"I see," Julie said quietly. Then, with her head down, her eyes trained on the floor, she walked away, shaking her head in mild disgust.
Glancing back at Julie, he seemed to realize what she had seen, so he turned to go after her. "No, Julie, it's not like that," he told her.
"It doesn't matter, Aaron, it's really none of my business," she said, grabbing her purse off of her table and momentarily wishing she would have stayed at the apartment in Chicago for the weekend, and then nothing would have changed. "I'll see you back at the room later. Maybe," she added, wasting no time talking to him or waiting to hear what he said.
She knew he wouldn't come after her; the man wouldn't even kiss her, so why would he dramatically chase her into the hotel lobby?
She made it out of the reception room and down the hallway, and was about home free when she heard from behind her, "Julie, wait."
Pausing, she sighed and turned around. "What do you want?"
Matt stood before her, a look of near-concern in his eyes. "Are you okay?"
"Oh, I'm fucking great, Matt, why wouldn't I be?" she replied a bit shrewishly.
"It looked like you and Aaron… were fighting."
"Nope," she said succinctly. "I'm just tired. I'm going back to our room."
Sighing, he ran a hand through his dark head of hair and shook his head. "It was never supposed to be like this."
Unable to argue, she just looked vaguely at the lapels of his jacket, silently agreeing. Her life was never supposed to turn out the way it seemed to be going.
Meeting her eyes, he said simply, "This is really hard."
"What is?" she asked impatiently.
He shook his head slightly, as if annoyed at his inability to formulate the right words. "Everything. All of this. It all got out of hand. I know that you think I'm an asshole, and I guess I've proved that I am, but… I really did care about you, Julie. I do. It's not like this is easy for me, and then to top it all off by having to see you with my brother… genius retaliation, if I do say so myself."
He managed to look so sincere that it sent white-hot anger right through Julie, and she snapped at him. "Don't pull that shit with me, Matt. I know way too much now to feel bad because you have to see me dance with your brother. How do you think he felt when he found out you were fucking his girlfriend?"
Fire flashed in his eyes then, and for a moment, the cowardly side of Matt that she was seeing a lot of lately went away and the more fiery side of him came out. "Probably the same damn way I felt when he fucked around with my wife because he believed that conniving little bitch's story."
Slam.
Her heart hurled itself into her ribcage again and her jaw went slack, her eyes widening a little of their own volition.
Raising his eyebrows, he said, "Don't look so surprised, Julie. You didn't think Saint Aaron was infallible, did you? You're so… gullible," Matt said, shaking his head. "I tried to warn you—I won't act completely altruistic here, it wasn't just for you, it was for me, too. I couldn't stand the thought of you with him—my brother, of all the men in the damn city. But you believe everything he tells you. You were so easy."
Scowling, she shook her head. "I… I don't believe you."
She heard a sigh from behind him and her gaze flew to the source of the sound, to the sight of Aaron standing there against the doorframe with his hands in his pockets, looking at the back of his brother's head.
"I knew it was coming," Aaron stated as he walked up behind his brother.
Matt stepped off to the side a little and turned to face Aaron. "Well, you spilled all of my dirty laundry and then you even had to rub your little conquest in my face. Did you expect me to keep my mouth shut and cover for you? Not that I'm proud of it, but I'm pretty sure I put her through enough myself, she doesn't need to go through the other brother's bullshit, too. Julie's just another way for you to take out your anger on me, and I'm not going to let you do that to her. My hands may be tied right now about certain things, but I care about her too much to let you hurt her just to spite me."
"I haven't done a damn thing to her," Aaron shot back. "You're the one who disillusioned her, Matt, not me. I tried telling her that she didn't know what she was getting into with me, and I never lied to her."
"Really?" Matt asked, nodding at his brother. "Well, I assume you heard, right?"
Aaron said nothing for a second, just pressed his lips together firmly and looked at Matt, his gaze brimming with hostility.
"I can repeat myself if you missed it," Matt offered. "You say you don't lie to her, so go ahead, tell her. I tried, but she says she doesn't believe me, because of course her Aaron would never do such a thing."
Feeling a little bewildered and even more cautious, she looked at Aaron.
"He's lying, right?" Julie said. "Just… one of those things you said that he would say to try to make me doubt you?"