Unsure of his response to the who
le situation, she asked evenly, "You don't like it that she's blossoming?"
In the logical side of her mind, she figured it was just his ego taking a little hit, but her less rational side was about to fly into a panic—he had just seen Leigh for the first time—really seen her—and he was going to change his mind! He was going to realize he did have feelings for her, he had just been ignoring them like he tried desperately to ignore his attraction to Julie, but in the end he lost that battle, and he would lose this one, too, and he would leave Julie for Leigh! They would have a fairy tale ending and she would be left pregnant and alone again!
Pulling her from her senseless panic, Aaron shook his head bemusedly and said, "I guess I just realized what it would be like to have a little sister. I kind of want to… pull Steve aside and give him one of those, 'If you hurt her, I will rip your face off' conversations that would probably not help our friendship."
At that comment, she allowed herself to breathe again. "You have a little sister," Julie said with a smile.
"Oh. Right. Well, yeah… but I was never that protective over her."
Shrugging, Julie said, "It makes sense. Leigh has been your best friend for years."
"Yeah… it really doesn't feel like she is lately though. I guess the change was inevitable unless we stayed in the unhealthy situation."
Julie smiled a little and she said, "It's like we're all finally growing up."
Aaron chuckled a little, shaking his head ironically, "We should be grown up by now, shouldn't we?"
"Eh, our generation is in no rush to grow up. I think as long as you grow up by the time you reach about 30, you're not really behind anymore."
"Well, if we've got it all figured out already, what are we going to do for the next 50 years?"
"Well, our next challenge will be parenting. I've been told that we should be kept pretty occupied trying to figure that whole mess out for the next 20 years or so. Then Alyssa will be dating, so we'll have to adjust to that protective, no-man-is-good-enough stuff all over again."
"I thought I told you already that Alyssa is never allowed to date."
"Well, yes, we covered that men are evil and we have to keep them away from our little girl as long as possible, but realistically speaking that will stop working by the time she's in middle school."
"Middle school?" he asked, raising his eyebrows. "I don't think she should date until she's at least 16."
"I don't think we need to have this discussion yet," Julie relied, chuckling. "She isn't even born yet."
"Maybe we should look into all-girls schools," he stated.
"How do you know she won't be a lesbian?"
Sighing, he said, "Oh God, this is going to be a lot harder than growing up, isn't it?"
"Watching our baby grow up instead? Oh yes."
"I'm not going to like it," he informed Julie. "We should freeze dry her while she's little."
"You figure out how and I'll think about it."
He sighed heavily and placed his hand on Julie's belly saying, "Alyssa, can you hear me? This is your father. You're not going to give me gray hair by the time you're two, right?"
Julie laughed when Alyssa seemingly responded by kicking.
"I'm going to take that as a no," Aaron replied, smiling and rubbing her belly. "You're going to be a little angel, right?"
She kicked twice and shoved one of her appendages in Julie's rib cage, causing Julie some mild discomfort for a moment.
"Oh," Julie said, rubbing the side of her stomach to try to make Alyssa move. "I'm going to take that as a definitive no; stop abusing Mommy!"
"She's trying to reassure her father right now, do you mind?" he asked jokingly.
"I will mind much less when she's here and she can kick you instead of me to communicate."