by Sam Mariano
The sound of the baby's giggling filled her ears, and in the dream Julie gave the baby a sneaky little look, then she came up behind the daddy and shoved him into the pile of leaves.
She jumped in after him, and he wrapped his arms around her, the baby climbing in between them and giggling as its parents shared a moment.
A feeling of complete peace came over her, and as they all stayed snuggled up in the leaves, Mom, Dad and baby, Julie felt like her life was completely perfect.
Her family was completely perfect.
Then when the baby finally made its way between them, Daddy leaned in and gave Mommy a soft kiss.
Only in her dreams, the daddy wasn't Matt.
"Daddy," the baby said, trying to climb over him and giving in to a fit of giggles as it slid down into the leaves between them again.
"I love you," Aaron told Julie in her dream as he lifted their baby and caused it to giggle some more, then he gave the baby noisy kisses and Julie laughed.
She woke up then, the dream startled her so much, and she looked up at Aaron in the dark of the night, the warm feelings from her dream still very dominant.
"Oh my," she murmured, giving in to the urge to lightly run her fingers through his hair as she gazed up at him.
For a moment, she felt a pang of something—regret? sadness? longing?—and she placed her free hand on her abdomen, the doctor's visit floating back to the front of her mind.
Daddy.
Then, closing her eyes, Julie tried to fall back asleep and not think about the beautiful impossibility of ever being able to apply that word to the man from her dream.
She tried not to think about the sheer impossibility of her perfect little family.
But somehow she entered back into the dream with the perfect family and the pile of golden leaves, and her waking self seemed to get confused with her dream self, because as Aaron and the brown-haired toddler played, she called out to him:
"I have to put this in the box!"
Chapter Nineteen-
Over the next couple of days Aaron watched Julie carefully, scolding her when she would try to do anything and forcing her to spend a good two hours over the course of the night just sitting in the chair when he finally let her come back to work.
There was a slight buzz around work—Julie kept noticing she was getting strange looks, and Leigh seemed to be keeping a little bit of distance from her, which Julie found disappointing since she really liked Leigh. Debbie never said anything in front of Julie, naturally, but Julie was sure that she was probably saying plenty when she wasn't around.
When she had called Aaron at work to take her to the hospital, it never even crossed her mind that the co-workers would want to know why he was leaving in such a hurry when he was supposed to be working.
The bleeding had become minor spotting, and Julie called the doctor daily to make sure there was no cause for concern, even though they asked the same questions each day and the answers never changed—she wanted to be safe.
She had made a copy of the ultrasound picture to put on the fridge, but since she had a bunch of free time and she had to "rest," she had played around a little on Photoshop and printed out the ultrasound picture with a little text box below it that said, "Mommy's Little Poppy Seed." When Aaron first saw it he cracked a smile and called her a dork, but it didn't seem to bother him, so Julie was glad.
She didn't hear from Matt at first, but later in the week he called her and left her a voice mail telling her to call when she got a chance.
Julie had plenty of chances, but she didn't call.
When weekend came she had to work at her second job—the one she was liking less and less with every party she had to work—and she wondered if she should tell Jim that she was pregnant. Her body hadn't changed yet, but she knew she wouldn't be fitting in that pirate costume forever.
Aaron had not seemed enthusiastic about her opting to work that weekend. He didn't come out and say anything about it, but she could tell he disapproved by the look he gave her when she told him she was going to work.
But she had to go. She needed the money, plus she had to stop and ship out her Juicy Couture purse to some person named Jan in Idaho—$76 for her unwanted handbag, and apparently Jan was the type of person who liked purses with straps that looked like charm bracelets, so she assumed Jan and the purse would be very happy together, while she would be very happy putting that money away to buy a book for school.
Everybody won.
Except maybe Matt, since she was no longer returning any of his phone calls.
And maybe Emma, who apparently footed the bill for the purse.
Oh well.
When she got done with the last party of the day and was ready to head home, she saw that she had missed another phone call—why wasn't she feeling it vibrate?—and she had a voice mail. As she waited for her car to warm up, she called her voice mail box and heard Matt's voice on the other end.
"Why are you ignoring me?" he asked without preamble. "I have called you on your cell phone to be considerate, and you're not answering or calling me back. I'm going to start calling you on the house phone and asking my damn brother to talk to you. Did I do something? Are you pissed about the Shannon thing? Because I tried to explain that to you, you wouldn't listen. Give me a call when you get this, I need to talk to you."
Grimacing, she made a mental note to call him back before he did start calling the apartment, because she didn't want Aaron to have to talk to him.
She still always felt like their friendship—was that the right word?—was one Matt-sighting away from being over.
Her priorities seemed to have shifted, because she realized that Matt still called or texted every once in a while, but she had stopped responding. Her side was the only one that changed, but quite simply she would rather have Aaron's pleasant company than talk to Matt. Sure, if she had nothing better—like when she had been with Jack—maybe talking to Matt wouldn't seem like such a waste of her life, but being around Aaron just caused her to compare the two—and Aaron was definitely the better brother. When it came down to it, if she was forced to choose between the two, she didn't even have to pause to consider—Aaron just felt like the natural choice.
Strange, since he wasn't the one whose child she was having…
Unfortunately…
She was honest enough to admit if she was going to accidentally get knocked up by any guy that she knew, she would probably have preferred it to be Aaron.
Of course that would have required them having sex, but… well, that didn't seem like such an awful proposition.
She conveniently blamed her hormones for thoughts like that.
When Julie got home Aaron was gone, of course, so she beat around the bush a little bit, taking a shower and having a bowl of cereal before she finally returned Matt's call.
When she finally did call him back, he didn't even answer.
Rolling her eyes, she couldn't believe she had wasted so much of her day putting off calling him and he hadn't even bothered to answer.
She kind of expected him to call back later when he saw the missed call, but as the minutes and then hours ticked away there was no sign of him.
Aaron stopped home early in the evening and he brought in the mail. He was preoccupied with scowling at whatever he was reading.
"Jury duty?" she guessed with a smile.
Glancing up, he said. "Worse." Then he read from the card, "Mr. and Mrs. Joshua Lee Turner request the honor of your presence at the marriage of their daughter, Rebecca Nicole to Adam Fergus Donovan…" Sighing, he said, "I forgot my sister was getting married."
Raising her eyebrows, she said, "That's kind of a big thing to forget."
"Fuck," he muttered, sitting down on the couch with her.
"When is it?" she asked.
"Next weekend."
Raising her eyebrows, she said, "One week notice?"
He nodded. "She sent an e-mail around to let everyone know a while ago, but I complet
ely forgot. I didn't get her anything either."
"I thought you were supposed to send those out sooner than a week. Does she live in Chicago?"
"No, she lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It's about a four hour drive," he said on a sigh.
"I didn't even know you had a sister," she told him.
"Yeah, I never see her. She's the baby of the family. She just turned 21 in December and the dumbass is already getting married," he stated, rolling her eyes.
Raising her eyebrows, Julie said, "Has she been engaged long?"
"They dated for less than six months and got engaged. I think they were engaged for about another six months, but… she's really not ready for this. She's the baby, so she's spoiled and the guy… he's kind of weird, he says 'right on' too much, and I don't think he washes his hair."
Frowning, Julie said, "Oh."
"Yeah," he said with a nod. "They don't really meet the maturity level of a married couple. But whatever, it's her life. I've never pretended to understand my siblings."
"So, is that the only other sibling you have?" she asked out of curiosity.
Nodding, he said, "Yeah," and sat the invitation down on the couch.
"May I?" Julie asked, gesturing toward the envelope.
"Knock yourself out," he said.
Picking it up, she read the envelope that said, "Aaron Turner and Guest."
Raising her eyebrows, she said, "You're taking a guest?"
"No," he said, frowning and looking at the envelope. "She just put that there in case hell froze over and I picked up a girlfriend."
Julie laughed a little and said, "You make that sound so far-fetched."
"That's because it is. I'm about as likely to fly my unicorn to the wedding."
"I'd say you having a girlfriend is slightly more likely than the existence of unicorns."
"With my suave charm and winning chivalry?" he asked sarcastically.
"Naturally," she responded, smiling.
He shook his head. "I don't want to go."
"Want me to call you in sick?" she asked.
"Yeah right, my mom will kick your ass. You haven't met my mom, she's a pretty… tough lady," he said, for lack of nicer word.
"Weddings are fun," Julie told him with a smile. "I think you'll be okay."
"Weddings are not fun," he said, giving her a horrified look.
"They're totally fun. I love weddings. You get to eat really bad food and watch people do the chicken dance. The ones with open bars get better as the night progresses."
"If you like weddings so much, you go," he told her. "I'll happily send you in my place."
"I think they might notice you missing. We don't really look alike." Then, looking at the invitation again she said, "Why does this say you have to RSVP by today when we just got it?"
"I'm sure they sent everyone else's out earlier, but since I'm family I don't have a say in whether or not I'm going. You have to call and RSVP and tell them if you want chicken piccata or whatever else they're offering—I don't really know, 'cause I already told my mom I wanted chicken piccata when she called to ask."
"Huh. So… does that mean I get the apartment for the weekend?"
"I guess so. Don't throw any wild parties while I'm out."
"I'm going to throw three," she stated.
"That's it, you're going to Ann Arbor with me so I can babysit you."
Julie grinned. "You can't take me—what will people think?" she asked mockingly.
"What they already think," he muttered.
Her grin slipped then, the gossip from the café coming to the front of her mind. "What do you mean?"
He gave her a sideways glance that made her heart flop unhelpfully, but he shook his head, saying, "Nothing."
She debated for a minute whether she wanted to ask or not, but then she decided not to push the issue. "Well, I won't really throw any wild parties while you're gone, so you don't have to worry."
"It'll probably be nice to have the apartment to yourself, won't it?" he said.
Raising her eyebrows just slightly, she said, "Not really. I'll probably be bored out of my mind, but I'm used to being here by myself, it's no biggie."
Aaron frowned a little, then after a moment's hesitation, he asked, "Did you really want to go?"
"Oh, no," she said, shaking her head. "You don't have to take me, I was just teasing you. I'm a big girl, I'll be fine by myself."
"Well… I didn't really think about inviting anyone, but if you wanted to go… I suppose I could use some form of entertainment. I could just call my mom and tell her to add on a plate."
That was a shocker. She knew her eyes were wide, but she was surprised. She had only been joking; she never dreamed he would offer to take her along.
"I mean, Matt and Emma are going to be there, so I don't know if you want to… be around them."
Not really, but…
"Come to think of it, since Shannon's going to be there too, it's probably not a good idea. I don't even want to go, so I shouldn't even suggest dragging you along."
Julie blinked. "Why would Shannon be there?"
Sighing, he said, "Well, it's kind of complicated. She's actually the groom's cousin… when we were together our families ended up meeting and liking each other, so… she's one of the bridesmaids."
"That's awful!" Julie declared, outraged. "Why would your sister let that…her be in the wedding after what she did to you?"
Shrugging, he said, "It's not a big deal, I'm going to go to the wedding, stick it out, get drunk off my ass at the reception and then hopefully pass out, and when I wake up it will be time to come home."
Suddenly, the wedding wasn't sounding so fun.
"That sucks," she stated.
"You're tellin' me," he said with a sigh. "Oh well, that's family for you."
Frowning, she sat there for a few seconds thinking about the absolutely miserable weekend he was in for, and Shannon being there… and Matt…
Damn, what a sister he had.
"You know what… maybe if I went with you to keep you company… it wouldn't be so bad?" she suggested tentatively. "I mean, there are people you don't like there, and people I don't like there, and… I don't know. I mean, if you don't want me to go I would totally understand, but… I would be happy to go with you if you wanted to bring a guest."
He just stared at her, saying in disbelief, "You want to go to a wedding with my family where Emma and Matt are going to be, as well as my ex-girlfriend and Matt's ex-mistress?"
"I am insane," she stated.
Aaron tilted his head to the side, looking confused. "Do you seriously want to go?"
Want was a strong word, but despite the way Aaron was blowing it off, she couldn't imagine the weekend was going to be easy for him.
"I… think it could be…kind of fun," she said untruthfully.
It wouldn’t be fun for her at all.
But for Aaron, it had to be much worse, and he was there for her when she had a crisis, so as any good friend would, she wanted to return the favor.
"You're sure? 'Cause once I call my mom and tell her to add on a plate, there's no turning back."
"I've been craving chicken piccata anyway—it was meant to be," she returned.
Seeming to consider very briefly, he finally nodded and said, "Okay. Matt's going to be pissed," he warned.
"Ask me if I care," she said, rolling her eyes.
"And Shannon… isn't going to be pleasant toward you if she speaks to you at all, because since you're 'And Guest' she is going to assume we're a couple and therefore she will hate you for ending what she presumes to be my eternity of pining over her."
"I care even less about that," Julie stated.
"Plus there's Emma—I'm sure she'll be a bitch to you. Honestly, I'm probably going to be the nicest person there."
Laughing at the way he was trying to talk her out of going, Julie said, "You make it sound so wonderful."
"It's going to be horrible," Aaron stated. "I think I prob
ably forgot the wedding on purpose, it was just a subconscious thing."
Shrugging, she said, "If you're up for it, I'm up for it. But as I said, I won't be offended if you don't want me to go."
"All right, you asked for it," Aaron stated. "You'll need a dress or some sort of thing like that to wear."
Julie nodded. "I can pick one up."
"I'll buy it for you," he offered.
"No, you don't have to do that, I’ve got it," she said, shaking her head.
"Yes, I'm buying it. It's my sister's wedding and you shouldn't have to pay to go be tortured. If you could, while you're out, do you think you could pick up a gift for my sister?"
Nodding, Julie said, "Sure. Anything in mind?"
Shrugging, he said, "Whatever people normally buy for weddings."
"I'll see what I can find," she told him. "But you really don't have to buy the dress."
Nodding, he said, "I see, you'll accept gifts from Matt but not from me."
"No!" she said immediately, her eyes widening in alarm. "No, not—Okay, you can buy me the dress," she said immediately.
Aaron grinned. "I thought so."
Julie frowned at his grin. Then, thinking about it for a second, she said, "Hey, did you just trick me?"
"Would I do that?" he asked innocently.
"You did!" she accused. "I can't believe you just tricked me."
Shrugging, he said, "It worked, didn't it?" Then he stood up, taking the invitation from her and walking toward the kitchen. "I'm going to put this on the fridge and then call my mom and add you a plate—this is your last chance to come to your senses," he warned.
"Commit me," she said.
"All right," he said, dialing a phone number and waiting in silence.
Julie leaned back on the couch, contemplating what she had just agreed to…
Hell in a cocktail dress.
"Hey Mom," she heard Aaron say in the kitchen. "Good. Just got the invite for the wedding and I wanted to call and ask if you could add on a plate… I'm bringing someone…"
Although she knew it was silly, Julie felt a little proud to be Aaron's "and guest."
