Beautiful Mistakes

"Hello," he said.

Raising an eyebrow, she offered a small smile and said, "Hello. Is this the box?"

"What box?" he asked.

"No," Julie replied, jumping in. "This is not the box. Hold on, I marked it. Let me just look over here."

Since no one was introducing them, Steve took it upon himself to say, "My name's Steve, I'm a friend of Aaron's. Are you Julie's sister?"

Chuckling, Leigh said, "No, I'm not. I'm… a friend of theirs."

"Ah… and do you have a name?" he asked a little playfully.

Smiling, she said, "Yeah." But she didn't say anything else for a moment, just giving him a cheeky grin.

He smiled back, saying, "Am I supposed to guess?"

"If you're a good guesser," she answered.

"I'm a terrible guesser," he informed her gravely.

"Ah, well, then I guess I'll take pity on you. My name's Leigh."

"Leigh," he said, smiling and offering his hand to shake. "It's very nice to meet you."

She shook his hand and nodded, then she let go and turned around to face Julie. "Find it?"

"Yep," Julie said, nodding. "Right here it is. It's kind of heavy though, Aaron, why don't you carry it down for her?"

"I got it," Steve said promptly. "Which box?"

"Well, you certainly are helpful," Leigh told him, smiling slightly.

"Can't make ladies carry around heavy boxes," he returned easily.

"How very chivalrous of you," she noted.

"Some still are," he replied, easily lifting the box.

"Well, I will show you the way to my car. Julie, thanks for the magazines. Aaron, I'll see you at work."

"Yeah, see you there," he said, frowning slightly.

Julie laughed to herself a little as Steve walked in front of Leigh so that he could hoist the box under one arm and still hold open the door for Leigh to walk through first.

It was a moment before Aaron, still frowning, said, "Should Steve be trying to hit on Leigh when he isn't even divorced yet? I mean… she doesn't need complications like that in her life."

Smiling patiently, Julie assured him, "Honey, Leigh can take care of herself. In case you haven't noticed, she has been on a path of self-discovery lately. If she doesn't want to deal with him, she knows there are other guys out there."

"But…"

"No," she said, shaking her head. "She's fine.”

"It's so… weird to see Leigh…"

Thinking she understood, Julie said, "Yeah, she's somehow blossomed. I mean, there's no denying she's prettier with her contacts, and I think the confidence that the guys at the restaurant have been giving her—”

"No, I don't mean the changes she's made, just… Leigh's never dated or anything like that in front of me. I guess I always thought of her as an asexual being."