Falling for My Bully: A Lesbian Romance

by Alexa Woods

  tracked automatically to Arabella, who was frowning at her phone.

  “Sorry, my family only texts me if it’s an emergency and it looks like it

  is. My dad was just taken to the hospital.” Arabella blushed after saying it,

  distressed at interrupting their meeting for personal issues.

  “That’s terrible,” June said softly. “You need to leave, and that’s totally

  understandable.” She turned to Beth as soon as Arabella gathered up her

  things and hurried for the door. “Beth, do you want to take over?”

  Beth was more than capable of leading the meeting, even without June.

  The marketing team met regularly without their CEO. She was just sitting

  in because of the discussion about the new shoe line.

  June tucked her laptop and her notepad into the tote bag she used to carry

  them everywhere, then slung it over her shoulder, gave Beth a confident

  smile, and walked out. She had to check on Arabella, but she warned

  herself to be impartial.

  When she reached Arabella’s office and found her in there, pacing around

  with enough agitation to make the air electric, her impartiality was totally

  abandoned. She’d never seen Arabella so worried. Her skin was pale, her

  eyes liquid. She’d raked her hair back so many times it was a wild mess of a

  mane floating in the air around her face.

  “Oh!” Arabella stopped pacing as soon as she saw June come through the

  door.

  “Sorry. The office is glass, so I assumed that you saw me coming,” June

  mumbled. “I just wanted to make sure everything was okay.”

  Arabella’s eyes got wetter the longer she stood there. She didn’t even

  bother swiping at her tears as they started to fall down her ashen cheeks.

  “I’m a terrible person,” she moaned.

  “Why would you think that?” June set her tote down on the ground.

  She’d always liked the idea of glass offices, but right now some privacy

  would have been a good thing.

  Arabella sniffled. “I…the text was from my sister. She said my mom took

  my dad to the hospital because he was having pains in his chest. His health

  has been dicey since everything happened. They’re at the hospital right

  now. My sister is heading over. She texted because she knew I was at work

  and mom was scared that if she interrupted, I might lose my job.”

  “You can tell them that won’t happen.” June’s assurances seemed little

  comfort to Arabella. She was worried about her dad, but it was something

  else too, or she would have flown out that door and gotten to the hospital as

  fast as she could. “Why do you think that makes you terrible?” June asked

  softly, trying to dig without digging. She shouldn’t, but she couldn’t just

  walk out the door either.

  Arabella started pacing again, her face twisted and pinched with anxiety

  and worry, but at least she wasn’t crying anymore.

  “We don’t have insurance,” she finally moaned, her back to June as she

  stared out the window. “I have no idea how we’re going to pay for this. Do

  they finance hospital bills? What if he has to have open heart surgery or

  something?” She whirled quickly, horrified with herself. “Oh my God, I’m

  saying things like that when something could be very wrong. That’s what

  makes me a terrible person. I shouldn’t even be thinking about the cost! It’s

  my dad’s life here.”

  “It’s logical,” June tried to offer. “That doesn’t mean that you don’t care.”

  A set of slender hands flew to Arabella’s hips. The bright pink of her

  dress suddenly made her skin look washed out after all the color had

  drained away from her face. “I’m a terrible daughter,” Arabella said, agony

  in every word. “I’m so exhausted trying to get everything figured out and

  trying to support everyone. I’m just so, so tired.”

  June knew she couldn’t do anything for Arabella financially. Arabella

  had insurance through the company, but it didn’t extend to her parents. She

  couldn’t offer her some kind of financial aid, because if anyone else found

  out, it wouldn’t be fair to them.

  There were other people at the company who had parents who probably

  weren’t well. She could possibly offer Arabella some sort of advance to pay

  for insurance for her parents going forward, and it could be taken out of her

  paychecks for the coming however many months, but that wasn’t going to

  help her now.

  Arabella shook herself out of her trance, some of her determination

  coming back. “I shouldn’t be standing here. I should get to the hospital. I

  guess I can do all my worrying there.”

  “Let me drive you.” The words popped out, stunning them both.

  Arabella’s head turned around so fast that she could have given herself

  whiplash. “You’re frustrated and worried,” June quickly explained. “It’s

  safer if I drive. That way, you don’t have to shell out more money for a

  cab.”

  “But, but the meeting…”

  “Beth’s got it.”

  “Are you sure? I’m really sorry.”

  “Don’t be sorry,” June told her. “It’s not your fault. You didn’t choose to

  have any of this happen.”

  Arabella nodded. “You’re right. I really wish that none of it had.”

  “You can worry about it in the car. If you grab your stuff, I’ll take you

  and I can drop you off at home when you’re ready to go.”

  “Oh, no, you’d have to wait. I might be there for hours.”

  “That’s fine.” June knew she should be bailing, not entrenching herself

  into an extremely emotional situation. “I can wait at the hospital, but we

  should get there as fast as we can.”

  “Yeah.” Arabella seemed to stare right through June. She was even

  whiter, her skin so pale that June could almost see the vein running along

  her temple that leaped beneath her skin, pounding in time with her

  quickened heartbeat. Arabella shook her head and her gaze returned to

  normal. “I mean, thank you.”

  June had to stop herself from saying that she would do the same thing for

  any friend, without hesitation. She and Arabella might have discussed the

  past and put it to rest—Arabella had apologized, and June had believed her

  and accepted her apology—but did that mean they were friends? She

  sucked that back and justified her action with the acknowledgment that she

  would do the same thing for any of her employees. That felt much safer. It

  was much safer.

  Chapter 12

  Arabella

  It was embarrassing for Arabella to have June drop her off, but she

  reminded herself that June had seen the house once before. After spending

  hours at the hospital, did she really even care what the house looked like?

  Did Arabella? She felt frayed thin, like at any moment that last strand

  holding her emotions, her sanity, herself together could unravel and that

  unraveling would be like falling into a deep cavern she couldn’t pick herself

  out of.

  June pulled up in the driveway, her headlights flashing on the dilapidated

  garage. Arabella sat for a moment, trying to figure out how to properly

  thank June for everything she’d done, but she didn’t have the w
ords. It was

  so late that June offered to bring her straight to the house. She said she’d be

  by to pick her up in the morning to take her to the office because her car

  was still there.

  Arabella didn’t know where June lived, but she was sure it was way on

  the other side of what everyone liked to call the tracks.

  Her brain felt sluggish, her head heavy. There wasn’t a whole lot of

  creative thinking action going on upstairs. All she could think about was her

  dad. His heart was okay. It was probably just a lot of stress. He was being

  kept overnight for monitoring, and her mom was staying at the hospital with

  him. She could barely comprehend what he’d said to her when she’d

  walked in, and her mom and sister had gone to get a cup of coffee.

  “Coffee…” Arabella latched onto that. “Do you want a cup?”

  “I…”

  “I know it’s not exactly coffee hour, but I feel like it’s the least I could do

  after you waited at the hospital for so long and drove me all this way. I can’t

  thank you properly. I can’t even come up with the words. Maybe a

  mediocre cup of java will do the trick. Or maybe at least it will jog my brain

  and I’ll be able to come up with something. Some words that are even

  close.”

  June pressed the button on the dash that shut off the car. “Okay.”

  Arabella hadn’t expected an agreement, and she was flooded with panic

  thinking about all the things wrong with the house. She hid it well, gulping

  down her pride like she’d done over the past few years. She let herself out

  of the car and walked to the side door. She was glad it was dark and hoped

  that June, who followed a few feet behind her, wouldn’t notice the trim

  missing on the house, the eaves half falling off the side of the garage, the

  paint peeling all along the same side, or the sagging backyard fence. The

  place might be just shy of depressing, and it needed a lot of work that her

  mom didn’t know how to do and her dad, well, her dad hadn’t been doing

  much of anything.

  Arabella thrust open the door and flicked on the light inside. The house

  was anything but open concept. The bungalow was small and outdated, but

  at least she kept things meticulously clean. She’d been able to save a lot of

  her parent’s furniture from when their house was foreclosed on and so the

  furnishings were much nicer than their surroundings. She tried to avoid

  thinking that it was like putting lipstick on a pig.

  “This is nice,” June said politely.

  Arabella gave her props for always being so nice, because it really

  sounded like she meant it.

  Arabella nodded. She silently walked towards the kitchen and June

  followed. She flicked on lights as they went, illuminating old, worn carpets,

  faded and peeling wallpaper that was nowhere near back to being in style,

  and an outdated kitchen. The stove and the fridge were different colors,

  yellow and pink of all things, the cupboards that ugly brown that looked

  one step above cardboard, the countertops tiled with seafoam green tiles,

  bizarrely enough.

  “Wow,” June said. “This is pretty cool, actually.”

  “It’s like a mish mash with something left over from every decade, but

  not in a good way.”

  “No, I like it.” June pointed to the round globe light above the sink.

  “That’s pretty sweet. And I like that the stove is pink, and the countertops

  are tiled. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

  “It’s less charming in the full light of day, I can tell you that much.”

  Arabella went to the coffee maker, dumped in a few scoops of the delicious

  grounds that she still splurged for because she just couldn’t bring herself to

  drink shitty coffee, and filled the machine with water. The coffee maker,

  like most of the appliances, had also been saved from the house so it was an

  expensive model.

  June pulled out a seat at the table. The thing was crazily overpriced,

  probably worth more than the lot the house was on. The chairs were black

  upholstered leather and surrounded a black circular glass table. It was too

  big for the kitchen, really, but Arabella’s mom had cried when Arabella

  thought about selling it, so they’d jammed it in instead.

  “I like the furniture.” June attempted conversation again, which was

  awkward because Arabella still had her back to her, angled towards the

  counter. “It’s really nice.”

  Arabella nodded. She bit her bottom lip, working it hard until she tasted

  the bite of iron and stopped before she did any damage. “I was thinking that

  I should find a way to get my parents health insurance. My sister is covered

  through her college, and I’m covered through work, but they have nothing. I

  talked to the admin at the front desk, and they said that the bills can be

  financed. They tried to tell me it wouldn’t be too bad, since my dad didn’t

  have extensive testing done or anything because he refused it, but…”

  “But it’s a lot,” June finished for her.

  “It is.” Too much. Arabella’s hand reached out and clenched the counter.

  She kept seeing the shame on her dad’s face. Kept hearing him say that he

  wished he could just die and save them all the trouble instead of drawing it

  out and being a burden. That, more than anything else, broke her heart.

  One second, Arabella was standing at the counter, listening to the steady

  hiss and drip of the coffee maker, staring at the reflection of the globe light

  against the small kitchen window behind the sink, the next thing she knew

  she was sliding down, her legs giving way, her hand not nearly enough to

  hold her up and keep her steady.

  The floor was old linoleum, yellow with orange squares and small sprigs

  of flowers. Arabella had never really looked that closely at it. She’d

  actually tried not to because it was so ugly, but now she was getting up

  close and personal. Her butt was parked there, her legs folded up under her

  at odd angles.

  “Whoa!” June hovered over her, and Arabella turned her face up,

  somewhat stunned to find her above her. “Are you okay?” June crouched

  down, eyes bright with concern. She reached out automatically, but then

  stopped halfway and tucked her hand back at her side.

  Arabella blinked. “I-I don’t know.”

  Damn it, that wasn’t a yes. You should have said yes. Yes is the only

  option.

  She remembered how proud she’d been in high school. How she never

  would have admitted to even so much as a nanosecond of weakness. And

  now here she was, on the floor, blinking in confusion at June because she

  didn’t really remember the descent down.

  God, it was such a long way down.

  Not just to the floor.

  Arabella swiped her hands over her face as if she could smooth away the

  stress headache pounding at her temples or the sick feeling in her stomach.

  As if she could smooth away her dad’s terrible decisions, her own mistakes,

  the old house they’d had to give up, their old life.

  “Arabella…”

  “I’m just tired,” she groaned, somewhat incoherently.

  “I’m seriously worried about you.”


  Arabella lifted her head and blinked. June’s big, dark eyes swam into

  view. Her forehead had a big worry crease in it and her lips were flattened

  out. She did look concerned. That was nice of her, Arabella decided. So

  very, very nice of her. She blinked again, because she swore that June was

  closer than she was before, but her eyes were grainy and tired, and her brain

  was so sluggish from all the stress that it almost didn’t make sense.

  June touched Arabella’s knee. She was wearing black dress pants so she

  couldn’t feel the touch, but she imagined she could. Her mouth went dry

  like she could feel those fingertips on her bare skin. She felt silly, getting all

  revved up and hot about something so simple as the brush of June’s

  fingertips on top of her clothes. She berated herself for her reaction. That

  touch was meant to comfort, not to spark flames or make her heart pound.

  Even if that’s what was happening.

  Arabella thought that would be it, but when June set her hand softly on

  her cheek, her heart started to slam even harder. Her eyes shut and she

  waited. She wasn’t going to make a move. She wasn’t going to make any

  movement. She’d told Summer she wouldn’t. June had drawn a line and she

  wasn’t going to cross it. If June wanted to, it had to be her. It had to be her

  making the decisions.

  She didn’t walk across that line. She sprinted. June’s hand brushed over

  Arabella’s jaw. Her eyes wrenched open, and she saw June lean in. She

  might have been miserable thinking about her dad and all her financial

  problems, but she was also hyper aware of the woman right beside her and

  that banished just about every other thought from her mind.

  She didn’t actually expect that June would do anything more than offer a

  comforting touch. Her mind had yet to compute what exactly was going to

  happen, which was why she wasn’t fully prepared for the brush of June’s

  soft lips.

  It was just a brush. Her mouth, asking, searching. Arabella parted her lips

  and answered that question. She stopped June’s search by leaning into her.

  Her hand fisted June’s shirt while the other tangled in her raven hair.

  Arabella angled her face and June whimpered, her tongue teasing along

  Arabella’s lower lip until they both gave in with a wild fury of kisses that

  were so hard they left them both panting.