There really wasn’t much preparation needed for the trip east, with the exception of arranging to rent a car for the trip. While Jane’s Nissan was reliable and got her around as much as she needed, she had to face facts: it was getting rather old, and it had never been an impressive car. She wanted to make a good impression, especially on her own family, but she figured it couldn’t hurt with Rick’s either. With that in mind, she spent a little time online and on the phone working out the details. At first she thought about renting a Corvette, but decided against it – there was no point in overdoing it, and she figured a ’Vette would be more than a little too ostentatious. Beyond that, it would be hideously expensive to rent; while she knew Rick could afford it, there was no point in overdoing it there, either.

Beyond that, preparation for the trip would be mostly packing, and she knew that wouldn’t take long. However, after thinking about it and without asking Sophia, she realized that the kind of clothes she wore on a Hawaiian vacation weren’t entirely appropriate for meeting his parents – or hers, for that matter. She couldn’t say that about Rick’s parents, since he’d never talked about them very much, but she felt she probably shouldn’t be too over the top with hers.

All that sent her on a shopping expedition – not at a real high-end store, since at least her parents would never know the difference between clothes from a store like that and a mid-range chain, but at least something better than Wal-Mart.

She was wearing one of her sundresses while she was looking for tops she hoped would send the right message, when she heard a familiar voice: “Jane, is this where you disappeared to?”

She looked up to see Madelyn, her former roommate. She had hardly thought of Madelyn since she’d left the apartment, and then only to wonder what she thought of her taking off without notice. “No, I just came in to do a little shopping,” she replied neutrally. “How’s it going with Walt?”

“Oh, not bad,” Madelyn laughed. “When we got back from Steamboat and discovered you’d moved out, it left me a little high and dry for a roommate. Walt was having some trouble with his, so he moved in to replace you. It’s been a couple of weeks now. So how has it gone with your new boyfriend?”

Jane thought for a moment about saying something neutral, but decided to be a little bit more open. From what she knew of Walt, she’d gotten a much better deal than Madelyn. Much better! “Oh, you mean my husband,” she grinned. “They couldn’t be better.”

“You got married? Wasn’t that a little quick?”

“We had all the time we needed,” Jane smirked. Madelyn still wouldn’t believe what had happened; even though Jane had gotten a little used to it, the fact of what had happened still seemed a little unbelievable when she stepped back to think about it. “It’s going a lot better than I expected,” she added.

“So what’s this guy like?”

“Pretty quiet, and a little on the shy side,” Jane smirked again. “Except when we’re, uh, real close together, if you know what I mean. Then it’s awfully good.”

Madelyn shook her head. “Wow, I never expected it of you. You were always so shy and quiet, but I guess still waters run deep, huh?”

“When you know what you want to do there’s no point in putting it off,” Jane replied obliquely. “At least we didn’t drag it out for years and got right down to business, not like you and Walt. Even though you’re living together, are you any closer to getting married?”

“Not really,” Madelyn sighed, obviously unhappy. “We’ve still, uh, got some issues.”

That was no surprise to Jane. It had been clear to her from the beginning that Walt would be a hard guy to pin down, since he liked to run around so much. She doubted that having the two of them living together would solve that issue, no matter what Madelyn hoped. “I guess I’m not surprised. Walt always struck me as the kind of guy who’s fun to play around with, but would be hard to be married to.”

“Maybe there’s a little truth to that,” Madelyn replied pensively. “I’m thinking, well, maybe coming home to me every night will settle him down a little bit.”

If he comes home, Jane thought sarcastically but didn’t say. “It might,” she replied neutrally. “I suppose you never know with guys like him.”

“It’s not like that with your husband?”

“No, not at all. Rick is the kind of guy you marry, and not just run around with. Oh, we’ve got a few things we still need to iron out since we haven’t been married very long, but we’re working on them. They aren’t anything that’s going to cause us to split up, or anything.”

“So what are you doing these days, I mean besides shopping?”

“Not much of anything. I got laid off at the Mountain Grove, which is part of the reason things moved so quickly. We’re getting set to drive east so we can visit his folks and my folks, so there was no point in rushing to try and find something else. I’ll worry about that after I get back.”

“You put a lot of time into looking before and never found much of anything,” Madelyn pointed out. “What makes you think things are going to go any better?”

“I think it makes a difference when you don’t have to have a job. I’m giving some thought to going back to school, but I haven’t made up my mind yet. I still need to think about it a while. Rick makes enough money that we don’t have to worry about where our next meal is coming from.”

Madelyn shook her head. “That’s got to be nice. I’m, uh, having to put more into keeping up the rent and stuff than I did when you were living in the apartment. Walt, uh, he has some other expenses.”

Like keeping himself in beer and other women, Jane again thought but didn’t say. He’s taking advantage of her, and I think she’s starting to realize it. “It’s not always easy,” she counseled. “But Madelyn, don’t let it get too far.”

“I know you never really liked Walt, but I don’t think he’s that bad a guy,” Madelyn responded, obviously understanding that Jane was trying to send her a message. “Yes, he has a few things I’d like to change, but I’ll change them.”

Now you’re starting to sound a little like Bianca, Jane thought. The two of them were clearly heading for a train wreck, and she was just as glad that she wouldn’t be around to see it, or get the full force of it. It would have been a lot better if Madelyn had told Walt right exactly where to get off a long time ago, but she wasn’t the kind of person who could see that.

She was getting tired of the conversation but she had gotten tired of Madelyn a long time before. Now was the time to be wrapping this up. She changed the subject. “I can’t make up my mind between these two tops. This one strikes me as a little too loud.” She held it up and added, “What do you think?”

“You might be right. It’s really not you, if you know what I mean. You don’t tend to be that flashy. Even when I helped you pick out the clothes you wore for your first date with this Rick, well, if it had been me I would have been a lot flashier.”

“I think you’re right,” Jane replied, putting the other top back on the rack. “I guess I’d better go pay for this, and then get moving. I’ve still got several more things to do, and I want to be home before Rick gets there.”

“Do you bring him his slippers and pipe, too? That isn’t very liberated in this day and age.” The sarcasm in Madelyn’s voice was obvious.

“Rick likes it, and I like it,” Jane replied. “I’ve discovered that being nice to each other is an important part of being married. When you get married, you might want to think about it beforehand.”

As Jane walked toward the cashier she was glad that she’d been able to get away from her former roommate. It was too bad that she was mixed up with Walt, but it seemed to be what she wanted. She was the one who would have to live with it, and Jane was glad that she wouldn’t be the one to have to put up with him.

She had intended to do a little more shopping there, but she wasn’t going to do it with Madelyn in the store. It wouldn’t be right to say that she had married Rick to get away from her, but it had been at least a small factor in the appeal of the idea. She knew she’d be running across her former roommate from time to time; it couldn’t be avoided. And there was at least a little curiosity about how bad the story between her and Walt would turn out.

Her interest in shopping was no longer there, but it could be done another day, she thought as she went out to her car. Madelyn was in the past now, and it was a good place for her. It would have been nice to be able to keep her as something of a friend, but if she was living with Walt that was out. She really didn’t want Rick and Walt to meet, at least anytime soon – Rick was still too shy, and it wouldn’t have worked out as overbearing and obnoxious as Walt tended to be. Maybe someday, but maybe not, too.

That set her to thinking. While she knew a few other people around Boulder, she didn’t know them well, just work friends or former classmates, many of whom were out of school and gone somewhere, to jobs, grad school, or whatever. Many liked the town and were trying to hang on here like she had done, but most were finding it hard to do.

Part of the problem with Rick, she knew, was that he just wasn’t a social person and had very few friends – they were limited to Rob and Sophia. The same thing could be said for her; she hadn’t known the older couple long, but they were the best friends she had, except for Rick, of course. That was something that would have to change, even if it was slow to happen. Having a couple of their own age as friends would ease several issues, but Rick wasn’t quite ready to reach out to strangers in that way. Oh, he’d done it a little on their honeymoon and the results had been good; they’d had a lot of fun with Bert and Pat, for example, despite their obvious strong religious beliefs. Maybe in time something like that could be developed again.

But not with Madelyn and Walt; she was sure Rick couldn’t put up with the kind of person Walt was, not that she was much better at it herself. Madelyn was about her limit, and then for just short periods of time.

She managed to find enough to keep her from being desperately bored the rest of the afternoon, but was glad when the time to pick Rick up at the office rolled around. “Hi, lover,” she said as he got into the car. “So how was your day at the office?”

“Like most days, dull,” he told her as she started the car and pulled away from the parking spot. “The big news is that Sophia took to hunting around in company policies and found a little more detail on taking classes on company time, with them paying for it.”

“Well, that is news. So does that mean you’re going to take some classes?”

“I’m thinking about it. They would have to be computer or business related, of course, and I haven’t figured out what I might like to take. The best part of the whole thing is that I could probably do most of my homework and projects on the job. I mean, it’s not like anyone but Sophia has any idea of what I’m doing or not doing, anyway.”

“You know, that sounds like a perfectly good idea that could keep you busy at the office.”

“That’s what I’m thinking,” he agreed. “Like I said the other day, college courses aren’t necessarily the cutting edge in software development, but there are plenty of other areas in software I’ve never messed around in very much.”

“Nothing wrong with that if it keeps you from being bored to tears.”

“I think so. She and I didn’t dig into the details a whole lot, but it struck me that it wouldn’t be any trick for me to get a doctorate on company time and company money before my contract ends. It might serve those jokers right.”

“I think it would be a great idea,” she told him. “It doesn’t solve the problem in the long run, but it might make the short run a lot easier to handle.” She meant every word of it, too – Rick’s boredom on the job was one of the major problems they had to confront. “Rick, I’ll be honest. My only concern is that you’ll get so wrapped up in your course work that you won’t have time for anything else. I mean, like time for me.”

“I’m sure you’ll be glad to know that I thought of that myself. I mean, you or Sophia didn’t even have to point it out to me. You know that when I get involved in a computer project I tend to keep going at it all out until I get it done. It’s the way I’ve always done it, and maybe it’s the way I am. But that’s something I want to change.”

“At least we’d have Sophia on our side, I mean, to remind you that it’s quitting time and push you out the door so you can go home and make love to your new wife who still isn’t totally broken in when it comes to this sex stuff. She still wants regular practice sessions.”

“I thought of that, too. If it weren’t for that, I’m not sure how willing I would be to take it on. Jane, you don’t know how much of a relief it is for me to walk out of the building at quitting time and see you there waiting for me. I know we haven’t really known each other very long, but you’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me. I don’t want to mess that up, Jane. I really don’t. So did anything happen with you today?”

“Not a lot,” she told him, explaining that she’d run into her old roommate and a little bit about their conversation, but not enough to be really detailed since she knew he really didn’t care.

“Have you had any further thoughts about taking a class or two?” he asked after a moment’s silence.

“Not really. It still sounds like a good idea, but I thought we ought to get this trip out of the way before I made any final decisions. Who knows? We might come up with a better idea.”

“I haven’t decided on anything either and for the same reason. I mean, it seems like a good idea, but somehow there’s something lacking with this plan of just taking more classes.”

It somehow seemed as if they were on hold for the rest of the week. Nothing really new happened, and neither of them seemed to have any better ideas than the ones that they’d already come up with. Jane realized that this was getting to be a serious problem for both of them, one that could wreck things. Sophia had warned her about it right from the beginning, but somehow Jane hadn’t taken the warning as seriously as she should have. She had hopes that the trip east would generate at least a part of a better solution, but somehow there didn’t seem to be much hope for it.

Time dragged, but at least the weekend got there. Rick seemed brighter when Jane picked him up Friday evening, if only because the work week was over. They celebrated it by going out to dinner at a different steak house, which they didn’t like very much since it was so loud it was hard to talk. That didn’t keep them from enjoying each other when they got back to the apartment – it was at least one part of their marriage that seemed to be going better and better.

Although their round trip east would cover nearly three thousand miles, they were in no hurry to get going, figuring that it would be best to be fresh when they started. Once they were up and running, Jane called the car rental place, and within half an hour their car was delivered to the front door of the building, where they were waiting.

The car was a black BMW. Jane had selected it since it would be classy and at least a little ostentatious without being overboard about it, but she never had taken a close look at one. It turned out to be a little more than they were expecting; it had about half a million gadgets and buttons, and she was sure she’d never figure out a tenth of them in the week they were to have the car.

The Beemer also had a lot more under the hood than she was used to – when she stomped it to make it through a yellow light, the car raced out like someone had lit a fire under the tiger’s tail. Once she was aware of how hot the car was she could keep it under control, but at the same time, she was just as glad that she was going to do most of the driving on this trip – perhaps all of it. Rick had always protested that he was a terrible driver, and didn’t like doing it. As they started up the Interstate heading east, she told Rick that at some point he might have to drive for a while to give her a break. He was reluctantly willing, but didn’t exactly seem eager to do it.

It didn’t take them long to get out of the Denver area, which, while heavily packed in its suburban area, turns quickly to ranchland and prairie. It was a road Jane had taken several times before, so little of it was new to her. While there are a few sights along the road to draw attention, it was mostly dull. It was cool when they started, but it quickly warmed up, although the Beemer’s air conditioner easily handled the heat.

After a while they ran out of things to talk about. Jane had brought some CDs she thought Rick might like, and asked him to pick out one. It turned out to be an easy-listening piece that at least filled some of the dead air in the car as she just ran along in traffic at a speed well over the limit.

As they wordlessly cruised along, Jane was again reminded of something uncomfortable: while she liked Rick, they really didn’t have a great deal in common. Yes, he was shy, and pretty focused on computer software, but she’d known that from the beginning. She wasn’t focused on much of anything – the interest she had in art history had long since faded – but her knowledge of software was so low it couldn’t be measured. She usually could get him to talking about something, but sometimes it was a strain; sometimes they both were more comfortable being quiet. Along with her like for Rick, it was also clear that she would have to put much more effort than he was into being sociable with each other. Again, it was something that she had known from the beginning would happen, but she’d gone into it with the hope that he could be drawn out of his shell. It was happening, although slowly.

It would have been much better if they had more things that they could share. Oh, they enjoyed the sex, although it was nearly as new to her as it was to him. But there had to be more than that or their relationship wouldn’t survive, although she had yet to figure out what more there could be. Once again, she hoped that something could emerge on this trip, but the chances didn’t seem good.

Driving was always a good time for her to think about things and reflect on them, and now she pessimistically began to think that things might never get much better between them. It might well be that all they could do was to share their bed and their lives, without sharing much else. As far as that went, it might be all right – while it might not be the happiest life, it was one she could live with. There were advantages to being with Rick, after all, and more than the money: he wasn’t an asshole like Walt, for one thing.

But she had hopes she could do better than that. She had suspected that there would be something of a letdown after their wonderful honeymoon, and so it had been. While she felt she had made enough of an impression on Rick that he was working toward building something with her, she knew she was going to have to carry the main part of the load. Still, they were slowly learning how to live with each other, to make a go of it, but they were a long way from being comfortable about it yet.

Even as a little girl she’d had visions of what her marriage would be. This thing with Rick was nothing like her dreams, and the way it came about was so unusual that she still had trouble believing it had happened at all. Everything was backwards to the way things usually were, and it was no wonder she was feeling a little lost.

They were out on Interstate 80 in Nebraska and cruising even faster in heavier traffic when Rick spoke up: “Jane, are you still happy we did this?”

“I’m not unhappy by any means,” she replied honestly. “There are things that could be going better; we’re going to have to iron them out. Are you still happy with it?”

“Still a little dazed, I think. You know I never believed this could happen to me. It’s been wonderful beyond my wildest dreams, but I realize we could be doing something better. I know that the lack of things to do is bothering you, but it’s bothered me for a long time. Maybe if we get that worked out, things will be better.”

“I hope so, Rick. The best I can say is that we both knew we were going to have to deal with some things and learn to live with each other. I’m not ready to give up on you yet, Rick, not by a long shot. You’re still the best lover and the best man I’ve ever had, and ever expected to have. That means I don’t intend to give up easily.”

“Thank you. I realize I’m not making this very easy for you, but you sure seem to be trying. When Sophia first came up with this idea I thought she was crazy as hell, but I couldn’t see any other way and let her talk me into it. Now I think she had a pretty good idea, and I don’t want to let it go to waste.”

That brought her back to reality. She’d gone into this knowing things wouldn’t be perfect, but in another respect, when she compared Rick now to the man she’d first met at Umberto’s – well, it was a huge improvement. “It’s a work in progress, Rick,” she replied. “We’re just going to have to give it time to work.”

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