"If you know all people do bad things and you don't think I'm an evil whore, why is it that you have to hate me?"
"Because."
Rolling her eyes, she said, "That's not a reason."
"Ask your earrings," he muttered.
Flushing a little, she refused to be lied to. "No, you didn't seem to like me before I took the earrings."
"I was forgetting."
She waited for him to finish his thought, but that seemed to be all he was saying.
"Forgetting what?" she prompted.
"Everything," he groaned. "Would you please let me go to sleep before I smother your ass with a pillow?"
Smiling slightly, she said a little sarcastically, "My ass isn't talking."
His arm left her then, and for a moment she felt bereft, wishing she would have kept her big mouth shut. Even if it was only because he was drunk and it didn’t mean a thing, it was nice to have someone cuddle her.
Then she felt Aaron's hand lightly skim her hip and curve around her butt, and she was too shocked to register what had just happened.
"Nope," he said, his arm snaking back up to wrap around her torso, resting just where it had been before, under her breast. "It doesn't seem to be talking."
Startled, she let a chuckle slip out.
She was speechless.
"Ah, now I know how to make you shut up," he said smugly after a few more seconds of silence.
"Possibly," she returned. "But if you were sober you would never do that, so unless you make a habit of getting drunk, I don't think I have to worry about that."
"True," he agreed easily.
For a minute, Julie just enjoyed the silence, and even the feel of someone's arm around her. She hadn't realized she had missed being held, but she was pretty content to have Aaron's arms around her, and since she knew Aaron hated her, she figured enjoying his embrace must mean she was pretty starved for affection.
Too bad she was so bad at dating.
She could just seek out a boyfriend so she could enjoy the feeling of a man's arms around her every night.
However, she seemed to suck at finding good men, so she concluded that she would have to just take Aaron's drunken half-embrace and run with it, enjoying it for the one evening she had it.
"Can I ask you something without making you grumpy?"
"No," he replied, but his tone wasn't severe, so she took it as an affirmative.
"The girl at the café tonight…"
"Don't ask," he said, not letting her get up her nerve to finish the question. "She doesn't exist to me anymore; don't ask about her."
"I was just going
to say… for once, I felt like there was someone in the room you hated more than me."
"Maybe there was," he returned. "Now quit talking and go to sleep before I grab your ass again."
Strangely, the way he said it made her not want to obey, but she shrugged that off since she had been celibate for a while, and that was most likely why.