"Well, if you need me I can stay. I won't break or anything, Aaron just worries unnecessarily."
"I know," she said, her face looking a little strained again.
Feeling like it might be a good moment, Julie said, "Look, Leigh… I know that this is… difficult for you, and I am really sorry about that, but I really hate this tension. I like you a lot, and I never intended to hurt you or take anything away from you…"
"You didn't. He wasn't mine, I just wanted him to be," Leigh stated, not looking at Julie. "Regardless, I can't be your friend—at least not yet."
Feeling a little surprised that Leigh openly admitted it, Julie nodded, slightly startled. "Well… maybe once a little time passes…"
Finally looking Julie in the face, Leigh said very levelly, "Maybe someday if I fall out of love with him."
Julie's jaw dropped open a little, not of her own accord.
"Is that all?" Leigh asked, lifting her eyebrows.
Still unable to speak, Julie nodded her head, trying to wrap her mind around the idea of actually responding to what Leigh had just said. She didn't know if it was the pregnancy hormones that especially irked her, or if it was just having another woman tell Juli
e she was in love with her boyfriend.
Leigh had already walked away before Julie thought of what she wanted to say, so she spun around and went after Leigh.
"Wait, I do have one more thing to say," Julie stated.
Turning around, Leigh glanced at her expectantly.
"If you really loved him, you would want him to be happy, even if that means he isn't with you."
Nodding, Leigh agreed, "And I do." Then, with a pointed look at Julie's stomach, Leigh said, "I don't know yet if you're going to make him happy, or hurt him even more."
Well, Julie couldn't hold that against her.
"I know that Shannon hurt him, Leigh. But I'm not Shannon."
Tilting her head to the side, Leigh said, "And Aaron's not fertile. He wanted to believe Shannon too. Aaron wants a family so bad… He isn't stupid, but sometimes he gets blinded by that desire. It wouldn't be the first time he has believed something that wasn't true in order to make it happen."
"I am not lying to Aaron, Leigh. I understand your concern, I really do. If I were in your position, I would probably be cautious, too."
"I don't know if Aaron can take that again," Leigh stated. "He's been closed off for years after the first time it happened."
Boy, she was getting sick of being judged as just another Shannon .
"Well, I'm not going to hurt Aaron, so we won't have to find out. I am not lying to him about my pregnancy or anything else. I don't keep anything from Aaron. I know that in a sense you probably I wasn’t telling the truth, but I am. You don't have anything to worry about from me."
Looking at Julie for a long moment, Leigh finally said, "If the roles were reversed and Aaron was with me, could you be my friend?"
In an effort to be fair, Julie paused and tried to put herself in those shoes… To imagine Leigh and Aaron together, happy, having a baby together, and Julie stuck at the café, looking in and wishing he were hers.
Instead of answering, "No," Julie took a more evasive maneuver and said, "I think that you will see, in time, that Aaron is sort of… a security blanket for you. I know you think you love him, and in a sense I'm sure you do, but I don't think it's quite the same. I don't know how exactly to explain it without probably making you mad at me, but I really don't think Aaron is the one for you."
To Julie's surprised delight, Leigh averted her gaze for a split second—in a way that could only mean she had doubts herself—and she said, "You don't know how I feel about him."
Seizing upon that little crumb, Julie said, "No, but I really hope that I'm right, because if you're just confused about how you feel about him and you love him in a different way, that means that you'll be able to move past this and we can all be friends. If he has just been your comfort zone, you're actually free now because of this, and you'll be able to meet someone you'll actually love, and who will love you back, and then you’ll be happy. You and I can be friends, you can be Aunt Leigh to little Alyssa, and everything will work out."
"Yes, with all the men lining up down my street, I think that's definitely bound to happen," Leigh said dryly.
"Leigh, this is none of my business and you don't have to answer me, but at least answer the question to yourself. How many men have you turned down because you were holding out for Aaron?"
Pressing her lips together, Leigh gave a slight nod. "Okay, I have… pretty much rejected every guy who has ever tried because they weren't him."