Honestly, she didn't even know why she had texted Jack. Even though Matt had fallen short of her expectations, even though in weak moments of loneliness she would forget, she knew that breaking up with Jack had been a good thing—one of the only good decisions she had made lately. Regardless of the things he said in the end, obviously exaggerations of how he felt since he already had—

Her thoughts were cut short by the chime of a new text, which she saw was from Jack, and she opened it up.

"I'm glad you texted me punk."

Smiling slightly, she pushed reply and typed back, "No prob."

Yawning again, she closed her eyes and sat her phone down by her side, trying to remember what she had been thinking about. It had been about Jack…oh, and his new girlfriend… she wondered… what had she wondered?

In less than a minute, she couldn't remember what she had been thinking.

The next thing she could remember she was sitting at a diner, looking into a cup of coffee while Jack sat at the counter with her. Then Jack was handing her a phone, and she didn't know why, and she was calling Matt—but she couldn't dial the phone. She was getting very frustrated as she tried to dial, knowing there was something she was supposed to tell him. What was it? Oh, right—she had to tell him she was pregnant.

Then Aaron came walking into the diner with a knapsack, and she no longer needed to call Matt. She called out to Aaron, and he came over to her, giving her that smile he never let her see. She must have asked him what was in the knapsack, because he put it on the counter—and suddenly Jack was gone, although Julie barely noticed, and with him the phone had vanished—and Aaron pulled a map out of the bag, handing it to her. Julie took the map and looked at it, not knowing what it was a map to. She was just about to ask Aaron why he had

brought her a map when—

"Julie!"

Gasping, Julie's eyes shot open and she looked up with blurry vision, trying to shake herself out of the dream fog. "What?" she murmured, trying to bring the face into focus.

"If you're going to sleep in my bed, can you at least move over?" Aaron asked, gesturing to the way she was sprawled across the very middle of the bed.

Not wanting to wake up, still thinking of the map and the dream and wanting to read it, Julie grudgingly scooted over to one side of the bed and closed her eyes, falling easily back into a restful sleep.

---

"We have to find the treasure! Argh!"

Julie's head pounded as 17 young children went yelling and screaming toward the middle-aged male pirate, the sound of their shrill voices piercing through to her bones as she cursed her stupid costume for not having a pocket for aspirin.

More screaming ensued as she cleaned up the mess the kids had made as they had picked at the cake, getting most of it on the very edges of their paper plates so that of course her fingers had no way of escaping contact.

Germs, germs, germs, she thought as she raked the plates into a big black Glad bag.

Even the adults were laughing, enjoying the fun the children were having since they had to do absolutely nothing. Jim entertained the kids, Julie got everything set up and then cleaned up afterward, and when they left, they got to do it all one more time before she got to go home.

As she finally got to the end of the cake, plate, napkin and pirate punch mess that the children had made, she heard a boy's voice squeal and a loud "Argh!" from Jim, so she assumed the treasure had been found.

Great, she had to get the face-painting set up, because the kids were coming down to claim their treasures and that was when she was supposed to be ready to paint some faces.

The boys mostly wanted swords and skulls, but one of the little girls wanted a ladybug.

"It's a pirate party, stupid," said one of the rude little boys.

"I don't care," she said defiantly, glaring at the little brat. "I want a ladybug!"

Rolling his eyes in disgust, the little boy secured his pirate hat on his head and stormed away.

"I think ladybugs are prettier than skulls anyway," Julie told the little girl.

The little girl brightened, and that made Julie forget about her headache…until the sword fight began.

Even though there should have been nothing to make her nauseous, at the second party she came really close to tossing her cookies while she was cleaning up, and that would have definitely put her behind schedule.

By the time she got back to the apartment that night, she felt like it had been one of the longest days of her life.

As it was, Julie was only needed for one party the following day, and she didn't have to go in until 3:45, and it was only scheduled to be a two hour shift. Even more pathetic than her waitressing shifts, and she didn't get tips—plus she had to wear a pirate costume and striped stockings that made her feel just a little bit ridiculous.

Tags: Sam Mariano Romance
Source: readsnovelonline.net