Feeling a rush of anticipation, Julie closed her eyes and leaned in to meet him halfway…
"Aaron," a female voice interrupted.
Aaron’s hand dropped to his side and he turned toward the intruder.
Biting back the urge to growl, Julie also turned to the interruption, a less than pleasant expression on her face.
Rebecca blinked and then abruptly smiled. "I'm sorry, was I interrupting?" But before she let either of them say yes, she went on, "Aaron, you still have not danced with the bride."
Letting out a breath, Aaron looked tiredly at his sister. "And you couldn't have waited until the next song?"
"Matt's feet were getting tired," she complained, rolling her eyes like a petulant child.
"Matt," he repeated, his gaze briefly perusing the room until he landed on Matt, taking a seat at his table and offering Aaron a smug little smile. "Bastard," he muttered under his breath.
Then Aaron glanced apologetically at Julie. "Do you mind…?"
"No, not at all," she lied, offering a fake half-smile and stepping away from Aaron. As she walked back to their table, she had to fight the instinct to turn and glare at Matt, but she thought better of it.
He didn't deserve to be acknowledged for ruining her perfect moment, he deserved to be ignored. If she acknowledged him—especially angrily—he might feel as though he had won.
And he may have won the battle, but he had not won the war. Matt may have met with success in ruining her perfect, romantic first kiss on the dance floor with Aaron, but there would be other opportunities.
Maybe not such classically perfect opportunities, she thought with annoyance, but opportunities nonetheless.
So without looking at Matt, Julie sat by herself at the table, casually watching everyone dance on the dance floor and patiently waiting for the song to end and Aaron to return to her.
But when that song ended the DJ said, "It looks like these folks are having such a nice time we're gonna play another slow one. This one's really gonna take you guys back…"
And then Frank Sinatra was singing, "The Way You Look Tonight," and Julie was stuck watching in horrified fascination as Rebecca—who coincidentally stopped dancing right by Shannon—took a step back and basically handed Aaron off to Shannon, all but pushing him at Shannon as she apparently also got tired feet.
Julie's jaw just dropped. She couldn't help it. Although she meant to look at Aaron and Shannon, she found her eyes following Rebecca as she walked away in a white little blur. What caught Julie's eye was the way that she smiled and offered a wink in Matt's direction.
Then she was forced to look at Matt, who smiled back at Rebecca and looked very satisfied with himself.
Her feet itched to carry her over to his table, to yell at him for being such a bastard. Hitting him with her purse even seemed like a good idea, if a little dramatic.
But she forced herself to sit back, and instead she watched Aaron and Shannon.
Feeling strangely unsettled, she thought he didn't look miserable enough as Shannon danced in his arms. The grating feeling in her stomach could only be jealousy, and she couldn’t seem to look away. The feeling intensified as she watched Aaron twirl Shannon, and Julie caught sight of Shannon's dazzling, happy smile as she spun in Julie's direction.
Deciding not to bother watching for the end of the song, Julie stood up and took a trip to the bathroom.
How could the whole night shift so dramatically in the time it took to play one song? Less than four minutes before, Aaron had Julie in his arms and he had been just about to kiss her, and then Rebecca had to ruin everything.
Why would Aaron dance with Shannon? Shannon was the enemy!
Sighing miserably, Julie fished around in her little purse for her tube of lipstick.
The bathroom door opened and Julie didn't look up, but then she caught sight of purple out of her peripherals and she accidentally froze, her lipstick still touching her lips. Recovering quickly, she finished applying it and waited to see if the newcomer was going to step into the stall or not.
But Emma waited patiently for Julie to finish putting on her lipstick and then slip it back into her clutch.
Not in the mood to deal with Emma, Julie turned and said, "May I help you with something?"
Emma shook her head. "No, not really."
"Okay, then, if you'll excuse me," Julie said, taking a step forward and waiting for Emma to move so she could get to the door.