by Sam Mariano
Julie remembered her question about the baby, and she was just about to ask when she realized her phone was vibrating in her pocket. Normally she would ignore it while she was at work, but Aaron was out and she had texted Matt earlier to tell him she needed to talk to him, so she figured maybe he got around to answering.
"Hold on just a second, sorry," Julie said, grabbing her phone and quickly opening up the text.
Matt said, "About what?"
Frowning, she typed back, "Did you know Emma and I had lunch yesterday?"
Then she put the phone back in her pocket and returned to the conversation.
"I'm sorry, I had to take that. Anyway, I had a question. Aaron was kind of wasted when we were talking about it so he wasn’t totally clear, but he told me that she got knocked up."
Rolling her eyes in disgust, she said, "I know, right? As if the affair itself wasn't a big enough stab in the back, let's just twist the knife a little."
Her phone went off again, sidetracking her and she sighed, pulling it out to quickly read. "Yes."
That was it? Just yes?
She quickly typed back, "Do you know why she wanted to talk to me?"
Then she put her phone away again and said, "Definitely, but I mean… did Aaron ever…"
Leigh raised her eyebrows, encouraging her to go on.
"Remember when she came in here? What if it had to do with the baby?" Julie asked, although she knew her delivery of the question was clumsy.
Frowning, Leigh said, "I don't know what you mean, how would it have anything to do with that?"
"Well, she got pregnant, right? So… what if now that the baby is older—”
"What?" Leigh said, cutting her off with slightly wide eyes.
Since Leigh was giving her such a strange look, Julie just went mute.
"He didn't tell you?"
"Tell me…what? He told me a lot…"
"Honey, she didn't have the baby. She tried telling Aaron it was his, and of course that's how it blew up in her face, but didn't he finish the story?"
"Well, he didn't really tell me what happened with the baby, he was telling me more of the affair…"
Shaking her head, Leigh said, "No, when Aaron turned her away after she tried to claim the baby was his—that was after her other plans fell through, naturally—then she realized that the pregnancy had been a bad idea. She still clings to the excuse that it was a mistake, but I don't buy it. I think she had decided she was going to make a play for the boss, so she thought if she got pregnant… she’d have leverage? I don't know, I don't understand what she could have been thinking, but that's probably because I'm nothing like her."
"So, wait, she didn't have the baby?" Julie clarified. "There is no baby out there in the world?"
Leigh shook her head. "No. Once Aaron left her and she saw that getting pregnant had been a really bad idea all the way around, she thought she could backpedal and try to just get back to that status she had achieved by sleeping with her boss, and she wanted to please him, to get back on his good side. I wasn't eyewitness to this part or anything, 'cause obviously I cannot stand either one of them after what they did to him, but according to Aaron when she went crawling back, Matt just bought her off—he paid for her to get an abortion and within a month the bitch lost everything—since he was her boss, the favor worked both ways, and since she no longer had pregnancy to hang over his head he had no reason to keep her around. She was fired within a month of getting the abortion—served her ass right, if you ask me. But the really funny part is that his wife is the one who helped get Shannon fired—her dad owned the company, it was pretty messed up."
Julie only half listened to the latter half of that portion of the story, as her blood had frozen in her veins when she heard the name Leigh had used.
"Matt?" Julie finally managed.
Leigh frowned slightly, then her expression cleared as she wrongly guessed what was wrong. "Oh, I guess you didn't know his name, huh? Matt—that's his brother's name. Hopefully you never have to meet him, he's an asshole and his wife's really something, too."
"Oh," Julie said, but she couldn't force anything else.
Matt.
Matt. Matt. Matt. Matt. Matt. Matt.
Matt?
"So, Matt was the name of Shannon's boss, which was Aaron's brother?" Julie said one more time, just to clarify that she had heard correctly.
Leigh nodded. "Yep. Can you even imagine doing such a thing—her devoted boyfriend's brother? I mean, the only reason she even got the job in Chicago was because of Aaron, and he didn't even want to move here, but he knew it was what she wanted, so he accepted it even though he thought she was getting the job out of Matt's nepotism and not really because she had earned it."
Julie felt like she was going to throw up.
Absently, she pulled the phone out of her pocket and flipped it open, reading Matt's text message.
Revulsion rolled over her in waves just looking at his name, imagining him and that awful Shannon girl…
Julie was just another notch in his belt.
Just another accidentally-impregnated mistress that had to be taken care of.
What a fucking asshole.
His message read, "Yes, she told me. I think it sounds like a good idea, don't you?"
Since she wanted to text him back a big "FUCK YOU!" she opted just to close her phone and try to temper the anger she felt coursing through her body…
… Just until she got off work.
"One more question," Julie said in a remarkably controlled voice.
"What's that?" Leigh asked, thinking innocently that it was just gossip.
"How do they know the baby was actually… Matt's?" she asked, forcing the name out of her mouth. "I mean, since she was sleeping with them both at the same time, couldn't it have just as easily been Aaron's?"
Leigh's eyes darkened then and she looked down, frowning slightly. "He didn't… tell you that either?"
Julie felt like she had said the wrong thing, but she didn’t know why it would be an odd question.
Her mind was all over the place, she couldn't think about her sentences—all she could think about was how much she wanted to hit Matt.
Then she would have to hit herself for being foolish enough to believe him when he fed her that bullshit about how he wasn't that kind of guy, he had never done anything like that before…
Ugh, and she had bought that crap?
Feeling newly disgusted with herself, she almost forgot to pay attention until she saw Leigh move away a little and smile apologetically.
"Sorry, I can't answer that. Aaron will have to be the one to answer that question."
Nodding, Julie said, "No, that's fine, I understand."
She could no longer focus on the story anyway.
All she could think about was getting the hell out of that restaurant so she could go home.
No, that wasn't true.
She just couldn't wait to pay Matt a visit.
---
As soon as her shift was over, she was off the clock and out the door, on her way back to the apartment. Leigh had given her a funny look and asked why she was taking the empty cheese box, but Julie just murmured that she had some stuff she needed to box up.
After stopping at Aaron’s apartment very briefly, she tossed her cheese box full of stuff in the passenger seat and headed to Matt’s house.
As she marched up the steps to the apartment she had been to more times than she wanted to admit, she could feel the anger as she gripped the box in her cold hands.
She had waited until she knew he would be home. She didn't know if Emma would be home—didn't care if she was—but she knew Matt would be home.
That was the only person she wanted to see.
She couldn't believe her luck, but when she got there, he was the one to come to the door.
Frowning, he said, "Julie? What are you doing here?" Then he glanced at the box in her arms. "What is that?"
She shoved it at his c
hest as hard as she could and he grunted as he caught it, frowning at her. "What the hell—”
"This is everything," she stated, not letting him even finish his exclamation. "It's everything you've bought for me, all your stupid little bribe gifts—the earrings are in there, the dress, the purse, the slippers—anything you have given me is in that box. You can have it. I'm done with you and your games, and your wife and her games, and I can tell you right now, sweetheart, it will be over my cold, dead body that you sick fucking people will ever come near my child. So you and Emma can take your offer and shove it up your asses—I'm not Shannon, you can't buy me off."
With that, she turned on her heel and went to walk away.
She heard the box drop behind her, but she didn't even slow her steps, she just focused on getting back to her car and as far away from Matt as she could.
"Julie!" he said, coming after her. "I don't know what he told you, but I can imagine. It's not what you think; if you stop for a minute I'll explain everything to you."
"More lies?" Scoffing, she said, "No, thanks, you can keep 'em."
"I'm not lying to you, Julie," he said, catching her by the arm and prompting her to turn toward him. "Please, let me explain."
She gave him an icy glare, but she didn't walk away—that was as much encouragement as he was going to get.
Sighing, he said, "Shannon…was Aaron's girlfriend."
"Yes, I heard," Julie said shortly.
"What did he tell you?"
"What do you think he told me? That she was the 'Julie' before me—she got knocked up, but she let you guys bully her, didn't she? Also, when are you ever going to learn to always use condoms? How many pregnant mistresses do you have to have?"
"He's lying to you."
"Whatever," Julie said, rolling her eyes and turning away. "I guess expecting you to actually own up to what you did to your own brother is just too much to ask, isn't it?"
"Julie, that whole situation got blown out of proportion! I never even touched her, she came up with this idea that she could somehow get ahead—would you listen to me?" he said, following after her.
She stopped, turning toward him with her arms crossed over her chest.
"I didn't pay her off to get an abortion. She was never even pregnant, Julie. We never slept together—she told people that we did, because she tried coming onto me and I turned her down—it was my brother's girlfriend, Julie, you think I would really do that to him?"
Frowning, a seed of doubt slipped in.
That was all he needed. His eyes softened and he shrank back just a little, asking, "Is that really what you think of me, Julie?"
The seed was fertilized, and for a split second she panicked, wondering if Leigh was really a trustworthy source. What if she had gotten the information wrong? Even if she believed everything she told Julie, it was called gossip for a reason. Aaron hadn't been the one to tell her—
But Aaron had told her that Shannon was sleeping with her boss, all Leigh had done was give the boss a name and face.
Shaking her head, Julie said, "I don't know what to believe anymore, but I'm not playing these games, I can tell you that right now."
Then she turned around and walked faster, making it to her car and opening the door.
Matt just stood there watching her, that same sad expression on his face, and then as soon as she looked up at him it changed to one of disappointment and he shook his head, his jaw tightening.
"I really thought you knew me better than that," he said as she shut the car door.
For another split second, she wondered if she had picked the wrong team as she looked at Matt's face, saw the disappointment etched there… it looked so genuine.
Then, instead of trying to convince her of his innocence, he did the one thing she didn't expect him to do—and the one thing that made her wonder more than any argument would have if she had been wrong…
He turned around and walked back toward the apartment, his head hung and his shoulders slumped.
For an instant, she wanted to call him back and apologize for doubting him, but she managed to override that instinct and instead start her car.
But she didn't pull away. She waited, reluctantly watching as Matt went back in the apartment and shut the door behind him.
Feeling depressed, she turned the heater up a notch and checked her mirrors, pulling out.
Great.
She felt worse than she had when she went over, plus she was confused.
Was she wrong? Was Leigh wrong? What if what Matt had been trying to say was right—what if that Shannon girl had just started shit to try to move up at work and…?
Sighing, she wondered if she would ever really know the truth about anything.
---
When Aaron got home after closing up the restaurant that night, she was sure that one thing he didn't expect to find when he returned home was a weeping female.
However, that is exactly what he found.
He entered the living room to see Julie curled up on the couch, crying, and he actually spun on his heel muttering, "Fuck," as if he thought he could walk out and pretend he hadn't seen her in the first place.
He seemed to realize, in under a second, that he had been spotted, so that wasn't going to work.
Scratching his head and making a slight grimace, he awkwardly came toward the couch.
"What's wrong?" he asked uncomfortably.
Sniffling, Julie shook her head and replied, "Nothing."
Eyebrows rising, he said, "That's an awful red nose for someone who's in good spirits."
She sniffled again and self-consciously touched her nose.
He looked extremely uncomfortable, and he was eyeing her up with the same look of apprehension a normal person give a wild tiger they came across in the jungle.
Moving toward the couch, he glanced at it for a second and looked like he was debating, then he must have made a decision because he took the plunge—he sat down on the edge of the couch.
"Okay, I'm going to ask one more time, and I would appreciate if you would refrain from lying to me and saying nothing is wrong when obviously something is. I know females do that, but… if you haven't noticed, I'm out of practice with females, so… I don't really have the patience for it. Now—what's wrong?"
Dashing the tears from her eyes, she said, "I'm just so confused."
Sighing a little, he said, "That makes two of us. What are you confused about?"
The phone started to ring, and Aaron started to stand up when Julie grabbed his arm urgently and said, "Don't answer it!"
"Okay," he said, sitting back down. "Why am I not answering my own phone?"
She didn't answer, she just sat there and waited for the machine to pick up, then they both heard Matt sigh and say, "Julie, answer the phone. I know you're there." He paused, giving her time to come to the phone. "Julie? Answer the phone." He waited again, then he gave up and sighed tiredly, and then it disconnected.
Aaron grimaced then and closed his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose as if he had a headache. "It's about him. I should have guessed as much." Sighing, Aaron let go of the bridge of his nose and opened his eyes, saying, "I don't know what the problem is and I don't really want to hear it, so I'm just going to give you a word of advice that you're going to ignore anyway, and then I'm probably going to go to bed. I don't know what he did or why you're crying," he began mechanically, as if playing a record, "but he isn't worth your time. If you were smart, you would just leave him alone. I realize you're having his kid, but honestly, it's not worth it. Cut your losses and get out while you can."
With that, he started to stand up, but Julie spoke up. "It's not that," she said. "It's not… relationship drama or anything like you're thinking. I'm just… so confused, because I don't even know what to believe anymore."
"About what, specifically?" Aaron asked, his patience growing visibly thin.
"Remember when I went to lunch with Emma?" she asked.
Frowning slightly
, he nodded.
Then she finally gave him an overview of what had happened at lunch that day, the offer Emma had made to adopt her child and the payout she had offered in return.
When Julie finished, Aaron was still frowning. "Really?"
Julie nodded.
"She wants to adopt the baby?" he reiterated.
"That's what she said."
Pausing to mull it over for a second, Aaron finally said, "If you do that, you better make sure—well, wait. Are you… even considering that?"
Shaking her head, Julie said, "Not anymore. My first reaction was a no, but then I started to think about it… and then I thought maybe it wasn't… as bad as I initially thought it was."
"What changed your mind?" he asked, mildly curious.
Glancing down at her hands, she tried to figure out how to ask. Then she figured the direct approach would be the best, so she looked up at him through tear-dampened lashes and said, "Matt was Shannon's boss, wasn't he?"
She expected to see pain flash across his features, but she saw only hesitation, then he finally nodded. "You figured that out, huh?"
Nodding, Julie wasn't going to give up her real source. "Are you positive that she was pregnant?"
At that, he frowned. "Yeah. Why would you ask that?"
Sighing, she leaned back into the couch and said, "I went to his apartment today, I took a box with the earrings and some other stuff he had bought me and I gave it back to him, told him that… they weren't adopting my kid and I wasn't Shannon, I couldn't be bought."
"And he said…?" Aaron prompted gently.
"He denied the whole thing," she said simply. "He told me he never touched Shannon, that she had made it up, she came onto him and he turned her down because he couldn’t do that to you, that… she wasn't even really pregnant."
"Did he expand on that?" Aaron asked, and there was a tense look about him that she didn't understand.
"No, I didn't give him a chance. I told him I wasn't going to play games and… he turned it around completely. He told me it was a lie and he got this disappointed look on his face and told me he thought I knew him better than that…"
"What a piece of shit," Aaron remarked, shaking his head.
