Beautiful Mistakes

The seed was fertilized, and for a split second she panicked, wondering if Leigh was really a trustworthy source. What if she had gotten the information wrong? Even if she believed everything she told Julie, it was called gossip for a reason. Aaron hadn't been the one to tell her—

But Aaron had told her that Shannon was sleeping with her boss, all Leigh had done was give the boss a name and face.

Shaking her head, Julie said, "I don't know what to believe anymore, but I'm not playing these games, I can tell you that right now."

Then she turned around and walked faster, making it to her car and opening the door.

Matt just stood there watching her, that same sad expression on his face, and then as soon as she looked up at him it changed to one of disappointment and he shook his head, his jaw tightening.

"I really thought you knew me better than that," he said as she shut the car door.

For another split second, she wondered if she had picked the wrong team as she looked at Matt's face, saw the disappointment etched there… it looked so genuine.

Then, instead of trying to convince her of his innocence, he did the one thing she didn't expect him to do—and the one thing that made her wonder more than any argument would have if she had been wrong…

He turned around and walked back toward the apartment, his head hung and his shoulders slumped.

For an instant, she wanted to call him back and apologize for doubting him, but she managed to override that instinct and instead start her car.

But she didn't pull away. She waited, reluctantly watching as Matt went back in the apartment and shut the door behind him.

Feeling depressed, she turned the heater up a notch and checked her mirrors, pulling out.

Great.

She felt worse than she had when she went over, plus she was confused.

Was she wrong? Was Leigh wrong? What if what Matt had been trying to say was right—what if that Shannon girl had just started shit to try to move up at work and…?

Sighing, she wondered if she would ever really know the truth about anything.

---

When Aaron got home after closing up the restaurant that night, she was sure that one thing he didn't expect to find when he returned home was a weeping female.

However, that is exactly what he found.

He entered the living room to see Julie curled up on the couch, crying, and he actually spun on his heel muttering, "Fuck," as if he thought he could walk out and pretend he hadn't seen her in the first place.

He seemed to realize, in under a second, that he had been spotted, so that wasn't going to work.

Scratching his head and making a slight grimace, he awkwardly came toward the couch.

"What's wrong?" he asked uncomfortably.

Sniffling, Julie shook her head and replied, "Nothing."

Eyebrows rising, he said, "That's an awful red nose for someone who's in good spirits."

She sniffled again and self-consciously touched her nose.

He looked extremely uncomfortable, and he was eyeing her up with the same look of apprehension a normal person give a wild tiger they came across in the jungle.

Moving toward the couch, he glanced at it for a second and looked like he was debating, then he must have made a decision because he took the plunge—he sat down on the edge of the couch.

"Okay, I'm going to ask one more time, and I would appreciate if you would refrain from lying to me and saying nothing is wrong when obviously something is. I know females do that, but… if you haven't noticed, I'm out of practice with females, so… I don't really have the patience for it. Now—what's wrong?"

Dashing the tears from her eyes, she said, "I'm just so confused."