I Might Be Crazy

"I only had three more months to go." Julie whined with disappointment. "Three months and the doctor let it slip. Can you believe that?"

Julie and Cody wanted to be surprised by their baby's gender. We had both made a comment about how it would be cool if she had a girl. Then Scarlett and their baby would grow up and hopefully be as close as we were. In the end though, gender didn't matter, I just wanted her to have a healthy baby and I knew she felt the same.

"I know you're not happy about it but think of it this way. You can get more prepared for the arrival." I tried to get her to look on the bright side of this.

"I know. It just would've been a fun little surprise is all." The disappointment was still clear in her voice.

"But now you can decorate a nursery exactly how you want. That's a big plus." I responded.

She thought for a moment and I noticed the disappointment start to fade. "You're right. We can also finally decide on a name too."

"Exactly." I smiled. "You still haven't told me what the gender is by the way. I think as your best friend you should definitely clue me in."

"It's a girl." She attempted to contain her excitement but I could tell she was over the moon about it.

"Congratulations Jules." I was excited for her too. We had both come so far since we met on the street.

"Enough about me, how's everything coming along with the last of the wedding stuff?" She asked.

"Everything's pretty much done. We got the caterer figured out finally. All that's left to do is decide where exactly we want to go on a honeymoon." I answered.

"Think you'll come home pregnant?" She smirked.

"No." I responded hastily. "I don't think I want to be pregnant again for a little while. Maybe once this stuff with Bushemp Industries calms down and the second store is up and running."

"Speaking of Bushemp Industries, how's that all going?" Julie raised a brow.

I had told her about the approach the lawyer made. I didn't tell her the idea I had come up with as nothing was finalized. That would happen tonight when we met with Martin for dinner. If she knew what was on my mind she would have tried to talk me out of it like Damon had.

"Fine I guess." I spoke as if it were no big deal.

To be honest after having a few days to think about it, accepting the business and signing it over to Damon was the best decision. He was right, everyone would win. It was ironic though that the two companies were finally going to merge. This was everything Meredith had wanted, only she got to watch it happen behind bars and she wasn't included in this transaction whatsoever.

"Fine?" Julie questioned. "You're dealing with it a lot better than I think I would. Of course it doesn't help that I'm majorly hormonal right now."

I let a chuckle escape my lips. "Well, that's what happens when you're pregnant Jules."

The door of the store opened and we both looked to see who it was. Today had been pretty slow and we had maybe one customer every couple hours. My eyes fell on the familiar brunette I hadn't seen in months. She had been away on her modeling gigs.

"Hey." Victoria smiled as she approached.

"Look what the cat dragged in." Julie pleasantly joked. "Here I was beginning to think you had forgotten all about us."

"I could never forget about you Julie. Every time I need to be humbled I hear your voice in my head saying something snarky." Victoria joked back.

Julie had tried to hate Victoria for the longest time for the role she had played in my situation. However the more time she had spent with Victoria in store the walls she had put up came down. They still made their remarks to each other but that just seemed to be part of the relationship that they had developed. Whether she wanted to admit it or not, Victoria had become her friend.

Even I was at the point with Victoria that I could count her as a friend. While she worked in the store we had gotten to know each other better and I couldn't help but like her. She was a completely different person since she had gotten away from her toxic relationship with Justin. The down side was that we both had been so busy the last few months we didn't talk a whole lot. Just the occasional text making sure the other was still doing well and then other messages about model shoots for my new lines.

"I've been seeing you on a few billboards. Seems the modeling world has been treating you well." I gave her a smile as I spoke. I was happy to see how far she had come as well.

"For the most part." Her eyes focused on me. "My parents finally started talking to me again. I feel like that's only because they realized I was able to actually make something out of myself. Thanks to you anyway."

"Well don't let them make you feel forced, only talk to them if you want to and feel they deserve it." I was going off of my experience I had with my father's side. "There's no reason to waste any time on toxic family members."

The three of us continued catching up for the next little while. Everything remained slow at Amethyst so there were no interruptions. It was nice to hear some of Victoria's stories about some of the people she had met and the places she had seen. I could tell that she was genuinely happy with how things were going.

Before I knew it the time had hit four in the afternoon. I gathered my things from the back room as I had to get going. We were supposed to be meeting at Martin's at five. With the traffic it was better to make sure I had the whole hour to get there on time. Traffic through Nashville during rush hour wasn't very fun.

"I'll see you guys later." I smiled at Victoria and Julie as I headed for the door.

"See you tomorrow boss." Julie responded.

"Be safe!" Victoria hollered as I opened the door to leave.

"I will!" I shouted back.

I headed right for my car and got inside. I took a deep breath in and let it out. It was time to go get Martin's approval for Justin to manage the company in Dallas once it became part of Tipton Enterprises. I knew I might be crazy for wanting him to take the position but in the end he was qualified and he had helped so much in our situation. The least I could do was give him the one thing he had wanted, to run a company.