Stunned, she stood stiffly, a frown on her face, wondering why he was saying he missed her. She could feel herself falter a little as she stood there awkwardly in his embrace, trying to reassemble all her thoughts and figure out what the hell was going on and what had gotten into Matt.
He finally pulled back, but if he realized she didn’t return his hug, his face showed no indication. His smile widened, revealing those endearingly crooked teeth. "How are you? Is Aaron being evil to you?"
No words would form. He had transformed back into Nice Matt, and Evil Matt was but a distant memory.
No, no, no, she thought forcefully. She remembered Evil Matt, because he was the one who let his wife fire her, kick her out of his house, and take her from Anna.
With that reminder, she forced herself to respond a bit coolly, "Hello."
His grin slipped, and she instantly felt guilty before she realized she had no reason to.
Then, feeling even more awkward as she felt his eyes take inventory of what she was wearing –she had been in the jeans and low-cut top when he knocked, but she was thanking God she had a black cami shirt layered underneath so that she didn't look intentionally provocative—she dropped her gaze to a spot low on the wall and backed up, giving him room to step inside, and she shut the door behind him.
They walked into the living room and the first thing Matt noticed was the air bed, which he eyed up with a grimace, hands in his pockets.
"That's the guest room," Julie informed him brightly.
"Why doesn't it look properly inflated?" he asked.
"Because apparently it takes a while to blow up a boat, so Aaron gave up last night and determined to finish it tonight instead since I needed some sleep. I had an important test."
"You slept with my brother again?" he asked, his eyebrows rising.
"Whoa, that sounds bad," she remarked. "We slept in the same bed, yes—not that that's any of your concern," she reminded him.
He didn't appear to like any of that, but he moved past it quickly enough, turning his smile on her. "So, how are you feeling?"
"Perfectly fine," she said, although it was an overstatement. She wasn't going to tell him she felt gassy, tired, and had frequent headaches; she was determined to keep those little symptoms to herself since everyone was so displeased with her pregnancy. Why remind people?
"And…the baby?" he asked hesitantly, as if unsure how to refer to it.
"Still there," she stated shortly.
He looked down then, looking a little ashamed. "That's what I wanted to talk to you about."
There it was. Evil Matt was going to come back in all his pushy splendor, leaving Nice Matt as nothing but a memory—an illusion, more accurately.
"Nothing has changed," Julie stated. "I am still not going to abort my pregnancy and I still don't frankly give a damn what Emma wants me to do."
"I know, that's what I wanted to apologize for. I was…absolutely horrible to you the other day. The way that I behaved…it was unforgiveable,” he said sheepishly, actually hanging his head.
Frowning, she felt her jaw go slack.
Huh?
"I mean, you were scared, too, and I just…lost it. I don't know what came over me," he went on. "It was just…Emma knew, sh
e always knows things like this, she's just…it’s like she has a Spidey sense about it or something. She probably knew you were pregnant before you did, it's like she could smell it."
She just looked at him as he rambled, trying to make some sense of what he was saying.
"Anyway," he said, shaking his head, "I wanted to come here to see you in person so I could apologize to you. I was a real bastard, and I am very sorry. Can you forgive me?"
Ignoring his winning –if charmingly crooked—smile, she said, "Wait, I thought you were coming here to try to talk me into changing my mind."
He shook his head, looking slightly sheepish. "No. If that's absolutely not what you want, then I'm not going to try to pressure you into it."
"Really?" she asked, blinking at him.