"Mom, this is not going to be one of those heartwarming stories where the prince saves the princess and they all live happily ever after."
"Oh God," her mother groaned. "What did you do, Julie?"
Sighing, Julie said, "Well, it all sta
rted when I got this job as a nanny…"
---
It was incredibly strange, Aaron had to work the next day as far as Julie knew, but she was up watching Breakfast at Tiffany’s on television at two a.m. and Aaron still hadn't returned home.
She was getting worried.
Yeah, he had seemed to return to disliking her as soon as their conversation was brought to a halt, but he always came home.
When the movie ended she turned the TV off, and since there was still no sign of Aaron, she played around with the idea of stealing his bed.
Wherever he was, if he wasn't coming home at all, he would never know, and so far, it seemed like he definitely was not coming home that night.
She wasn't sure why that bothered her a little, but it seemed to. There was also no logical reason for why she should find the thought that he probably spent the night with his girlfriend or something at all disheartening, but she seemed to.
Her conclusion was that she must be lonely, and therefore she was jealous that Aaron had someone to go spend the night with.
In the meantime, she would take the consolation prize: the bed.
Chapter Fourteen-
Aaron did not come home that night.
When she woke up the following morning, she was all alone, and his side of the bed hadn’t been touched.
It didn’t feel great that actually opening up to him about herself made him avoid her even more than he had when he really knew nothing about her.
When she finally did see him the next day at work, he made no mention of it, so she didn’t either.
He was a grown man, after all. He could stay out all night if he wanted to.
With Christmas out of the way, Julie found herself counting down the days until she went back to school. Apparently she was either a fairly bad waitress, or Aaron couldn't even stand the thought of having to work with her, because it seemed that he was sticking her on the four hour shifts five days a week as if that was enough for her to survive on.
For someone who hated her so much, he certainly wasn't giving her enough hours so that she could move out of his apartment.
Maybe he was trying to get her to quit.
When she got her schedule for the week of New Year's Eve and she saw that she had four of the four hour days, she became convinced.
"He's trying to get me to quit, isn't he?" Julie asked Leigh conversationally one day as they made up silverware.
Looking startled, Leigh said, "What? Why do you say that?"
"I normally get five shitty shifts a week, giving me a grand total of twenty hours a week, and this week I only got four. Next week I'll get three, once school starts I'll get two… he won't fire me and go back on his word, so he's trying to get me to quit, isn't he?"
"No, why would he do that? You're catching on—I think you're pretty good."
"He hates me," Julie stated.
Leigh smiled and shook her head, dismissing the notion. "No, he doesn't hate you, he's just… Aaron. And he didn't cut your days, sweetie; we're closed on New Year's Day, so nobody works."
"Then why do I always get the shitty shifts? It's barely worth my time to come in here for four hours, and I've noticed that nobody else gets all four hour days—just me."