Beautiful Mistakes

She returned the smile, feeling a faint flush spread across her cheeks. "It's okay, it was actually a very enjoyable distraction."

"I agree, it was nice getting to know you a little better. I'm glad you enjoyed yourself, too. Maybe next time we'll get hungry earlier and Potbelly's will be open."

"I love that place," she told him.

"They do have good sandwiches," he agreed.

"Well, thank you for dinner," she said, opening the door and gesturing for him to walk out ahead of her.

"No problem. Thank you for having dinner with me. It was a nice change."

I know what you mean, she wanted to say.

Instead she just smiled and got in the car, hoping she would at least make it home before Jack, though she no longer had any illusions that she might be able to finish her studying before he got there.

Chapter Three-

The first couple of weeks at Julie’s new job flew by without incident.

Julie liked her new job—at least, she liked Anna and Matt. After that initial impression of Emma, being blatantly insulted for absolutely no reason, she couldn’t say she went out of her way to speak to the woman of the house even on the rare occasions Julie did see her.

Emma had only been spotted twice the first week, and she wasn't as much of a bitch to Julie, although she was still a far cry from pleasant. The second week Julie saw her once, but Emma was on the phone, so she merely glanced at Julie as she was walking out the door.

As for Matt, he was working a lot and they didn't have any more impromptu dinners together.

Privately, Julie was glad. Although she liked Matt very much and considered him a smart, entertaining person to spend her time with, she assumed feelings of that nature were probably only good in moderation when directed at her married employer.

Since their casual dinner she found herself seeing Matt not simply as her employer, but as an actual person. A likeable person with opinions and wants, flaws and quirks. She began to notice silly things, like the way that he always—without fail—tugged on his tie exactly three times in the mirror before being satisfied with its appearance, even though its appearance was the same as when he started tugging. Another thing she noticed was that he had a habit of furrowing his brows and tilting his head to the side when he was on his cell phone. She also realized she had never once seen him without shoes on—she wondered if he had a toe sock fetish or something.

Then there was his endearing tradition of reading newspapers to his one-year-old daughter, but when she asked him about that he said he had read somewhere that it was good for Anna's development, that it was supposed to make her smarter.

By the third week, Julie found herself reading Anna passages out of her textbooks, thinking that would probably have the same effect.

On Thursday after swimming lessons and dinner, Julie and Anna were sitting in the middle of the living room with a checkerboard and a bunch of checkers. Anna was intrigued by the red ones, and she kept picking them up and staring at them, then putting them back down. Julie was trying to show her how to organize the checkers by color, red on one side, black on the other. Before long, Anna was actually getting the hang of it.

"Yay!" Julie said, clapping enthusiastically for Anna.

Anna grinned and clapped, still clutching a red checker in her little hand.

The front door slammed shut, and Julie looked up, prepared to see Emma in a fit about something.

Instead Matt appeared, offering a quick smile. "Hey, girls. Didn't mean to slam the door. It's windy out there."

"This is the windy city," Julie remarked with a smile.

"Yes, I suppose it’s aptly named."

"You're home awfully early," Julie remarked, standing up. "We didn't expect you for another hour."

"Yeah, I decided to finish up and bring some work home," he said, dropping his briefcase on the side table and digging through it for a minute until he found his phone. "Listen, could I talk to you for a second?"

Frowning slightly, Julie approached him. "Is something wron

g?"

"No, not really, I was just wondering if you’d be able to work a few more hours this week?"

"Yeah, I could probably do that. How many more?" she asked.