Sighing, she unlocked the bathroom door and snuck his cell phone back into their room, sitting it on the bedside table and wandering out to the kitchen, knowing she definitely wasn't going back to sleep.
---
Julie sometimes thought about her relationship with Jack, and sometimes she would think she wasn't a very good girlfriend. It was because she didn't love him. It made her less attentive, and sometimes she would feel guilty for it.
Those were usually the nights she would foolishly give in and go to hang out with Jack and his obnoxious friends.
Without fail she would always wish she could have stayed home with a book, but she didn't always have as miserable of a time as that particular Wednesday night.
They never discussed what had happened that night, where Jack had been and who he had been with. It vaguely irritated Julie, both with Jack and with herself. But when Jack asked her if she would come hang out at Morgan's with "a bunch of people" she agreed, thinking maybe she needed to exert just a little bit of effort.
Big mistake.
The only thing she ended up exerting was restraint—not to kick her boyfriend in the head or slap Morgan in the face.
Even Jacob seemed uncomfortable with the way Morgan kept walking over and touching Jack, resting her hand securely on his shoulder and smiling at him, giving him these telling looks. Once in a while Julie would catch Morgan's gaze and she could swear Morgan was almost telling her with her eyes, "I fucked your boyfriend."
But Julie merely smiled.
She sure as hell wasn't going to show any other sort of reaction.
At 2:33 a.m. she had been there for three and a half hours, and her cool composure was beginning to crack. She found herself making cutting comebacks to every little thing Jack said, something she frequently did when he offended her.
At 2:34 she got a text message. Wondering who could possibly be texting her so late, she flipped open her phone and saw that it said, "Matt Cell."
Her eyes widened and she opened the message.
"Hey, do you have any idea where Anna's puppy is? I can't find it and she won't stop crying."
The puppy. She had seen the puppy somewhere. Where?
Julie jumped up off the couch, still looking at the text, trying to remember where she had last seen Anna's toy puppy, the one she slept with every night.
Jack had been sitting on the couch with Morgan, laughing and joking
with her as she giggled and playfully slapped his arm, telling him, "Stop! You're so bad. Isn't he bad?"
"Where are you going?" Jack asked Julie as she walked toward the door.
"I'm making a phone call," she said.
"Who are you calling at three in the morning?" he asked with a frown.
She flashed him the sweetest smile she could muster. "Don't you worry about it, sweetie." With that she left the room, making it seem like she needed privacy for her phone call.
In fact she didn't call Matt, she texted him, telling him she knew she had seen the puppy, but she couldn't think of where. Did Emma happen to know where it was?
"She's not here, and I can't find it," was the response.
She thought about it for a second, then she texted, "Do you want me to come help you? I'm sure I can find it."
A few seconds later her phone chimed. "No, you don't have to do that. It's late. I'll just try to get her to sleep with something else."
"Are you sure? I'm wide awake and I'm actually pretty close to your house right now, I could be there in a few minutes…"
A minute passed before he responded, "If you want to."
Julie smiled unconsciously and texted him back that she'd be there in a few minutes, then she walked back into Morgan's apartment to retrieve her purse.