Beautiful Mistakes

by Sam Mariano

  He let it go, and didn't attempt to flirt anymore for the rest of the conversation, just let the flow return like it always seemed to.

  She was never certain how she felt when he would make comments like that, intentionally making her think of the brief time they were lovers. In the one sense, it made her annoyed and angry, because he was teasing her with something she obviously couldn't have. Sure, she suspected she might be able to be his mistress, but at the end of the day he was making no move to change anything at all with Emma—or if he was, he was keeping it secret.

  Then there was the other hand. Julie was lonely. She really hated to admit it, because she was sure that it was just a phase, and once school was back in she would be able to forget she was as lonely as she really was and bury herself under papers and textbooks.

  But sometimes she would get sad, and she would wonder how long school would distract her when she had a much bigger development going on inside of her body. How would she feel when she felt her baby kick for the first time and she had no one to share the excitement with? How would she feel when she saw the ultrasound and she had no one's hand to hold, no one to share a tender smile with as they gaze disbelievingly at the little heart beating on the monitor?

  Somehow she didn't think she was going to be excited about being alone in those moments.

  However, when those thoughts would envelope her—on those long, lonely evenings at the apartment that was already beginning to feel like a jail cell—she would remind herself that she had made her bed, she had no one but herself to blame if it was uncomfortable.

  The day after she talked to Matt she had one of her little four hour shifts—bringing in a whopping $53— and she made her way home by herself, Aaron staying back at the café. She was beginning to notice that he seemed to even stop coming home in the middle of the day like he had been doing before—he was literally working all day without even his usual breaks to avoid being around her.

  The man was determined to hate her, even if it killed him.

  "Miss Kingsley!" the doorman greeted with a smile, a long plastic bag draped over his shoulder. "How are you doin' today?"

  "Good, thank you," she said, offering a smile and glancing down as she walked through the doors.

  "Wait, I have somethin' for you," he said, holding out the plastic bag for her. "This was delivered while you were at work. The young man seemed to be in a hurry, so I told him I would be sure you got it when you returned home."

  Frowning, Julie took the bag and looked at it strangely. "Um, I wasn't expecting any delivery. I think maybe they got the wrong person."

  Shaking his head, the elderly man said, "Nope, he told me to make sure Julie Kingsley got it, told me you were staying at Aaron Turner's apartment."

  "That's odd," she said. "Well, thank you. I hope you haven't had to hold it too long."

  Smiling kindly, he said, "Not at all, miss."

  Vaguely, she wondered if it was appropriate to tip doormen on such occasions, and she figured there could be no harm in it, so she dug in her pocket and withdrew three of the dollars she had earned that day, handing it to the doorman.

  "Oh, thank you, Miss Kingsley," he said, grinning at her.

  Smiling back, she said, "You're welcome," and then she made her way up to the apartment, more than a little curious to find out what was inside the bag.

  She was suspicious, because although she couldn't see through the bag, there was definitely a hanger peeking out the top and it felt like there was fabric inside—it looked kind of like the dry-cleaning that she saw the neighbor lady come in with the one day, only Julie had nothing worth sending to the dry cleaners, so that certainly wasn’t it.

  Once she was safely inside the apartment, she tossed her keys on the counter and eagerly walked into the living room, putting the garment bag down on the couch and pulling the plastic up to reveal what was underneath.

  Drawing in a breath, Julie was surprised to see a cute little white dress inside the bag. It was an ivory cotton dress with a crocheted bodice and a black bow adorning the neckline, and as she eyed it up she could see that it would hit just a few inches above the knee. The bottom of the dress had a little crocheting too, and it was really cute—simple, but chic, and very much her style.

  What was not her style was the Sak's Fifth Avenue price tag that was still attached to it, telling her it had been $195. Her eyes widened a little and her gaze flew to the label—Nanette Lepore.

  A really cute designer dress, she amended.

  Attached to the hanger she noticed a note.

  Julie-

  I know you said you had clothes to wear to the party, but I just thought it would be nice if you had something new to wear for the New Year. The lady at the store told me to suggest you wear black tights with it.

  -Matt

  Of course.

  Sighing, she decided she needed to find somewhere to dispose of the evidence before Aaron got home—but she was in no hurry, because she knew he wouldn't be home until at least after the restaurant closed.

  Even though she knew she probably shouldn't let Matt keep buying her presents, she really liked the dress, so as soon as she thought about it, she grabbed her phone and sent him a text.

  "You shouldn't have, but thank you. It's beautiful."

  It took him a little while to respond—she had the note carefully hidden away and she hung the dress in Aaron's closet in the back where he let her put the clothes she had that needed to hang up—but when he did, it said, "Like its owner."

  Blushing even though there was no one around, she smiled slightly.

  That was nice.

  Immediately, she reminded herself where thoughts like that had gotten her, and as if to reinforce the message, her little poppy seed sent a wave of nausea through her body.

  Taking the hint, she didn't respond to the message, instead opting to go do a load of laundry to pass the time.

  ---

  Time did go by, and before she knew it, New Year's Eve was upon her.

  Julie worked during the day and then she got to go home and get ready for the party. Honestly, she was so excited to wear her new dress—she never got new things, especially not $200 designer dresses, and she had already modeled her new dress in the mirror when she was home alone with a pair of black tights she had and a cute pair of black high heels, and it looked really beautiful.

  She sort of wished she could wear the earrings, because they would be a nice splash of sparkle to her outfit, but since she knew Aaron was going to the party and she was hoping he would be friendly, she thought that was probably a terrible idea.

  Since the dress was sleeveless, she had to wear a coat, and she didn't have one of those chic black peacoats that she absolutely loved, so she had to make do with her old mismatched coat.

  Leigh hadn't said whether or not Aaron knew Julie was coming to the party, and he hadn't said anything to her, so she didn't mention it to him just in case. Julie had been told to go ahead and come over at around 9:30. The café had closed early at 7:30 because it was New Year's Eve, so Julie figured Leigh needed time to set up for the party.

  She had also figured that Aaron would come home after the store closed, at least to shower and change clothes, but she waited until 9:35 to leave the apartment and there was still no sign of Aaron.

  When Julie got there, she only recognized a couple of the people from work, then there were some other random people drinking and talking.

  Although she didn't realize she was doing it, she scanned the crowd for Aaron as soon as she got there, and she spotted him in the corner talking to some guy with a little smile on his face as he was drinking a beer.

  It was odd to be so pleased to see someone with alcohol in their hand.

  "Hello, lovely," said Leigh, giggling a little as she escorted Julie into the house. "That is such a cute dress."

  "Thanks, I like yours too," Julie responded.

  True to her female self, Julie then instinctively assessed how Leigh looked. Julie knew
Leigh was thin, but she didn't realize how attractive Leigh could be. Granted, she had never seen her with her hair down (or even outside of work), but Leigh looked really pretty in a black strapless dress that Julie personally would have thought was way too short to be seen in public in. Her hair wasn't in its usual pony tail, it was flowing down around her shoulders and it had some curl in it, so she must have actually styled it. She was also wearing eyeliner and eye shadow, and it made her blue eyes stand out dramatically. As if she needed the height—she was already taller than Julie—she was also wearing a cute pair of black heels and no tights, leaving a lot of leg showing.

  Leigh looked really pretty, Julie realized.

  Suddenly, even Nanette Lapore didn't make her feel very attractive.

  Why in the hell did every woman in Chicago have to have model potential?

  Well, okay, maybe she was exaggerating, but Leigh had always just looked "cute" before, with her bouncy pony tail and her glasses. For some reason, it never crossed Julie's mind that outside of work she could let her hair down, put on a really short dress and look sexy and sophisticated.

  Julie, on the other hand, just felt pregnant.

  "So, I know you can't drink anything alcoholic, and…most of this is alcoholic, but I have bottled water in the fridge if you want some, and if you follow the line of male people trying to hog it all, I have a vegetable tray and some cheese and crackers, and the mozzarella sticks are about to come out of the oven in like two minutes, so you might want to grab some before anyone else finds out."

  Julie smiled and thanked Leigh, then she let Leigh go mingle and Julie took the opportunity to explore the living area of the apartment.

  It was cute. Not extremely big— or maybe it just seemed small because there were so many people—but really nice. Standard white walls, but Leigh had given them life with black and white framed pictures on every wall. A couple of the pictures were really abstract, and some other ones were of typical landmarks, but they were all really good photographs.

  Aaron hadn't spotted her yet and he had followed Leigh into the kitchen for something, so she took the opportunity to slide by where Aaron had been to peek and see what else was there.

  One bathroom, she found, and two bedrooms. Did Leigh have a roommate?

  Before Aaron came back and spotted her, she promptly returned to the opposite corner so that he might miss seeing her when he came out of the kitchen.

  She heard a little noise from within her bag, and she frowned, pulling her cell phone out.

  She had a new text message from Jack.

  "Hey! We are drunk and playing monopoly, come over," it read.

  Rolling her eyes with a tolerant smile, she said, "I can't, I'm already at a party and I don't know where you are anyway."

  She didn't bother to return her phone to her purse since she knew he would text back, and sure enough she got another chime in under a minute.

  "Are you drinking?"

  "Nope," she texted back, hoping he wouldn't ask why.

  Julie figured he would probably eventually find out she was pregnant, but she really wasn't in the mood to tell him on New Year's Eve, and since he was drunk he would probably be especially mean if she did—because he was fully capable of being a really mean drunk.

  It took a little longer, but she finally got a reply. "Good, come over. We're at Cody's place and when we get done with this game the party will really start. Come over."

  "I can't, I'm at a co-worker's party and I just got here."

  "I don't care. I miss you, get your lame ass here asap," he texted back in response.

  Sighing, she decided just to slide her phone back into her purse.

  Although she wasn't sure how it was possible, Aaron seemed to have still missed her. There weren't that many people there—maybe 12 to 15, she couldn't get an accurate count because people kept moving around and she didn't know most of them, so they kept running together.

  There was one really obnoxious blonde girl in a jean mini skirt and a red sequined top that seemed to already be drunk, because she kept sitting in everybody's lap and hitting on random guys.

  They didn't seem to mind, since she was clearly trashed and quite attractive, but Julie found it just a little annoying.

  When Blondie sat on the guy's lap next to Aaron, Leigh must have sensed that Aaron was next, because she went over to the blonde girl and took her by the arm, helping her to her feet.

  "Come on, Danielle, leave Rob alone."

  The blonde named Danielle gave a giggle. "Don't spoil my fun, my boyfriend isn't here tonight Leigh, he can't keep me from doing all these bad things." Then, suddenly somber, the girl sighed and said, "Why do I do all these bad things when he's not around, Leigh?"

  "Because you're using him and you really don't give a shit about him," Leigh stated.

  "Oh," the blonde said, seeming to accept that as she nodded.

  "Oh, honey, you're already drunk. You really shouldn't have started drinking until I got home. If you throw up before midnight, I will never let you live it down."

  Julie was busy watching them, but then her phone chimed again.

  Jack again. "Why didn't you text me back?"

  "I told you, I'm at a party," she responded.

  Then her cell phone started ringing, it was Jack, and she couldn't very well not answer since she had just been texting him.

  "Hello?"

  "Julie, why the hell are you not on your way yet?" he asked.

  "I told you I'm not coming," she said.

  Chuckling, he said, "You will if you come over, I promise."

  Rolling her eyes, she said, "You're disgusting; you know what I meant."

  "Why aren't you drinking yet?" he asked.

  Deciding just to blow it off, she said, "I'm not drinking tonight, I'm someone's DD."

  "Ooh, that sucks. Well, blow that person off and quit making lame excuses. As soon as these fucks finish this game, we're going to get the party started. You don't have to drive home, I’ll drive, you can crash with me if you want."

  "Oh, yeah, I'm going to let you get behind the wheel when you've been drinking," she said sarcastically.

  "Well then it looks like you're going to have to come give me a ride home. Come over, we'll hang out here for a few hours, watch the ball fall, and then you can come home with me."

  "Yeah, I'm sure your girlfriend would really appreciate that."

  "Oh, you left me for another man; you can't really be salty about that. I love you," he said.

  Wishing she would have ignored his call, she merely said, "No, you don't. Look, have fun at your party, but I have to go, I'm being rude at mine."

  "Whose party are you really at?" he asked.

  "I already told you, a co-worker's."

  "So Matt's party? Is he mingling with his wife, or does he stop over to see you every now and again?"

  Then it hit her—Jack still thought she worked for Matt.

  And he would continue to think that for the rest of the year, she decided.

  "I have to go, Jack. Have fun. Happy New Year."

  It sounded like he sighed, then without much enthusiasm he said, "Yeah, happy new year to you too."

  "Bye," she said, hanging up before he even had a chance to say it back.

  Sighing, she slipped the phone back into her purse.

  "That was the infamous Jack?" she heard from behind her.

  Spinning around in surprise, she saw Aaron standing there. He grinned a little lopsided grin and said, "Sorry, wasn't trying to eavesdrop, I just came over to say hi and then I realized you were talking on the phone."

  "It's fine," she said, surprised at how friendly he was being already. When had he started drinking? Didn't the party just start?

  "What did he want?" he asked casually.

  "He was just asking me to come to the party he's at."

  "You didn't tell him to go to hell? I would have told him to go to hell," Aaron stated.

  Yep, he was definitely tipsy.

  S
miling, Julie said, "When did you start drinking?"

  "I don't know, I think Leigh started plying me with alcohol at like 6:30, and she hasn't stopped since. She just made me do like two of those girly lemon drops and a royal flush before you got here." Then, leaning in as if to tell her a secret, he said, "I think she might be trying to get me drunk."

  Grinning, Julie said, "That's a possibility."

  "She keeps giving me shots, and I'm drinking beer. I'm going to die tomorrow."

  "I will make sure the apartment stays very quiet and I'll let you sleep as long as you need to," she assured him. "You enjoy yourself."

  Smirking, he said, "Are you trying to get me drunk, too?"

  "I'm pleading the fifth," she stated.

  "Do you like mozzarella sticks? They're in the kitchen if you do," he informed her.

  "Yes, I know, Leigh told me."

  "I was making my way in there, but Danielle is… pretty much shitfaced already, and every time I go near the kitchen she comes at me—scares the shit out of me. If she throws up on me, I'm going to have to kill her."

  "Yeah, she seems…interesting. A friend of Leigh's?"

  "No," he said, shaking his head. "It's her sister."

  Raising her eyebrows, Julie glanced between Leigh and Danielle. "Really? They don't look very much alike."

  He shook his head. "Not at first glance, but if you look closer they have the same eyes and their mouths are kind of similar. Sometimes siblings don't look alike."

  That much was true. Aaron and Matt probably didn't look any more like brothers than Leigh and Danielle looked like sisters.

  "Danielle's younger, right?" Julie assumed.

  Smiling a little, he nodded. "Yeah."

  "Aaron, come have a shot of whiskey with me!" Danielle called, waving him over as she sat on the lap of the guy who had been next to Aaron.

  Shaking his head, Aaron said, "I don't think so, Dani, ask your sister."

  "She told me to ask you," Danielle informed him.

  "That's because she doesn't want vomit on her dress," he muttered, but started to walk away anyway. Then he turned back to Julie, "Are you leaving?"