Beautiful Mistakes

She just hated borrowing books—it was so much better to own them. Someday, when she and Baby Poppy Seed had their own house, she wanted to make one of the rooms a library.

Thinking of the baby by the little nickname she had privately given her only companion made her smile for a minute, and she absently picked up the copy of 1984 she had left lying on the table, thumbing through it and thinking of a different type of book—a baby name book.

Aaron startled her by coming around the corner then, and she wondered why she hadn't heard him—she normally always sensed him coming.

His gaze landed on the book and his eyebrows rose. "You're still reading that?"

Shaking her head, she said, "Sadly, no. I have used up my supply of books in all the alone time I seem to have. Actually, I have one left, but I was saving it for tonight, so…"

"Oh," was his only response, then he walked into the kitchen.

She had thought about calling Jack and asking if she could borrow some of his books—that's how desperate she was getting.

After all, if she didn't have any people or books to keep her occupied, she would be forced to sit there and think about the current state of her life.

Since she knew she wasn't prepared to do that—her life being a bit shabby at the moment—she knew that she would end up finding a person to take the place of her books, and that person would undoubtedly be bad, and more than likely from the recycle bin. Either Matt would be coming around again or she would start distracting Jack from his probably unsuspecting new girlfriend.

She took a moment to feel bad for that girl, because she probably didn't know what she was getting into with him.

"Did I have my cell phone when I came in?" Aaron asked, peeking in at Julie with a frown.

"Um… I don't know, I just saw the folder. If you did, maybe you took it to the bedroom?"

He nodded, then she watched as he reached into a cupboard and scowled. "Damn."

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"Nothing," he muttered. "I'm out of Rice Crispy Treats."

Smiling, she managed not to say anything, but she found it kind of adorable that he was a grown man pouting because he was out of Rice Crispy Treats.

Then she frowned, because she realized that was the second or third time in about 12 hours that she found herself applying words like "cute" or "adorable" to Aaron.

Yep, she must be getting bored—she was going to have to make an emergency stop at the bookstore or the library. Maybe if she bought a Shakespeare it would take her longer to get through.

"Uh, Julie?"

She looked up, surprised that Aaron was initiating conversation, but momentarily forgetting she needed a book. "Yes?"

"About last night…"

"Please do not apologize again," she said, looking back down at her book and shaking her head. "It's really not a big deal."

"Well… if you could keep pretty much… all of it to yourself, I would greatly appreciate that."

Frowning slightly, she said, "Who would I tell?"

"I don't know, but even in conversation… Leigh might ask you about last night, if I was really drunk… if you could just…not give her those details."

Nodding slowly, she answered, "Sure, no problem."

Looking uncomfortable, he nodded once. "Thanks." After a brief pause, he said, "Well, I'm going to go to work. Have fun at your other job."

Julie merely nodded, murmuring a goodbye, but on the inside her wheels were turning.

Which part was it that he didn't want Leigh to know about? Of course Julie wouldn't say anything, since he had just asked her not to and she would honor the request, but as the crabby middle-aged waitress she didn't like emerged in her mind, she heard the multiple complaints she was always making about Leigh, about Aaron's implied favoritism. She would complain because Leigh got the best hours, she would complain if Aaron let Leigh do the order, and she always speculated about why Leigh was the only other employee of the café with keys.

Julie realized in that moment that she had never once questioned any of it, and she had always just found Debbie's remarks to be a bit obnoxious.