Beautiful Mistakes

The thought made her smile. "Jack's. I'm such a terrible person. Sometimes I just really hate him," she blurted. Realizing that she had let the thought out of her head, her eyes widened a bit and she looked. "I didn't mean…”

But he merely shook his head. "Trust me, Julie, I know exactly what you mean. I don't think you're a bad person. I’m sure you have your reasons."

Arianna's text flashed through her mind, but she forced it out and shook her head as if to clear it. "Oh well, I made the choices that brought me here. I have no one to blame but myself. We all make mistakes, I suppose. No big deal." She slung her bag over her shoulder and changed the subject. “Thank you very much for dinner."

Matt didn't say anything, just nodded, arms crossed over his chest as he watched her.

She said her farewell and went to leave. As she turned, her backpack gaped open and a book fell out; they both bent down to pick it up, but Julie lost her hold on the backpack and it fell right off, hitting Matt in the shoulder.

"Oh!" she said, instinctively grabbing his shoulder as if to assess his injury. "I'm so sorry, that thing weighs like 500 pounds."

He laughed a little, picking it up. "It's fine, but how do you carry this thing on your back?"

"Lots of will power and a major backache," she returned with an easy smile.

Matt nodded, and it wasn't until he cleared his throat a little that she realized she was still hanging onto his shoulder.

"Oh, God," she said, clumsily standing, her face flushing. "I'm… sorry."

"Don't be," he said, still smiling that damnable smile.

She wanted to apologize, because she felt terribly embarrassed. "I didn't mean to…grope you like that, I just—the bag—"

"Julie, it's fine," he said. "You were hardly groping me. I think I would have noticed that."

"Well, I just… You're married." She was flustered and she wasn’t even sure why she pointed that out; she touched his shoulder, for God’s sake, not his penis.

"Oh, is that what this ring means? Thank you for reminding me,” he teased.

“I don't want you to think I'm coming onto you or anything!" she blurted gracelessly.

His eyebrows raised just a fraction of an inch. "I didn't think that."

"Okay, good," she said, nodding. "Because I wasn't, I don't want you to think…"

"Please, before you say anymore," he said, chuckling slightly, holding up his hand. "Don't. My fragile ego can handle no more abuse. You are not attracted to me and

you weren't coming onto me when you hit me with your backpack. I completely understand."

Her eyes widened again. "Oh, no, I wasn't trying to insult—It's not that. I do find you very attractive, it's just—” She stopped, slapping her hand over her mouth. "Oh God, I should not have the privilege of speaking."

That time his eyebrows rose higher and he smirked. "Oh really?"

"I have to go," she said, feeling deeply mortified as she slung her bag on her back and practically ran away from him.

"Wait," he said, grabbing her by the strap of her backpack and bringing her right back to him. "Please don't be embarrassed."

"I'm not embarrassed, I'm humiliated," she corrected.

"Don't be humiliated."

"Fine, then I'm mortified."

Matt chuckled. "Julie, are you running out of synonyms yet?"

She didn’t see the humor in it. "Horrified—I'm horrified. That was so inappropriate; I cannot believe that I just said that to you."

"It's okay—honest," he said. "No biggie. I was just making sure you're not so mortified that you won’t come back."