oping that Aaron wouldn't come home and catch her as she was leaving—the man seemed to have truly impeccable timing.
But he didn't.
Matt showed up, Julie –donning the earrings—reunited with Anna, and for a short time, she was able to steal a little bit of happiness.
At Potbelly's they ordered their food and found a booth, and Julie visited with Anna while Matt opened Anna's bag of pretzels and tried to get her to drink the milk out of the sippy cup he had brought for her.
She was having none of that; she wanted Julie's milkshake.
"You spoil her," Matt said, smiling indulgently as Julie opened up her milkshake and dripped just a little bit from the straw into Anna's waiting mouth.
Anna's nose wrinkled up as she made a face, responding to the cold and slowly moving her mouth, then after a pause she opened her mouth for more.
Julie laughed and got her more. "Careful now, you'll get brain freeze," she warned.
"So, you're all finished with school, huh?" Matt asked conversationally.
Julie nodded, quickly grabbing a napkin and wiping Anna's mouth. "Yeah, for a little bit."
"Did you get your grades back yet?"
Smiling, she told Anna no more milkshake right then and nudged the sippy cup at her, then she turned back to Matt. "No, not yet, but unless I completely failed my finals I should have gotten all As."
"Has Aaron let up any?" he asked.
"No, actually he's gotten worse. Before your visit he would speak to me once in a great while, and he even came home before he had to go to sleep. Now, I'm pretty sure he is actually avoiding his own apartment," she stated.
Seeming unsurprised by this news, Matt nodded. "He's so competitive with me. It's really not your fault."
Seeing as that made no sense, Julie frowned, but Matt moved along.
"But he hasn't said anything far-fetched to you to try to make you hate me or anything, right? I mean, you may have noticed, we don't have the best relationship."
Aaron hardly seemed like the type of guy to make stuff up about somebody—even someone he didn't like.
"No, but if you have such a crappy relationship, why is he helping you out?" she asked.
"It's a long story," Matt responded.
"I have a lot of time to kill," she told him with a slight smile. "There are still hours left before he can run in and go to bed."
For an instant, she saw something she couldn’t identify flit across Matt's face, but then it was gone and he merely sighed, saying, "It's not really long, it's just that it involves Emma and I know you don't want to talk about her."
That was true, Julie thought. She got uncomfortable just hearing the name spoken aloud in her presence.
But she was still curious. "I can handle it," Julie decided. "Just tell me what makes him feel indebted enough to you that he will provide room and board for someone he loathes."
"It's hard to really explain without you knowing Aaron—it's just how he is. A while back when he decided to open up that little café he needed the money to get it up and running, and even though it kills Aaron to ask anyone for anything, he had to come to me for the money to get it started."
"Did he pay it back?"
"Of course—he doesn't accept hand-outs. He'll be making his final payment this month, actually."
"So, all you did was loan him money, and that makes him feel indebted to you—even though he paid it back in full?"
Again, Matt looked a little bit uncomfortable before responding, "It's complicated. He needed the money, but he didn't want me to feel like I was doing him any favors, and he didn't want to feel like I was doing him any favors, so by helping me out of—with you," he corrected, "and this situation, by Aaron's standards he is returning the favor, but once this favor is over…he will probably talk to me a couple times throughout the course of our lives if he has to, but that’s about it."
It didn't make complete sense, but she felt like she sort of understood. "Huh."