She nodded, getting to her feet and picking up her text book.
Then, with a sarcastic little smile, he added, "Besides, you'll need your energy to discuss the situation with my brother tomorrow."
"I know you don't seem to like me," she said as she watched him turn out the living room light, "but you would think you would at least try not to be so obvious about it."
"I don't dislike you," he said. "I don't know you. What I do know about you I don't really like," he said honestly, "but hey, I've been wrong before. I told Matt not to marry Emma, and look how well that turned out."
Despite herself, she chuckled a little bit. "Yeah, you clearly have no idea what you're talking about."
"That's what I'm saying, don't listen to me."
"Well, since you're currently telling me not to like myself," she said, bending down to put her textbook inside her bag, "I don't know if I really want to."
"It's not you that I don't like, it's the things you're doing. If you stop doing those things, maybe you'll be more likeable."
He turned the light out on that note, leaving her to frown at him in the darkness.
She seriously considered informing him that he was no treat to be around either, so he should probably take some of his own advice.
But since he was climbing in bed and pulling the big white down blanket up to his chin, she found herself reluctantly smiling, happy that his eyes couldn't have adjusted to the dark yet so he would never know. All snuggled up with his blanket, grumpy Aaron looked like a little boy…but, you know, bigger.
He didn't say anything else until she got in bed, then he grumbled something about her stealing his blanket.
"I am not stealing it," she muttered back, elbowing him and pretending it was an accident as she pulled the blanket up to her own neck. "I just need a little bit of it too."
He made a "hrumph" kind of noise and rolled over with his back to her.
Julie gave his back a dirty look, wrinkling her nose up to make the face she wasn't brave enough to make when he was facing her.
It felt strange, just as it had the night before, to lie in bed with a stranger, not touching, not even facing each other. She could hear the rhythm of his breathing become even, and then he began to lightly snore.
She sighed. He had snored the night before, and she had hoped it was because he was sleeping on his back. It had kept her up an extra hour, and caused her to wake up twice when he jerked, his arm brushing hers in his sleep.
But he was sleeping on his side tonight, and still the light snoring was the only sound in the dark room.
Sighing once more (as if he could hear her) she rolled over and turned her own back to him, sort of a spiteful gesture even though she knew it was pointless.
Then her thoughts drifted to what would be going on the next day. She had to work at the crack of dawn She had a final. She had to deal with Aaron. She had to deal with Matt. She might even have to deal with Jack, depending on how things went with Matt.
Grimacing, she closed her eyes and willed the night to last forever so that morning wouldn't come.
Chapter Ten-
Unfortunately, the next day did come, and much earlier than Julie was ready for it.
Julie managed to finish her last comprehensive final much sooner than she expected which gave her something she wasn't really used to—free time.
After a successful phone interview, she had an interview the following day with the Thursday babysitting job lady and her husband, so Julie made a mental note to pick out something frumpy that a husband wouldn't like. Then she went back to Aaron's apartment to unload, and she cleaned the dishes that were in the sink.
Somehow, even though she had eaten a granola bar before class and a sandwich after, she was still absolutely starving, and she couldn't seem to stop burping.
It was completely gross, and she didn't understand it at all. She was not, by nature, a gassy individual.
To take her mind off things, she found herself at Old Navy, browsing through the aisles and waiting for time to pass.
She didn't want to think about Matt in any way, shape or form. The night before, when Aaron had accidentally elbowed her right in the chest while he slept, she had been jarred awake, and instead of going back to sleep, she gently moved his arm so that it was at a less harmful angle and then she couldn't seem to go back to sleep. She spent a good hour contemplating her whole situation, the way Matt had reacted, the way she had hoped he would react… She didn’t expect him to be ecstatic or anything, but she certainly didn’t expect him to turn on her the way he did either.
How could he have just faked the good times they had? All the complaints he had about Emma, the way she treated him, the fact that her own small child would prefer being held by a nanny…