of teeth. They were completely even across. Weird.
Steve bumped her arm with his, and Audrey realized she'd been quiet for too long. She rushed to answer. "We're here at the St. Christopher Community Center wrapping Christmas gifts to be donated and distributed on New Year's Eve to kids who were directly impacted by the Chitauri invasion." Which was the nicer version of, presents for kids whose parents went out to join the fight and never came back.
"Amazing! And why did you choose this site to work at?"
The factual, and rather depressing, answer was that Pepper and the Stark Industries Public Relations team had assessed their PR value at every site, and assigned them accordingly. So Natasha ended up at a women's shelter downtown with Kate, while Bruce and Helen were doing an after-school science class for kids at Midtown Junior High. Thor was at an animal shelter, and Clint was visiting a senior home. But answering that it had been a highly strategic move felt like something that Pepper would tear her apart for later, so she just smiled and said, "My dad and I didn't get the chance to spend any Christmases together when I was growing up. I was lucky enough to get him back, but I know how lonely it can feel. We're just trying to help kids where we can, and make the holidays as happy as possible even though they might not be the same as last year."
"And what are you hoping to get for Christmas, this year?"
Steve laughed, shooting Lauren a charming smile. "World peace?" Lauren forced a laugh. "I'd settle for a nice family dinner, though. And for everyone to be kind to each other."
"What about you, Lady Liberty?"
Audrey fumbled. "Um." She hadn't thought about this question in forever, because nobody had really done gifts in her family since Howard died. "I just want to spend time with the people I love," she settled on. "That's what matters to me the most."
"Excellent! Well, to all our viewers, you can sign up to volunteer at any of the Avengers Project sites at avengers project dot org. Thanks so much for talking to us, Captain. And...Lady." Her chipper tone flattened as she tried to figure out a clever abbreviation for Audrey's moniker.
When the producer behind the cameraman dropped his hand, Lauren dropped her smile. "Can I get a bottle of water?" she asked, as she and the crew packed up to head out.
PR had scheduled about thirty million interviews for them to do while they were wrapping gifts. The entire thing felt very...convoluted. Between all the time they spent talking to the camera and singing Stark Industries' praises, Audrey and Steve had wrapped very few gifts for the displaced children they were supposed to be donating time to.
"Does this all feel weird to you?" she asked her dad.
"Weird?"
"We've been here two hours and wrapped eight toys between us." Audrey frowned at the large pile of hollow boxes behind her, which had been stationed there prior to her and Steve's arrival that morning in order to make them look like they were superheroes with wrapping in addition to fighting aliens—which they were not. Steve had done okay with his boxes, but Audrey's were a mess. The paper was crooked and had plenty of loose corners. It wasn't a big deal, but she knew she would be doing better if this had actually been about the kids and not been turned into a press junket. "I just. We're two super soldiers. You'd think we're capable of more than…" she pointed at their pathetic little pile. "This."
Steve pursed his lips, looking maybe like he was gonna argue, but then he dropped his head into a nod. "Yeah. This is weird."
"You guys ready for the next team?"
The St. Christopher volunteer coordinator stood in the doorway of the room that had been reserved just for both of them, looking mildly pleasant but, more than anything, annoyed about becoming a press usher. Audrey didn't blame her.
"Yeah, we're ready," Steve said. He seemed resigned to being paraded around again for a day.
Audrey knew that it was for a good cause, and that it was still helping people to call attention to these issues even if the two of them individually weren't doing much but sitting still and looking pretty. But asking other people to sign up and volunteer while she sat around doing interviews? It felt hypocritical and wrong.
"Who's supposed to be next?" Audrey asked.
Steve pulled a piece of paper from his back pocket and blew out a breath. "TMZ?" he said, more question than answer.
Audrey made a face. TMZ's coverage of the Avengers thus far had been just terrible dating rumors and following her to the grocery store. When the reporter and his crew entered, looking slimy as ever, she did her best to plaster a pleasant look over her features.
"Hi," he said, reaching out his hand. "I'm Chris Carlton. TMZ."
Audrey shook his hand. To her horror, it was extremely clammy. He abandoned her to have his face powdered and she wiped her palm on her jeans, wanting to boil her hand to cleanse it.
"Alright, let's get started," Chris announced, clapping his hands together. "We are here sitting down with Steve Rogers, AKA, Captain America, and Audrey Carter, AKA, Lady Liberty. So, first of all, I want to ask the question I know all our viewers are wondering—is Captain America single?"
Audrey resisted the urge to gag. This was what they'd interrupted community service to ask? She knew that she shouldn't have expected any better from TMZ, but she'd hoped.
Steve laughed awkwardly. "Well, uh, I've mostly been readjusting to—to this century. Getting to know my daughter. Focusing on work."
"So there's no special lady you're spending your evenings with?"
Audrey's pleasant facade dropped before she could help herself. Gross. She didn't want to know the answer to that question, and Steve didn't want to share it, and the rest of New York didn't need to hear about it, either.
"Uh." Steve forced a chuckle. "No."
"Hear that, ladies?" Chris said, winking at the camera. He turned to Audrey, who scowled back. "What's it like to have your dad back, Audrey?"
Oh, thank god. That was a question she'd been prepared for. "It's a miracle," she answered honestly. "I never thought that it would even be a possibility. Ever. Having him back makes me feel like the luckiest person in the world, and that's why I feel so grateful to be here giving—"
He pulled the microphone back to him. "What's your dating life like, Audrey?"
"Wow, okay, uh—I don't have one?"
"Nobody special?"
"Well, like, I have family. And...friends."
"But no boyfriend?"
"No," she said. And then, without thinking, Audrey added, "No boyfriend, no girlfriend, no love life." Steve furrowed his brow at her, and Chris pulled the mic back, looking delighted by what she'd shared.
"Are you interested in women?"
Audrey's eyes widened into saucers as she realized what she'd said. "Um," she answered dumbly. This wasn't a conversation she wanted to be having, at all, with anyone, especially not Chris Carlton of TMZ News, on live TV, for an audience of thousands.
"You know, I think it would be great if we could—if we could talk about the Avengers Project," Steve interjected.
"Well—" Chris started, but Steve cut him off almost immediately.
"The Avengers Project is about giving back to the city," Steve announced, taking on his Captain America voice again and staring directly into the camera. "Loki destroyed a lot of New York. We're trying to do our part to fix that—that's why Audrey and I are here wrapping gifts for children who were directly impacted by the Chitauri attack."
"If I could—"
Steve slung an arm around Audrey's shoulder. "And it's such an honor for me to have the chance to volunteer here with my daughter, today. Because family isn't always what you expect. It's not always who you're born with. But it's the most important thing." He gave Chris a charming, unsettling grin. "How are you planning on spending your holidays, sir?"
"Oh," Chris said flatly, scrambling for an answer. "I think—Hamptons, probably."
"Doesn't that sound lovely," Steve said, still smiling.
When Audrey looked at the reporter this time, he looked genuinely afraid. "Thank you, Captain," he said, the smarmy look gone from his face. "Uh, well, I think we have time for one more question."
"Great," Steve said. "Let's hear it." He leaned forward, as if warning him to choose his words carefully.
Chris stuttered. "Uh, wh—what's on top of your Christmas list?"
This time, Steve didn't bother hesitating and playing it cool. "World peace," he deadpanned.
Chris cleared his throat, and launched into a plug for the Avengers Project. Audrey held her tight smile as Chris finished the TMZ outro. When he'd finished, she shook his hand again, helped him pack up, and pulled the door shut behind him. She put her head into her hands. This wasn't her lowest moment, by far. This wasn't even her lowest TMZ moment. That was reserved for the time she'd gone out on her weekly grocery trip in sweats and they reported that she'd been broken up with and shot—both of which had technically happened to her before, but not anytime near when the article went public. There were also rumors that she'd been doing heroin that one time, but that rumor had actually been completely false. Audrey didn't even know where to get heroin, except maybe the evidence locker in her old office.
"You okay?" Steve asked. He put a hand on Audrey's shoulder. When she didn't answer, he nudged her again. "Kid."
She nodded, snapping out of it. "I'm okay—you know, we don't really have to talk about this."
"Okay," he said, lifting both hands in the air in surrender.
"I think we've done enough interviews," she added.
"I agree."
"Maybe we can just—actually do what we came here to do."
"Sounds good."
"Cool."
Audrey settled down at the table, busying herself in trimming a piece of wrapping paper to fit around a box housing a Black Widow figurine. Steve sat across from her, with a boxed lego set and a roll of snowman wrapping paper. "For what it's worth," Steve said, "I love you. That doesn't change."
Audrey had been so worried about TMZ that she hadn't bothered worrying about Steve—it occurred to her that she probably should've been at least a little concerned. Steve had been in 1945 last year, in the military. Not exactly the most progressive place in the world. When she met his eyes, earnest, she almost wanted to cry. "I love you too, dad."
"Presents?" he asked, holding up a roll of velvet ribbon.
She passed him the scissors and nodded. "Presents."
December 14, 2012 - Avengers Tower Common Floor - New York, NY
When Audrey and Steve arrived at Pepper's debriefing in the kitchen that night, Thor was pulling a burnt casserole out of the oven—without an oven mitt, to Audrey's horror—and looking down at it quizzically.
"I think I may have converted the kiln cooking time to oven cooking time incorrectly," he mused aloud. Then, as if trying to sell it, anyway, he held it up to Jane, who paused her conversation with Helen. "It still looks tasty?"
She shook her head wordlessly.
"Got it," Thor said, pulling the trash can out and tossing the casserole—pan and all—inside.
"Hey," Tony called out. "Watch it, Point Break. Those aren't disposable."
"Oh," said Thor. "My apologies." He reached into the trash and pulled the pan back out, setting it on the counter. Jane opened her mouth, as if to explain to him that putting the casserole back on the counter wasn't exactly right, either, but Bruce shook his head, stepping around the counter and gently pushing Thor out of the way.
"Why don't you—just—yeah. Let me handle this."
As he scraped the dish, Audrey and Steve took their seats at the counter. Natasha was nursing a whiskey in the seat next to her, and Kate and Clint were throwing darts further down the bar. Audrey hadn't been looking forward to the debriefing, anyway—she was terrible on camera and fully aware of the fact. Tony was excellent, Thor was charming, Clint and Natasha were professional liars, Steve was used to being in the public eye, and Bruce had spent a fair amount of time doing interviews on his work. She knew that things would come back worst for her, even before Chris from TM-fucking-Z had decided to get nosey and she'd slipped up.
She hoped that nobody else would mention it, but whatever higher power she was reaching out to chose to ignore her. As soon as she'd accepted a glass of lemonade from Tony, Clint looked over at her and raised an eyebrow. "Hell of an interview with TMZ," he said.
"Dude," Kate said, elbowing him in the ribs.
"Ow—what? I'm talking about the part where Cap almost made that dumbass with the hair gel shit his pants on national television."
"That was national?" Audrey asked. She closed her eyes and blew out a breath. Okay, fine. She'd accidentally come out at bisexual on national TV. That was life, or whatever. She'd move on, and it wasn't the craziest thing the news had seen her do. And, logically speaking, people probably weren't going to turn on her now, were they? After everything in New York?
Yeah, she assured herself. Probably not. Now, she just needed to convince Pepper not to kill her.
Tony passed by behind her, giving her a light squeeze on the shoulder without saying anything. "Should I order pizza?"
After considering the casserole on the counter, which sat below a billowing cloud of black smoke and had just been thrown into the garbage, they came to a consensus.
"What's the place Lewis always orders from?" Tony asked, pulling his phone from his pocket. "Actually, more important question—where is Lewis?"
"She went home to see family," Jane replied. "It's Hanukkah. Also, Elton's is the pizza place."
"Elton's! I knew that." Tony muttered to himself, wandering off to the side of the room to call in the order. "Elton's. Elton's, Elton's, Elton's."
"How was your day?" Audrey asked Natasha once Tony had gone. It was a weird question, and under normal circumstances, Audrey knew she would've refused to answer, but Natasha just shrugged, throwing the rest of her drink back.
"Can't complain. You?"
"Not the worst." Audrey resented the fact that she was sounding as vague and obscure as Hill or Fury. Maybe her training was working better than she'd thought.
Behind them, the elevator chimed and Pepper stepped out. She nodded at them all and lifted a tablet in the air in some sort of weird, casual salute. Even this late, she was looking sleek, in a black and white dress and stilettos. Straight to business, she greeted, "Hi, everybody. Thank you for being here. I'm hoping we can go over the feedback from today really quickly before we e—" She stopped, looking at the casserole. "Is that...dinner?"
"It is typically very well received," Thor said.
"Tony's ordering pizza," Bruce supplemented.
"Got it," Pepper noted. "Well, the feedback from today has been really quite good. Thor, they adored you. More than half of the animals in the New York City pound were adopted. So, good job with that."
"It's quite easy," Thor responded. "Animals love me."
"Clearly, they do." Pepper tapped on the tablet. "Bruce, Helen—wonderful. Kids were excited, parents were excited. Tony—I know I should be offended on a personal level about you promising to marry an 80-year-old woman on television, but as your boss, it was a great move."
"Anything for you," he answered, curtsying as he returned to the bar.
"Steve and Audrey, great." Audrey choked on her drink. "Very moving, families especially received it well. Maybe next time, though, don't try to kill any of the interviewers, or at least not on camera. And maybe don't cancel the other half of the interviews I had arranged."
"I think there were too many," Audrey said, so sudden she surprised even herself. "Um, we–we got nothing done when we were talking to the press. Literally nothing. Maybe eight gifts."
Pepper nodded slowly, thoughtfully, and then typed something into her tablet. "This is good feedback. I'll keep it in mind next time." The group was silent as she finished jotting her notes down, before she looked back up and rattled off talking points about personability to Clint.
She'd been so worried about Pepper, but she'd just glossed over it. Maybe it wasn't a PR mess after all.
She found herself fading into the background as the meeting continued, making herself small as the rest of the team talked around her. Pizza arrived eventually, and they all migrated to the couches to sit down, but Audrey held back. It wasn't until the conversation shifted from interview etiquette to the dumb Avengers, Assemble! movie due out the next summer that Audrey was able to resettle. Nobody else was being weird about it. Nobody was giving her any grief. It was the same as any dinner.
After dinner, Audrey volunteered to do dishes. Tony joined her. In the kitchen, she scrubbed and he dried, silent except for his occasional whistling.
"Are you okay?" he asked after a long while.
"I don't want to talk about it."
"We don't have to talk about it. I just want to know if you're okay."
Audrey considered for a moment, leaving the plate in her hands hanging under the water, and then nodded. "Yeah," she said eventually, pulling her hand out from under the faucet. "I'm okay. It wasn't—I didn't really want to be sharing that publicly, but it is what it is. I'll just deal with whatever else happens later."
"Okay," he said. Then, "You know, if that changes, you can talk to me."
"I'll probably talk to my therapist about it if I need help."
"Yeah, that's a smarter move. I don't give good advice."
"You have your moments." Audrey peered out the window above the sink, where she could see Brooklyn in the distance. "Did you know?"
Tony snorted. "Obviously."
"Why obviously?"
"Aud, I love you. But no straight woman is that devoted to Princess Leia."
Audrey opened her mouth to object, but couldn't find anything to disagree with honestly. "Those movies are really good," she tried.
"Yeah. They're good. But they're not that good."
December 14, 2012 - Avengers Tower Residential Units - New York, NY
That night, Audrey dreamed again of the Soldier.
"What will happen to her?" he asked the Madame.
"She will be a miracle," the Madame replied. "Did you know," she asked, turning from Audrey, "that miracles are not always blessings?" Audrey watched her cup the Soldier's cheek delicately. "A miracle is anything that should not have happened." The Madame turned to face her, eyes welling up with tears. As she dropped her hand from the Soldier's face, she sat down at Audrey's side, brushing her hair from her face. "There is nothing more terrifying than a miracle."
When she woke, it was three in the morning, and though her room was freezing, her body was covered in a light layer of sweat.
Knowing that the dreams were memories was what sent Audrey running to her bathroom to retch. Knowing that they had happened, that she'd been a hair's-width from becoming a monster for them. Knowing that somewhere in her, there still laid the knowledge. The potential they'd seen in her.
The knowing was bad. But the not knowing that was worse. If what she remembered was this horrible, what about those memories that hadn't yet surfaced? What had she done that she couldn't recall?
After a moment, she pulled herself up from her bathroom floor, swaying slightly and blinking against the harsh light.
On cue, JARVIS asked, "Shall I call someone to check on you, Agent Carter?"
Audrey gave the same answer as always. "No, thank you, JARVIS."
She brushed her teeth until her pulse slowed back to normal, and then stared at herself in the mirror. Her entire life, she'd known that the world was one large secret being kept from her, and even the things she knew didn't amount to much compared to the things she didn't. But she had always assumed she knew herself. She had her mother's eyes. Her father's hair. Two birthmarks on her left cheekbone. She was careful with everything but her own wellbeing, and exceptionally afraid, but trying anyway to be good. For a while, she thought she'd been succeeding.
Now, she wasn't so sure.
Audrey splashed cold water on her face and blew out a breath. She was unhappy awake and unhappy asleep, and yet terribly exhausted. She wanted to talk to someone who would understand.
So Audrey found herself at Bruce's door at three in the morning, feeling shaken and guilty but knocking nonetheless. She would have gone to the labs, but Bruce had submitted his research, and she knew he wouldn't be there. He had no reason to be.
When the door swung open, Audrey flinched. "I'm sorry," she said.
"Don't be," Bruce answered, pulling the door open wider. Audrey stepped inside, kicking her shoes off in the entryway and shoving her hands into the pockets of her sweatpants. Bruce rubbed his eyes, narrow with sleep, and stifled a yawn. "You doing okay?"
"I'm—" Audrey blew out a breath. "No. Not really."
"You wanna talk about it?"
She shrugged.
Bruce's couch was, at that moment, covered with folded piles of laundry, and he moved to clear them off, but she shook her head. "You don't need to do that."
"We can sit on the bed, then, if you're—if you're cool with that."
Audrey hesitated, more for his sake than her own. "Okay." Her voice was so low she could barely hear it herself, despite the dead quiet of Bruce's room. The heater hummed softly, somewhere far away, but it was practically silent with neither of them speaking.
She followed Bruce to the bed, which had been made haphazardly, and pulled herself onto the edge, settling above the blanket.
"Our lives are so weird," she said after a minute. It wasn't the smartest thing she'd come up with to say, but it was the best she could think of.
"So weird," Bruce agreed.
"Like—aliens invaded New York. And now I'm embarrassing myself in interviews with TMZ."
"No, fuck that guy," Bruce said, waving him off. "He was being an asshole." He sighed. "I found the interview upsetting, personally."
Audrey flinched. "You did?"
"Yeah. Why does nobody ever ask me if I'm single? They just wanna know the boring stuff—my research. The Hulk. Nobody cares about the ups and downs of my love life."
She rolled her eyes, leaning her body over to bump into his, scoldingly. "I'll ask," she offered. Holding her fist out as a faux microphone, she lowered her voice into some terrible impression of a reporter. "Tell the people, Doctor Banner. Anyone special in your life?"
The look he gave her was so dire that, for a moment, Audrey was worried he was going to reveal that he was secretly married with children.
"Not at the moment," he said, his voice pleasantly hoarse. Beyond the relief at his answer, Audrey felt...disappointed? But about what? Why would she be disappointed that Bruce was single? Don't be stupid. "Just this girl who likes to sleep in my lab." Her pulse picked up and she felt herself blush. She hoped the room was dark enough for him not to notice.
"She also likes to sleep in your apartment," she added.
Bruce pointed, as though she'd made an excellent point. "Yeah, that too. Can't figure out why. Not that I'm complaining."
Audrey tried to force a smile, but abandoned it halfway through, dropping her hand back down to her lap. "Bad dreams," she explained, avoiding his eyes.
Bruce pursed his lips and nodded. "What happened?" he asked.
She winced, thinking about the dream, what it meant. How it floated on the surface of a very deep and dark ocean with many terrible things lurking below. And then she winced again, at her own fear of everything. Why was she so unable to confront anything that happened to her? Why was she always so afraid? Every day, she was surrounded by people who had been through worse, and she seemed to be the only one losing her mind over it.
"I'm just—" Audrey started, staring at her knees. "I wish I knew how to be brave, you know?"
Bruce pursed his lips and stared down at her hands. They were nearly shoulder to shoulder on the bed, but Audrey felt as if there was a wall between them. He was close enough to touch, but something stopped her; something intangible, and yet, very real. "I think you're brave," he told her. She shook her head, but Bruce stopped her with a hand on her wrist. Whatever barrier she felt between them, he'd reached straight through it. "Listen to me, Aud—drey. Audrey. You ran into New York with no idea what you were up against."
"I'm still scared, though," she insisted.
"So are the rest of us," Bruce assured her. He let his thumb drag a line up her forearm, and he smiled down at her tattoo, before beginning to trace the lavender branch up her wrist. "We—I am...I'm terrified all the time. It's about what you do in spite of it, you know?"
It felt like all she did with her fear was run to Bruce. She looked up at him, his hair ruffled from sleep and his eyes wide, waiting for her to say something. "I feel safe here," she said finally.
Bruce's hand stilled on her wrist. "Audrey," he said, his voice strained.
She turned, putting her weight on her elbow and laying on her side. And then, as if to tell him something without wrapping her tongue around the words, she said, "With you, Bruce. I feel safe with you."
If he could reach through the barrier, surely Audrey could bring herself to do the same. Her arm was heavy as lead as she reached across to put her hand over his. The pads of her fingers burned from the contact with his skin. She resisted the urge to pull away, delighting in the sting.
Slowly, after a long moment of deliberation, Bruce twisted his hand so his palm was aligned with hers, and laced their fingers together. Audrey's heartbeat kicked in her chest, loud enough for her to worry that Bruce could hear it. But with their palms pressed together, Audrey could feel Bruce's hand trembling. She dragged her gaze up from their hands—their hands where they were connected—and brought them to meet Bruce's eyes.
Before she could stop herself, she blurted out, "Can I stay?" The question rang in her ears, heavy and loud and playing on a loop, over and over. Can I stay can I stay can I stay. She held her breath, waiting for an answer, but Bruce remained silent. Audrey wondered if she had made a mistake in asking, and then realized that his reaction was proof enough that she had. Pulling her hand from his, she was quick to apologize. "I'm sorry. Um. Nevermind."
"No," Bruce said suddenly. He reached for Audrey's hand with his own, and then stopped, as if hitting the physical boundary she'd felt earlier. Her knuckles felt bare and cold. "Of course you can stay. I—I'd like it if you stayed." He swallowed and dropped his hand.
"Okay," said Audrey. "On the couch?" she asked, though she hoped the answer was no.
Bruce shook his head. "Here. You can stay here."
Audrey shuffled down so she was horizontal, and Bruce did the same. They were both very careful, watching each other intently, bodies bracketing the space between them. She wanted to ask him if he knew. If he knew why she kept seeking him out, and why she felt safe with him. She wanted to ask him if he felt the boundary between them that she kept running up against, and if he wanted it to be there or not, and if he ever wanted to see her. But Bruce's eyelids had already sunk shut, and even if he'd been awake, Audrey didn't know if she had the courage to be honest with him yet, or if she had the courage to be honest with herself. So instead of asking, she just pulled the pillow down so she was lined up parallel to him, and let herself fall asleep.
A/N: thank you so much for reading! and thank you to everyone who has reviewed, it's crazy to me that we're so close to 200 reviews? please let me know what you thought of this chapter, any feedback is appreciated.
Chapter Fifteen: A World Alone
"So, like a date?" Darcy asked.
Audrey shook her head, fastening the lid on the peanut butter jar. "It's not a date."
Darcy narrowed her eyes, looking disbelieving as ever. "It sure sounds like a date."