Sighing, Matt raked a hand through his hair, looking away from her face. It seemed a long moment before he tiredly answered, "What I said I was going to do, Julie."
She watched him for a few seconds, but he still wasn't looking at her, he was looking out the window, but she could tell he wasn't really looking at anything—just not at her.
Finally, she said, "I don't need you to take care of me, Matt."
"Stop trying to be tough," he said, still not looking at her, but his eyes darkened a little, and she wasn't sure why.
"Sorry, I don't have that option," she said. "Tell me why I'm here wasting Doug's time."
"We're not wasting Doug's time. I wanted to show you this condo because I thought it was really cute and the location was close to your school. I thought you would l
ike it. If you do like it, then I'm going to help you get it."
"How much is it?" she asked.
"Don't worry about it," he said, shaking his head. "Just tell me if you like it enough to live here, to raise our baby here for a little while."
Her heart experienced a slight jump when he said "our baby," but she quickly brought it back down and sighed, rolling her eyes heavenward. "I'm not letting you pay for my…condo. It's way too 17th century England for my taste—jewelry and townhouses—are you going to take me to operas, too?"
"If you want to go to one," he stated.
Meeting his gaze, she said simply, "What changed? You're the same guy who tossed me out on my ass, remember?"
He averted his gaze once more, and it returned to the window. "I had to wait for things to settle down, Julie. Now that they're settling… I want to get you settled. There's no reason for you to keep living at Aaron's anymore. I will help you get a place, as I said before, and things can get back on track."
She said nothing, but she wondered exactly where the "track" was.
"Anyway, if you'll stop being difficult for a moment, I don't have long for my lunch break and Doug has other people to meet with, so could I take you and show you the condo?"
Still, she didn't really say anything, but she did let him drag her in to Doug, where Doug pretended everything was perfectly fine and he took them on the tour.
The first bedroom they approached was the smaller one. The walls were all painted beige, and there was a nice big window letting the light stream in through blue curtains.
"I was thinking this could be the baby's room," he murmured close to her ear. "You could put the crib over there, decorate the walls…"
For a moment, she thought of her baby having its own room, with a sleigh crib in the corner…
No, she told herself firmly. Not on Matt's dollar.
They continued to tour the condo, which was surprisingly big, but then when they got to the last room Doug said, "For 1300 a month, this is a steal."
"What?" she said, looking at Matt with wide eyes. "No," she said then, shaking her head. "I could work at the café every day of the week, Matt, and still not be able to pay this rent."
Matt glanced up at Doug, and mysteriously Doug's cell phone must have "vibrated," and he had to take it in the next room.
Julie was fuming.
Matt didn't seem to understand why. "I told you I would find you a better job. As of right now, I haven't found you anything permanent, but I did find you a temporary position as a receptionist—I know someone whose receptionist is going on maternity leave, so you could work there in the meantime. You don't have to worry about the price, Julie, I already told you I will supplement whatever you can't afford to—”
"No," she stated through her teeth. "I don't understand why you did this without even asking me, or why you thought that I would go along with it when I tried to return earrings, but I'm not doing this, Matt. I'm just not. I don't even know why all of a sudden you decided to do this."
His jaw clenched as he looked at the wall behind her, then he met her gaze and said, "I can't stand you living with my brother anymore."
Since that was not what she expected to hear, her eyebrows shot up. "Excuse me?"
He raked his hand through his hair again and looked at her, his expression a little more troubled. "I can't… I don't care if I have to pay entirely for your apartment, Julie. I don't give a damn if you are unemployed and I have to support you myself, if that's the only way to get you out of my brother's bed, I will damn well do it. Happy? You're driving me fucking nuts, I can't tolerate it anymore. Every damn text message that you ignore, I wonder if it's because you're with him. Every phone call you don't answer…"
All she could really do was stare. "Are you serious?"