"And now that he's taken, will you have any reason to do that?"
"Well…no," Leigh said, not looking like she necessarily liked where the conversation was going.
"So the next time some hot guy at Starbucks asks you out—”
Cracking a smile, Leigh said, "Hot guys at Starbucks don't ask me out."
"Well, you've been unapproachable. Now they will. Now when some Johnny Depp look alike with the chai latte in front of you asks you out, you don't have to turn him down to wait for someone who won't notice you. I mean, if I was a guy, I would totally want to date you," Julie stated.
Giving her a dry but reluctantly amused look, Leigh said, "You would not—and neither will Johnny Depp's look alike."
"Leigh, you're beautiful. You're loyal. You're funny. You're sweet. You have so much to offer someone that it isn't even funny."
Sighing in not-quite-sincere irritation, Leigh said, "You're making it very difficult to hate you."
Smiling, Julie said, "Good. There's no reason for us to not get along, Leigh. I mean, we can totally ignore the whole Aaron situation if that will help, I just thought before we could move past it we should talk about it. But we don't have to mention him. I want to be your friend. I genuinely like you, and I would hate to lose your friendship over a guy. It's just so… unnecessary."
Sighing, Leigh said, "I did like you, I just don't think I can do it right now."
"But I'm your second favorite flavor of Lifesaver," Julie stated solemnly.
"And Aaron is my first," Leigh reminded her.
"I can deal with that," Julie said easily. "I just want us to be past this awkward, tense kind of thing that we've been doing. I can move slowly, but I really want to move past this, Leigh. I really like you."
"Well… maybe one day," Leigh allowed.
"Excellent—as long as you're open to the idea I have faith that this will happen."
Laughing a little, Leigh said, "You have high hopes."
"I do," Julie agreed.
Frowning a little, Leigh said, "I don't think, in your position, I would be so eager to befriend someone who admits to being in love with my boyfriend."
"Eh, I think you'll recover from that," Julie said dismissively. "Anyway, let's not talk about that."
"Yeah, I've got tables anyway," Leigh stated.
Feeling a little better about life, Julie smiled and watched Leigh walk away.
---
Later that evening, Aaron left work and picked her up at the apartment so they could go look at the place he seemed to be in love with.
On the way there Julie carefully approached the subject and told Aaron that she thought he should put her and Leigh on overlapping for an hour or so once in a while when he wouldn't be there, just to give them some time to talk if they wanted to.
Aaron looked doubtful, but more in the "It's your funeral" kind of way, and told her if that's what she wanted then he would arrange it.
When they got to the brick building that apparently housed the condo Aaron wanted to buy, he finally told her, "Now, if you don't like it, tell me. Don't do the Julie thing where if I like it you'll keep your mouth shut. I want this to be our house, not my house."
"Noted," Julie verified. "I promise to be as big a pain in the ass as I feel necessary."
"I think you'll like it though," he told her.
Twining her fingers with his, she said, "I'm sure I will. I'm not so hard to please."
He quirked his eyebrow at her and smirked a little, but Julie elbowed him before he could remark.