Beautiful Mistakes

Julie smiled. "That's not even possible. And I was thinking about it, I believe that the reason Poppy Seed is making me hungry all the time is because of the morning sickness—not to be gross, but the food doesn't usually stay down."

Making a face, Aaron announced, "Overshare."

> She smiled brightly. "Sorry."

"No, you're not," he said, shooting her a playful look.

Sighing audibly, she thought he was so damn adorable when he gave her looks like that.

No.

Bad thought.

The look didn't last for long though; while she was reigning in her errant thoughts he balled up the grocery bag, and his gaze absently landed on the phone.

"You have a new text," he stated, nodding toward the phone.

Frowning a little, she picked the phone up and opened up the message.

Sure enough, it was from Matt.

"Look Julie, I know I've made a mess of things, but I really care about you & I don't want to see you get hurt."

She pushed reply and texted back, "No you don't. And you're the one that was more likely to hurt me, not Aaron."

After pushing send, she sighed and shoved the phone in her pocket.

"Problems?" Aaron asked casually.

"Nothing really," she said, forcing a half smile. "So, do you have to go back to the restaurant tonight to close up?"

He nodded. "Yeah, but I'm not going back until later. I've got some other things to take care of first."

"Mystery man," she said playfully.

Smiling, he shook his head. "Just business, nothing that exciting."

"Anything I can help with?" she offered. "I'm totally bored—Jim doesn't need me tomorrow and of course I'm not scheduled at the café. I have nothing to do whatsoever."

"Not really," he said.

Nodding, she resigned herself to going back in the living room and watching another damn rerun and resume the countdown for school to start.

Aaron watched her as she slunk back in the living room and sat down, then he sighed and said, "How bored are you?"

Brightening, she said, "Really bored. I'll probably start pulling my eyelashes out soon just for something to do."

"Well, if you're that bored I suppose you could come to work with me tonight, I could show you how to close up."

"Really?" she asked, totally surprised.

The only person who knew how to close besides Aaron was Leigh. Unless he just meant do the employee part… that was probably what he meant, she realized. Leigh had keys—she could do anything there without Aaron.

Still, it was better than sitting at home watching television and it was definitely better than becoming so bored that she started thinking about why Matt wanted to talk to her…

Yep, a much more productive use of her time, she decided.

"When do we go in to do that?" she asked.