The Amazing Spider-Man 3

Chapter 9

Peter reached for his drink after swallowing another bite of his sandwich. He and his aunt were eating at one of his favorite restaurants; he'd stumbled upon the place during his junior year of college. He'd been out as Spider-Man on a normal patrol one night when he caught a few guys trying to rob the place. After easily dispatching them, the store owner was so grateful that she'd offered him a free sandwich then and there. He ended up loving it so much that he decided to make it a lunch rendezvous with May about once a month, a pattern they had kept up for the most part since then.

Fortunately for Peter, his aunt ended up loving the place too, though probably not as much as him. That was impossible.

"If it wasn't for your... unusual metabolism, I'd tell you to slow down," May said. "Then again, when have you ever listened to your old aunt."

"Hey now," Peter said after he swallowed his food. After all these years, his aunt was still concerned about some of the same things she did when he was a kid. However, she'd also developed a certain level of sarcasm as well, especially over the last few years.

"What?" May questioned, a loose smile threatening to betray her otherwise serious demeanor. "Am I wrong?"

"Well, there have been times when I should've listened to you," Peter conceded, "but that was when I was young and stupid."

"Now you sound like Ben," May said as she took a bite of her sandwich.

"No, his thing was that boys do stupid and dangerous stuff," Peter corrected.

"Oh, and what are you?" May asked.

"A man... at least when I have to be," Peter teased, producing some chuckles out of his aunt.

"Anyway," May said after sipping some of her drink, "how've things been recently? Oh, and by that, I mean other than the same old thing you give me."

"Well," Peter said, "I am pleased to share with you that I actually had dinner with my coworker Eddie and his wife Anne last week, the latter of whom makes a DELICIOUS lasagna by the way."

May's eyes widened as a smile spread across her cheeks.

"Peter, that's great!" she exclaimed excitedly. It felt similar to the enthusiasm she used to show when he made an new friend at school almost twenty years ago. "Did you have a good time?"

"Yeah, it was... it was good," he replied. He and Eddie hadn't made specific arrangements for similar endeavors in the future, but after that night, Peter had gained a newfound appreciation for his coworker after seeing him outside of the workplace. Plus, he had no idea just how good it would feel to do something social like that again.

"Well, I'm happy for you," May said. "I don't suppose you had any more thoughts on the girl front?"

Peter let out a huff of air.

"Not really," he said. The truth was that he didn't really know exactly what his thoughts were in that regard. He had run across Mary Jane a couple times this past week, where they would exchange their usual surface level pleasantries with the occasional back-and-forth banter mixed in. The woman was extremely beautiful and had a fun, easy going personality that made her easy to be around, but anytime Peter's mind would start to dwell on these things, he'd force himself to refocus on whatever he was doing. Despite these efforts, the thoughts kept returning occasionally, but he wasn't ready to share this with his aunt just yet.

"What about you?" Peter spoke up before May could pry further. "You still tearing up the town every weekend?"

"Huh, yeah, if you mean meeting with the girls for the occasional game of bridge here and there, sure," his aunt replied. "Honestly, we've been kind of busy at the hospital recently, and not even because we've been having more patients than usual."