Beautiful Mistakes

"You know…" Julie wanted to tell him what she thought of that, but she lost her nerve and shook her head.

"What?" he asked.

"Never mind," she muttered. "It's not important. Guys are all alike. Have a nice night," she said, turning to walk toward the door.

Frowning, Aaron followed after her. "Wait, what do you mean, 'guys are all alike'?"

"It's pretty self-explanatory," she stated, pausing to see if she could spot Leigh to wave goodbye, but Leigh had her back to them, so Julie figured she would just leave. More than likely, Leigh was too tipsy to realize by that time anyway.

"Well, maybe I'm dense," he suggested, following her out into the hallway as she tried to close the door behind her.

"You're just all alike," she said, spinning around to look at him.

"How so?" he asked, f

rowning.

"Because you're all hypocrites. I have put up with your shit because I knew that I was wrong and I deserved it, but… it’s bull shit. You can despise me for a mistake that I made, you can think he's a shitty person, but then you turn around at your girlfriend's party and play some…game, tell me you want to kiss me and then… tell me to leave, and you think you're so much better!"

He looked too confused to scold anymore, so she just sighed and turned around, heading toward the elevator.

It took a second, but she heard footsteps following behind her. "Wait, you think Leigh's my girlfriend?" he asked stupidly.

She paused at the elevator after she pushed the button and turned to him, eyebrow raised. "She isn't?" she asked in an unconvinced tone.

"Uh, no," he stated as if that should be obvious. "I definitely don't have a girlfriend, and yeah, I do think I'm a little better than Matt, but I'm definitely not a hypocrite in that sense. I don't cheat. I don't even consider cheating. Of course I also don't date, so you can't really cheat on someone you're not dating…"

"You're not dating Leigh," Julie repeated in confusion.

Aaron shook his head. "Leigh is… my best friend, but that's all."

There was absolutely no explaining the rush of relief that coursed through Julie at hearing that. "I just thought… I mean, you're always together, you spend the night at her house, you're never at your own apartment, so I guess I just assumed…"

"You know what they say about people who assume."

Offering a sheepish grin, she said, "I've made an ass out of you and me?"

Her phone chimed again, and Aaron rolled his eyes. "Damn, he sure the hell doesn't give up, does he?"

Frowning, Julie said, "He's normally not so persistent. I wonder if something is wrong…"

"Emma's not in town tonight," Aaron informed her. "He's trying to call his back-up to warm her side of the bed."

The elevator doors opened and Julie glanced down at the phone that was telling her she had one new text message.

"Are you gonna go?" Aaron asked her.

Glancing up at him, she slowly shook her head. "No. I'm going to go back to the apartment."

Aaron scowled then, and he said, "Don't bring him over there."

"I won't," she stated. "Contrary to what you seem to believe, when Matt says jump I don't ask how high."

The elevator doors started to close, so she grabbed the door to hold it, glancing back to Aaron. "Well, this is my ride down. Are you coming with me or are you staying?"

He seemed to debate for a few seconds, then he finally came up with, "Well, I guess there's no sense in making you spend New Year's Eve all by yourself."

Feeling a little triumphant, Julie flashed him a grin. "Good. Come along then," she said, stepping inside the elevator.