If Leigh only acted so despondent to make Julie feel bad, Julie wouldn't feel bad.
But it was quite the opposite. Leigh did make an attempt to act like it wasn't killing her to see them together, but when Aaron gave Julie one of those secret little smiles that should have made her happy, all she could focus on was the guilt from Leigh's wretched expression.
Near the end of Leigh's shift Julie caught the tail end of a bit of gossip between the waitresses—Debbie, the incoming, and Leigh, the outgoing.
"Are you sure the baby isn't his?" Debbie was asking Leigh. "I mean, if it isn't his baby then why is Aaron taking care of her? Why did he give her a job? Why is she living with him? None of it makes sense."
"Because… Aaron is a good person," Leigh said a little desperately, as if she still clung to the hope that he had no romantic interest in Julie, he was merely doing a good deed.
Deciding to put an end to it all, Julie breezily made her way over to them with a smile and put in, "He sure is."
Debbie looked startled, but Leigh just offered a wan smile. "Hey, Julie."
Debbie pasted on the fakest smile Julie had ever seen. Since her idea that Julie was sleeping with the boss, Debbie decided to get real nice to Julie. "Aw, how's the baby?"
Giving Debbie a coolly polite smile, Julie said, "The baby is wonderful, thank you for asking."
Aaron walked up behind them, oblivious, and shook his head with a tolerant smile. "You women and your baby talk."
"Oh, just you wait, mister. You think a casual 'how's the baby?' is bad, wait until it's time to start buying baby furniture and I spend every spare moment obsessing over whether I like natural wood or white better for the crib."
Smiling, he said, "I won't mind."
"That's what you say now," Julie said, but then—considering Leigh was standing right there—she decided to drop it.
"And that's what I'll say then," he said, giving her a crooked smile. "I know how to shut you up. If you get on my nerves I'll buy both."
Debbie latched onto that, eyes slightly wide as she said, "Wow, you buy employees cribs, too?" she chuckled then, although to Julie it was clear she was fishing. "Man, I wish I would have known that when I had my kid."
"I don't buy employees cribs, Debbie. That could get expensive." Then, perhaps oblivious, perhaps uncaring, he went on, "But I will buy Julie a crib."
"Well, that's nice of you!" Debbie gushed, clearly excited at how much information she was getting. "What brought on such a charitable gesture?"
Rolling his eyes a little, he said, "It's hardly charitable to buy a crib for your own kid."
There was a clinking noise behind Aaron and a pair of gasps, then Leigh saying, "Oh, sir, I'm so sorry."
Aaron turned around to see Leigh—as white as a ghost—clumsily putting the coffee pot down and using a thick white towel to clean up the coffee she had just spilt all over the counter as the customer moved his plate closer to him so as to avoid the hot liquid.
"Klutz," Aaron murmured jokingly, not understanding as Julie did what had just happened.
"Can you clean this up? I need—”
Aaron just blinked in confusion as Leigh all but ran into the bathroom and slammed the door shut.
That had been what Julie was afraid of.
Grimacing, she went over to help Aaron, clearing away the cup and saucer that the customer had and grabbing him a new one, filling it up with more coffee.
"This is not good, Aaron," Julie remarked as she tossed her white towel into the soapy bucket Aaron was cleaning his out in.
Glancing up, he asked, "What's not good?"
"Did you not see what just happened?" she asked, raising her eyebrows.
He frowned. "Leigh spilled some coffee? I hope she didn't burn herself. She did go running into the bathroom pretty quickly… Maybe you should check on her."
Sighing, Julie said, "Are you really that oblivious, Aaron? Leigh didn't have a clumsy moment, she had a shocked moment. She is probably in the bathroom either crying, hyperventilating, or maybe even both if my own experience serves as any indication."