Beautiful Mistakes

Dropping her hand and smiling, Anna said, "Hi!”

"Hi," he replied, waving and cautiously lowering his hands.

Turning around, Anna ran back into the living room to find Julie.

Offering a little smile, Julie said, "Surprise?"

"I'm surprised," he verified, nodding and looking around. "There aren't any other surprises in here, are there?"

Grabbing one of the pictures they had colored off the floor, Anna walked back over to Aaron and held one up to him.

Offering her a smile, he said, "Thanks, Anna."

Anna didn't respond, she just went back over to her coloring station, plopped down in the floor, and quietly began to color a new picture.

Sighing, Julie said, "I got a surprise call from Emma this morning. Apparently her new nanny is sick and she had to go to the airport, so she needed someone to watch Anna until Matt gets off work, then he's coming over to pick her up…"

"You're an odd choice of babysitter," he remarked.

Shrugging, she said, "I know, I was as surprised as you are. I guess Emma really doesn't have many people she can call when she needs a favor."

"Shocking," he said dryly. "I would have thought she had at least a million friends who would lay down their lives for her."

"You would think," Julie replied, smiling ironically.

"So… Matt's coming here… to my apartment… tonight."

"Remember how understanding I was last night when you said you were going for drinks with Leigh?" Julie reminded him.

With a slight guffaw he said, "Oh, this definitely means you're paid back in full."

"Absolutely," she said eagerly.

"When is Matt picking her up?" Aaron asked.

"He's supposed to be here around seven or so," Julie explained.

Nodding, he said, "Okay. Well, Leigh's closing tonight anyway, so I was going to leave after dinner. Maybe I'll just leave before."

Offering a smile, Julie said, "You know, not that I'm objecting to you coming home early, but you really don't have to be here."

With a wry smile, he said, "I thought we were both clear that you were joking last night when you called me Mr. Understanding."

"Yes, I understand that. But in all fairness, I was totally cool about you going out for drinks with Leigh last night…"

"I've never slept with Leigh," he shot back.

"Touché," she said, inclining her head. "Well, obviously it's not like I care, it's just that I know being around him makes you grumpy."

"I'll be fine," he assured her. "What would make me grumpy would be not being here and knowing he is here."

"Well, okay, then I guess that will work," she replied.

Nodding, he said, "Hey, do you want to go out to dinner tonight?"

Smiling a little, Julie replied, "Since we're in the process of basically buying a house, don't you think we should cut back on expenses and maybe eat at home?"

As if he found the idea ridiculous, he replied, "No, why would we do that? I don't really feel like cooking tonight; I was thinking we could go to The Cheesecake Factory or something like that."