Beautiful Mistakes

Feeling disgruntled, she reluctantly answered, "I guess it would probably help."

"Exactly," he said again. "So when he starts assaulting you with his false concern and his seemingly sincere warnings about me, I'm not going to give you anything to wonder about."

"So… you didn't mind holding me, but you're not going to because you think Matt's going to try to convince me that you're not trustworthy and you think if you hold me it will make me believe him?" she summarized.

"Right," he said. "It's nothing personal, I just know Matt better than you do, and he's played you enough—I'm not going to let him use me to play you some more."

Strangely, she thought that was one of the nicest reasons he could have had for not wanting to cuddle with her.

Then he rolled back over, his back to her, and said, "I'm going to bed now. Good night."

"Good night," she murmured, looking at the back of his shirt thoughtfully.

Even though she really wanted to enjoy the feeling of his arms around her as she slept, she thought over what he said, and despite not wanting it to be true, she thought maybe he was right. If Matt did try to plant doubt about Aaron in her mind, it would be easier to believe he just wanted to fuck his brother's mistress to settle the score if Aaron suddenly became affectionate.

She didn't want that to be the truth, because it seemed that she actually wanted his affection—although the situation they were currently in made it seem even more imperative that she put errant thoughts and desires like that in the "Do Not Open" box.

But he was right.

Even though she would like to believe she wasn't so weak-minded, she had already proven that if Matt tried to plant seeds of doubt, she was prone to watering them with her overactive imagination.

Aaron just wasn't going to give her any water.

Sighing, she rolled over with her back to him as well, not out of spite or sullenness or anything, but just because there was no point in hoping that he would roll over that night and wrap his arms around her.

Aaron's logic did have one hole that she could find, however—Julie really didn't think that Matt cared enough to go out of his way to get her to doubt Aaron. After all, when she had left Jack and he had spitefully told Matt that he had slept with Julie the night before, Matt had barely blinked an eye. He had been completely unconcerned with whether or not she had been sleeping with someone else. In fact, he had even been willing to let her go back to the apartment and sleep with someone else every night if she wouldn't have agreed to moving into the guest room.

So Matt wasn't going to care enough about that to try with any real effort to sabotage it.

Even if Aaron did want to settle a debt, he would have been choosing the wrong way. Aaron had loved Shannon—a meaningless mistress wouldn't compare. He would have to go after someone Matt actually loved or at least valued enough to not toss her out on her ass at his wife's request…

His wife.

Suddenly it occurred to her—Emma would have been the perfect way for Aaron to get back at Matt. Not Julie.

Aaron wasn't thinking about it the right way at all. Sex for sex wasn't evening a score, not one like that. The betrayal would have to be equal to or worse in order for it to really be considered getting even.

As Julie listened to her own dramatic thoughts, she smiled a little and rolled her eyes self-deprecatingly.

She needed to stop watching so much TV.

Chapter Seventeen-

As the rest of the week drifted by, Aaron and Julie got more comfortable with each other, but she noticed he was still gone a lot.

She really didn't understand. She had assumed that he was always gone because he was avoiding her, but he didn't avoid her anymore and he was still leaving more than she thought he was at work. He did start taking his afternoon break and coming home though, it was just that half the time Julie was at the restaurant when it was Aaron's break time.

It was weekend before Matt finally contacted her again. She was peeling off her pirate uniform and getting ready to pull her jeans back on when her cell phone started vibrating.

"How are you doing?" was the simple text message.

Rolling her eyes, she shoved it in her pocket and didn't even dignify it with a response…

Until she got in her car, and then the temptation of sating her curiosity was too great, and she texted him back. "Fine," was all she wrote though, so that was how she soothed her conscience when it came down on her for even texting the enemy camp back.

Although Aaron was a very subtle, hands-off kind of guy, she had come to the conclusion that he had wordlessly chosen Julie's side. She probably shouldn't have been surprised, considering the relationship that Aaron and Matt had and the history they shared, but it still felt good knowing someone was on her side—especially since it was someone who should probably be on the other side.

Matt texted her back a few minutes later, asking, "What are you doing?"