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when we get back. You know, you really should switch to water. I don’t know anyone else who drinks coffee when they jog. That can’t be good for you.”
    “Coffee is mostly water,” she objects.
    I shake my head. She really is hopeless sometimes.
    I finish lacing up my shoes and we head out the front door. I don’t lock up, in case Brandon gets back before we do. I haven’t gotten around to getting him a copy of the key. We warm up and then head off down the street at a comfortable pace. Ashley runs every day, and has done a few half marathons. I secretly think she takes it down a few notches when I’m with her.
    “How did the jewelry show go?” I ask.
    “It was really good! I got a few orders and made some new contacts. There’s actually a shop in Seattle that wants to sell my line.”
    “That’s incredible! Congratulations.”
    “Thanks! It’s crazy, and it’s going to get crazier. In a good way, of course. But, what I really want to know, is what’s been going on with you and Mr. Movie Star.” She wiggles her eyebrows at me.
    “Must you call him that? It’s not like I’m going to forget.” I don’t know why the nickname bothers, me but something about it annoys me.
    “Fine, fine, no more. I promise.”
    “Thank you,” I say. “Things are going well. We had a bit of a disagreement last night, but I think we got it sorted out. We’re actually going to have dinner with his parents tonight.”
    “That should be interesting after all this time. What was the argument about last night?”
    I recap the conversation for her as we continue up the street and start to round the corner where we normally start to head back.
    She frowns. “What happens if you don’t go? To California?”
    “I don’t know. I mean he says we’d find a way to make it work. I’d fly there, he’d fly here, and we’d take long weekends together whenever we can. I suppose it’s possible, but certainly not an ideal situation, at least not long-term, and I don’t see him giving up acting anytime soon. I guess it feels like I technically have a choice to make, but not really.”
    “Basically, if you want to stay together, you have to go?”
    “Pretty much.” 
    “Well, do you want to go?”
    “Part of me thinks it would be fun, an adventure. And I’d be with Brandon. But the other part of me just wants to stay here and have things stay like this. I think, in some ways, my heart is still set on the life that we had planned out three years ago. Before he called off the engagement and got famous. We could have been married, bought a house on a piece of land, and had a couple of babies by now.”
    “A couple ?” Ashley says, arching an eyebrow. “That’s ambitious.”
    “Ok, a baby ,” I laugh.
    She laughs too. “You may want that, but I think you both know that it just isn’t possible. You can’t have the simple, small-town life. Not anymore. Brandon’s not going to give up his career, and you probably wouldn’t want him to, even if he offered.”
    “I know.”
    We’re silent for a while as we finish the final stretch of the run.
    “You know I don’t want you to leave, but I think you should,” Ashley says as we flop onto my front steps. “You’re happier when he’s around. I love ya, babe, but I really don’t wanna relive your ‘woe is me, I hate the world’ phase again. It wasn’t very pretty last time,” she says with a laugh.
    My mouth drops and I try to give her my best wounded look, acting offended, but she just keeps laughing. I shove her playfully and laugh with her. As my best friend, she has earned the right to make fun of my sweatpants, perma-bed head, and Ben & Jerry’s for breakfast phase.
    I wince. She’s right—it hadn’t been pretty.
    “I don’t know what I’ll do in California. I mean I’ve never even been there before!”
    It’s not the physical place that worries me. In truth, I’ve always thought it sounds like a nice place to live. Especially when you consider the