Author's note: thank you/merci/gracias for all the reviews! The French Open went very well, thank you for asking (now I'm just a bit tired).

Chapter Two – Platinum Plans

August 2015

"Will you marry me?"

Jane choked on her beer. Maura had taken her completely aback in the weirdest way ever. One more time. She grabbed the little box and was about to study the gem with attention when she realized that the waitress was waiting for their order by her side. Dying of embarrassment, Jane hid the box on her lap and cleared her voice to win some time. This was not the kind of evening she had imagined to live.

"I'll have the cheeseburger, thank you." Jane winced as Maura ordered a salad. She knew what it meant: her friend would eat half of her fries. Once the employee left again, Jane bent over the table and shook her head. "I'm not an expert but a proposal comes at least with a couple of Martini's first, and maybe a movie or two!"

Maura didn't reply immediately. She knew that Jane was joking. She grabbed her glass of wine instead and took a long sip. She had been thinking about this moment all day long. As a matter of fact, every single year the same scenario came back to her head only brighter and brighter. It had ceased to be blurry a very long time ago but a certain wisdom had pushed her to wait until February to make it official to herself.

"It has been five years."

Jane nodded and let a timid smile play on her lips as she retrieved the ring box and started admiring the jewel. She brushed the edge of the diamond with her fingertip. She liked the ring. A lot. It was elegant and discreet. It perfectly matched her temper.

"I know."

They had started talking about their strange pact a couple of weeks after sealing it. The timid allusions of the beginning had turned into a more detailed plan little by little and they perfectly knew what to do from now.

"Do you still want this? Do you still want this wedding?" Maura's voice slightly broke under the emotion and the importance of the moment. Nobody else knew about their plan yet. It was their first step in it. "I won't take it badly if you decide to turn down the offer, you know."

"No! I don't wanna turn down anything. Getting married is the safest way to make sure that this child – our child – will have two parents from a legal point of view. And if something had to happen to one of us... Yeah, I want it. I just hadn't assumed you'd propose to me and that you'd do it on your birthday."

But then Jane hadn't imagined that Maura's birthday would be celebrated at almost midnight at some pub after a very long and busy work day. There was no cake, no presents as Jane hadn't had time to go back home to pick them up. No Champagne either. Just a glass of wine – one of beer – and a few olives as they waited for their rather basic main courses.

It didn't look like a birthday at all.

"It will be easy to remember the date of our engagement!" A nervous yet warm laugh passed Maura's lips. It filled the air in a bewitching way. "I hope that you like it. I know that we hadn't really discussed... This kind of detail... But when I saw this ring... You know."

Jane took the jewel out of the box and slid it on her finger. It fit. Of course, it did. Maura would have never gone shopping without being sure of her ring size. She was way too organized for that.

It fit and made a lot of sense.

"I don't have one for you." Out of the thousand sentences Jane could have made, she had to choose this one. A very clumsy one; cute in its own way but embarrassing enough to make her heavily blush. "I don't even have your birthday presents. Jeez, what kind of wife I'm gonna be?"

"The kind I have always wanted."

Maura took her aback for the second time in a row. Of course this wasn't a declaration of love but it was the sweetest remark Jane had ever received. What were they doing, exactly? Did it make sense? And what would the others think? Their relatives, their friends. Their colleagues. It was a very unusual situation to say the least.

"Do you think we'll be good mothers?" Babysitting TJ was the closest to parenting that they had done so far and as much as the little boy was still alive, Jane knew that there was quite a big difference between looking after a child for a couple of hours and for the rest of his life. "My job's so risky and I'm messy. This isn't very mother material."

"You have a maternal instinct, Jane. You will do just fine. We will do just fine... I couldn't dream of a better co-parent than you. I mean it."

It took Maura a lot to hide her very own apprehension yet the moment the shaking of her hand subdued, she went to squeeze her friend's and flashed her a bright smile, a hopeful one. Jane needed to be reassured. The truth was that she needed it too but her Cartesian mind kept on telling her that it would be alright, that they would do just fine.

"You still can't lie, right?" The question made Maura laugh which somehow comforted Jane. She nodded to nobody but herself. "Good. So here's to us... To life!" She grabbed her glass of beer and raised it to bring a toast.

"To life."

Someone clearing their voice on their right made them turn their head right away. The waitress was back with their respective courses.

"Dessert is on the house, congratulations. Send us a postcard when you leave for your honeymoon. You're the second couple getting engaged, tonight. The wall behind the bar will be full of postcards within the next year at this pace."

The waitress winked at them. She then turned on her heels and disappeared as fast as she had appeared by their table. If Maura seemed rather taken aback by the employee's remark, Jane had fully embraced every single word the woman had said and – with a Cheshire cat smile – she turned to her friend to let her know about her new plan.

"How come I haven't thought about going on a honeymoon? Damn, Maura. We just signed up for a two-week vacation in the sun. Long life to getting married!"

...

We announced it the day after. Actually, ma' kind of found out my ring and we had no choice but to let her know about our plan. I still think she knew something more – something Maura and I ignored by then – and that's why she reacted in such a positive way because, let's face it, it was a very strange idea. I don't know many people who decide to marry their friend to become a parent. It's very unusual and a tad crazy.

But then you know how your grandmother is: babies, babies, babies. As soon as we told her the whole point was to get her another grandchildren, she was already surfing on Google looking for the best diaper brand and such.

It's not that I ever doubted about it but making it official and receiving such positive feedbacks from everyone really made me realize how lucky we were. Nobody mocked us, nobody told us it was wrong. It was singular but they found it cool and everyone gotta be supportive right from the start.

I was never in doubt, neither was Maura. When TJ was born, it only made our desire grow stronger. It turned out to be like a wakeup call of some sort. The moment I held him in my arms, I knew that I wanted to have you one day. With Maura. We both dated some guys during this five-year gap but it never worked out. In all honesty, I guess it's because we had already sealed our deal and it was what we really wanted. We never gave a real chance to our dates but then none of them seemed to really deserve it.

I sold my apartment three months later and moved in with Maura. As much as we used to spend a lot of time together, it seemed paramount for us to see if we were really made to live with each other. You know how different we can be, cohabitation isn't necessarily easy. But it worked out, right away.

I never missed my Back Bay apartment. After many years of loneliness – and even if I had convinced myself that it was what I was made for – it was nice to come back home and have someone there. We weren't a couple and so what? We shared our meals, we watched movies together... We laughed and argued. We led a domestic life.

We got married in January. A very intimate ceremony at the courthouse. Maura's parents had insisted on renting the last floor of a downtown hotel though so we celebrated our union out there. We were thirty people, no more. Only relatives and close friends. When I think about it now, I guess it was actually the perfect wedding. Nothing big, nothing stressful.

It was more of a symbol, a very strong one.

Our plan had come true. Do you see what I mean? For years we had alluded to it but it had remained abstract in spite of us elaborating a rather detailed scheme. The day your mother proposed to me is when we made the first step towards you; the first real one. Of course we still could go backwards but it wasn't our intention. We were excited and looking forward to holding you in our arms.