Winter bit deep into the city; not even the heat rising from the subway gratings and the rest of the city's underground life was enough to fend off the chill. Lisa was inordinately grateful that she could wait inside the restaurant for her lunch companion to arrive. She was a few minutes early yet, but even as she checked her watch to see how much longer she would have to wait, she saw her friend through the plate glass of the restaurant's window, and rose to greet her.

"Did I keep you waiting long?" Donna asked as they exchanged polite pecks on the cheek.

"No, and I was here early anyway. Let's claim our table. That's a better place to hold conversation, I think." The two women followed their waiter to a table near the back of the restaurant, took their seats, and ordered two glasses of the house red. Once the wine arrived, Lisa said, "Congratulations on the new job. Mazel tov!"

They clinked glasses, and Donna said, "I'm a bit stressed about it, but it looks to be interesting. I can't wait until the first time someone decides that everything screwed up there is my fault and doesn't realize that, hello, I've only just been hired and I don't get to make decisions until April. I asked Val if she honestly thought I needed to know the ropes like I was some wet-behind-the-ears business school graduate who wouldn't know an org chart from a pie chart, and she waffled like you wouldn't believe. She has no backbone, I swear."

"A problem you definitely don't have," Lisa said with a smile.

"Damn right." Donna sipped her wine and asked, "So how are things at-" She stopped and blew a raspberry that seemed utterly out of place both coming from the dignified businesswoman and taking place inside the elegant restaurant.

"I'm going to kill that son of a bitch."

"Again? Honestly, Lisa, if you're going to let the man make you miserable for eight years, you should at least marry him. At least then you're within your rights to make him miserable in turn."

Lisa's jaw dropped, and the menu in her hands nearly fell to the table. "Did my mother call you?" she demanded.

"Of course not. Your mother called my mother, and my mother called me. I withstood her for almost an hour before I caved, but they're right, you really should find someone. You're how old now? Almost forty? You should have someone in your life. It's lonely to come home to an empty house."

"We've been down this road before. I'm not going to get married just because everyone else thinks I should. I'm a successful doctor. I run a hospital. I don't need someone else's ideas of what makes a perfect life to satisfy me." The waiter returned to take their orders. When they'd ordered their salads and entrées, after double-checking to make sure that they were reasonably kosher, Lisa continued, "Besides, I could never stand him for long stretches of time. I can deal with him professionally- I may be the only person in the world who can deal with him professionally. But on an extended personal level, I think I would be forced to kill him, and I need him at the hospital. He knows it, too. That makes it worse. You can almost smell the arrogance coming off him."

"Sounds like David. I smile and nod, but really, he's an annoying little man compensating for something, of this I am certain. I respect what he does, but I wish he would stop peering over my shoulder."

"At least he doesn't carry a cane. If that isn't a phallic symbol, I don't know what is."

"Is that the real reason you wouldn't marry him?" Donna asked slyly.

"One of them," Lisa admitted. "The truth, though? He's a goy. My mother would have a heart attack."

"Well, you should have mentioned that before and I wouldn't have bothered you about him. But are you seriously saying you work at a hospital- which should be full of doctors- and in New Jersey, no less, and you can't find a nice Jewish guy to bring home to your parents? Even if you're not planning to marry him, you could at least get them off your back- and mine, I should add."

"You know my mother. If I brought a man by once, she would spend the rest of her life and probably mine wondering when we were going to get married, why haven't I given her grandchildren to love her because I love my job so much more than the woman who brought me into the world, why haven't I been bringing him by for Passover, and so on and so forth."

The salads arrived, and Donna granted Lisa the point. "I do wish you'd inject some romance into your life, though. You've become so much more uptight. I don't think it's a function of getting older, either, because I've gotten older, too, and I've been through all the years you have."

"I'm fine, Donna. Really. Except for the fact that my hospital is chronically short of funding and my diagnostic department, when not curing people, is either trying to declare itself an autonomous political region or causing more trouble than our legal staff can handle- I've had to set up interviews for new counsel because our chief counsel has quit in frustration and the younger lawyers simply can't handle the caseload they're getting from our cutting edge diagnostic department."

"Isn't this guy you've mentioned before the head of the diagnostic department?" Donna asked.

"Yes. This is why I both want to kill him and absolutely cannot, and certainly wouldn't marry him, so don't bring it up."

"I wasn't going to. I know when to lay off with you, if only because you know where to cut me open if you wanted to. That's the kind of person one doesn't mess around with, not without lacking common sense, and I do possess that much sense. Besides, even if it's been a while since we've seen each other, you're still my friend, and friends don't stab friends in the back."

"Sound advice. I'll have to remind my employees about that one. They don't seem to be aware of it." Lisa speared the lettuce on her plate with her fork. "How's the family, since you're so focused on that today?"

"Doing well, thanks for asking. The boys are not looking forward to relocating here. They're used to Florida. The truth is, so am I. It's been a long time since I've been home on a regular basis. There were a lot of things I'd forgotten. Not that all of them were bad. I finally found a mah-jong group I like. You know, one where the people are actually around our age instead of our parents' age? But I understand the need to be in or around the city, since our primary offices are in New York and Secaucus. Pity me. I have to spend two beautiful April days mewed up in a studio in Jersey with fresh college graduates. It's our equivalent of kissing babies, only they're uglier. I'll meet you for lunch after that, if you want, but it'll be your turn to pick up the check." Donna forced a smile. "I guess I don't have to ask after your family, since I heard all about your mother and the pain you're inflicting on your family from not settling down with a good man. I'm just saying."

"I'm starting to understand why we drifted out of touch after I finished med school."

"Maybe you're also starting to understand why we should have stayed in touch. You wouldn't get nagged as hard if you made it easier for people to find you. We save it up and it gets dropped on you in one easy-to-handle parcel." Donna sighed, fidgeting with her silverware, a nervous gesture that she thought she had left behind in college; obviously being around an old friend from the neighborhood brought back habits that were equally old. "I don't want to fight, Lise. It's been ten years since I've seen you, I didn't want it to be like this."

"It doesn't have to be. Let's pretend we didn't have this conversation and start over at the beginning."

"Good plan."

Lisa smiled. "So, I heard about the new job. Mazel tov!"