by Alexa Woods
wished she could just go back to half an hour ago when she was planning
what creative idea she could surprise June with for date night.
Oh no. God, that’s supposed to be tonight.
What could June possibly be thinking right now? Was she wounded?
Smarting? Did she believe the worst? Was she curious, tackling the problem
like one would go at an annoying math equation they couldn’t work out?
Would she add it up and figure out it didn’t make sense? Or would she think
Summer’s worst fears had been realized, and Arabella had only been there
to betray her all along? Personally too.
She had to close her eyes and force herself to drag in breath after breath.
She wasn’t going to give in to the stupid sting behind her eyes either. She
wasn’t going to cower. She wasn’t going down like this. She could still fix
things. Couldn’t she?
“I understand that you need to tell her,” Beth said in such a small voice
that Arabella could barely hear her through the deep breaths that were doing
shit to calm her down. “I know that. That’s why I came to you first. I
needed you to know that June is coming. I needed you to be prepared
instead of being blindsided.”
“What?” Arabella raised her head and looked straight at Beth.
“I know you have to tell her the truth. I should have done it. I was just so
shocked that I—when she called, I couldn’t tell her. I panicked, then I sat
and thought about it for a good long while, and I knew I had to come in
here.”
“I’m not going to tell her,” Arabella said.
Beth swayed in her chair and Arabella nearly leaped out of hers, ready to
catch Beth if she fell face first into the desk. If she was willing to gamble,
she’d place her bets on the possibility of a pass out. Beth grasped the chair’s
arms and kept herself seated. She blinked, and though she still looked
dazed, some of the color appeared on her cheeks again. Arabella was
actually relieved, even though seeing Beth’s color, her relief, her shock, felt
like knives in her own stomach.
“Why? Why wouldn’t you tell her? You’re going to get fired.” Beth
spelled that out like she thought Arabella hadn’t realized it.
She couldn’t think about that now. She couldn’t even start to go there.
She couldn’t start worrying again about how she’d find another job, how
she’d afford the mortgage on their house, how she’d afford her parents’
health insurance. She could go there later. She’d have lots of time to think
about that when she didn’t have a job.
Or a girlfriend.
That was too painful to process.
She wasn’t a martyr. Honestly, she wasn’t. It was just that she’d met
Shannon. She remembered how worried and tired she looked. Sky was
adorable and her older sister was probably just as amazing.
Arabella wanted to give Shannon’s girls an opportunity to go to the right
school. To succeed. With the right kind of teachers and encouragement and
a setting that was just right for them, who knew what they could be?
She didn’t want another girl to have the same high school experience
she’d had. Where she hated every single day of it. Faked her way through it.
Bullied people because that’s what pretty, popular girls did. She hated that
she’d stayed at the top of that hierarchy, no matter what. She wanted to
spare someone else from having the same terrible experience. From
becoming something they didn’t want to be. Maybe if Shannon’s girls had
good teachers and good friends and a great school, those things wouldn’t
happen.
Also? She knew she owed June one. A big one. And this one wasn’t for
June. It was for Beth. But maybe, in some way, Arabella figured that she
might deserve this. Not deserve it, but that karma or whatever had come
back around to her, and this was her chance to try to level the score.
She’d been a terrible person for years. Before June there had been other
girls that she’d bullied. She was just incredibly lucky that no one had ever
done something terrible over what she’d said or done, but the fact that she’d
hurt people over and over, said unthinkable things—god, she’d even drawn
blood when she’d thrown that textbook back at June that day—maybe she
should do some good when she had the opportunity.
Beth still looked scared. So very scared. She looked truly terrified and
horrified. She was afraid for her job. Afraid of where that would leave her.
She was probably afraid June would take legal action too. Arabella didn’t
think June would ever do that, but she was about to find out. Maybe she’d
be so wounded about what she thought Arabella had done that she’d want to
make her suffer legally too just to prove she was finally able to stand up for
herself.
Arabella couldn’t imagine what Summer was going to do when she found
out. If a rock went through her car window or through the front window of
the house, she wouldn’t be surprised. That was old school revenge, and
Summer was much more creative, which made it a truly terrifying thing to
consider.
“Arabella? I said you’re going to get fired,” Beth whispered in a strained
voice. The kind of voice that came from intense emotion. It sounded like
she’d been yelling the entire day and now she had no voice left.
“I know that.” Arabella leaned back against the chair, letting the headrest
bracket her aching skull. She felt horrible. Sad. Defeated. Bereft. Barren.
She wasn’t just going to lose her job. She was going to have her girlfriend,
her hope, her future ripped away from her. She was going to do the same
thing to June, and she was going to have to live that down. “I-I know that.
But I keep thinking about Amelia. And Sky. You can’t lose your job, Beth.”
“Shannon didn’t know where the money came from. I told her it was
from a bonus at work.”
“I don’t want to hurt the kids,” Arabella insisted.
“But they’re not even your kids. You barely know them.” Beth was
having trouble grasping what it was Arabella wanted to do. Or why she’d
want to do it. She didn’t know anything about her history with June. Or the
new history she was trying to make.
“I know that. But I do understand. I know why you did it. I know you
don’t know why I’m going to take the blame for it, but you don’t need to.
You can trust that I’m not going to change my mind and tell June you did it.
Your job is safe. Amelia can go to that school now, I assume?”
“Y-yes. I got enough to pay for the first three months. I’m going to get a
second job and then Shannon will be back at work by then and they’ll have
enough to cover it.”
“That’s good. I’m glad.”
“But, but why?”
Arabella’s eyes were brimming with tears she didn’t know if she could
blink away. She was about to come apart, rip right down the middle and
expose all of her aches and hurts. She really didn’t want that to happen until
after she’d talked to June, packed up her office, and done the whole “I
betrayed everyone” walk of shame.
It
sucked that it was probably still a few hours in coming. At least she
could pack everything and have her office cleaned out by the time June got
back to talk to her. That would make everything easier.
To keep the tears at bay, Arabella stood. She walked over to Beth,
grasped her hand, and helped her out of the chair. She hugged her hard and
that was all it took for Beth to break down in sobs. Arabella struggled to
hold back her tears and lost.
Oh well. Maybe it was best to get them out of the way before June
showed up. Tears weren’t going to change June’s mind, erase the pain
coming for her, or help in any way. They might make her believe Arabella
was sorry, but if she apologized sincerely, June would likely believe her
with or without tears. She was just that way. So nice. So kind. So ready to
look for even an ounce of good in someone, even if she should believe that
they were all bad. So ready to give anyone a chance.
She gave me a chance and now I have to find the right words to break up
with her. Or figure out how to get dumped gracefully.
Chapter 21
June
What would Summer say when she found out she’d been right all along?
Strangely enough, it was only a passing thought for June. She didn’t want to
dwell on that. Right about everything. Right that Arabella wasn’t who she
said she was. Right that she’d do something totally underhanded to affect
the company. Right that she shouldn’t have gotten too close.
She’d thought about that all through her meetings, barely paying
attention while she drowned in self-pity. Halfway through the last one, she
made a decision. She wasn’t going to feel that way. She didn’t know the
whole story. She did know bits and pieces and parts that no one else knew.
Arabella’s dad. The hospital bills Arabella didn’t want to talk about. The
health insurance she was trying to get for her parents, but probably didn’t
come cheap.
It made sense why Arabella would have done something desperate,
especially if she’d retooled her designs and thought she could cover her
tracks without getting found out. Just because June knew she had to deal
with what Arabella had done, didn’t mean that she had to take it personally.
She already knew that it wasn’t. She’d thought it out, reasoned with
herself, gotten over her initial shock and all the hurt and anger that filtered
down from that moment she’d seen the ad with the shoes that were
supposed to be hers being put out by another company. A company who
didn’t even recycle a damn thing, for shit’s sake.
June pulled into her parking spot at the office and sat in the car for a few
minutes. The AC was pumping, so the heat of the outside didn’t reach her.
She felt bad about wasting energy, just sitting there, but she needed the few
extra minutes to grasp the steering wheel and try to figure out what she was
going to say.
No, she knew what she was going to say. She’d spent the better part of
her last meeting being unproductive because she was thinking about it, then
her mind had gone over and over it while she drove to the office.
She just hoped she could turn her emotions down and remember Arabella
was an employee right now and that was it. She didn’t want to think about
the more personal conversation that was coming. That made her breath
come short and her blood feel like it was half ice and half boiled.
Get through this first. Be professional.
June repeated that to herself six hundred times while she walked through
the lobby and went up in the elevator. She gave Shelly a nod at reception
and walked straight to Arabella’s office. She didn’t want to get distracted by
anyone or cornered somewhere else. She didn’t want to draw anything out,
or run into Beth, who already knew. She did wrap her arms around herself
briefly as she walked, and when she caught herself doing it, she told herself
it was because the AC was frigid in the place and not because she was
trying to literally hold herself together.
She walked straight up to Arabella’s office and paused at the door. It was
open, the little stopper at the bottom in place. Arabella was sitting behind
her desk, just sitting. Waiting. June’s heart plummeted when she saw that
the whole thing was spotless. Everything had been tidied and cleaned.
There were a few boxes packed up in the corner. None of Arabella’s
personal things were on her desk. Her plants, the cacti and the aloe that
June liked, were all packed away.
What did you expect? She knows what’s coming. That’s really why you
called Beth.
June wanted to think she hadn’t taken the coward’s way out, but she
knew she kind of had. She knew Beth would go to Arabella and tell her that
she knew and that she was going to have to have a conversation as soon as
she got back. She could have called herself. She could have talked to
Arabella, but she didn’t have the lady balls.
Well, she was going to have to have them now.
Arabella stood up. She didn’t let June get more than a few feet into the
office when she dipped her head. “I know you’re mad at me. I’m…I just
wanted to say that I’m incredibly sorry. I’ve packed up my office.
Everything that I could file, I tried to file neatly so that the next person
could make sense of it. I made sure all the files that anyone might need are
in the shared folders. I don’t expect a reference. I would never ask for that. I
—”
“I’m going to give you severance,” June blurted, cutting Arabella off. It
hurt to see the pain on Arabella’s face. That pain was real, and June was
very sensitive to what other people were feeling. It cut through any
remaining anger she might have had and just made her feel utterly
exhausted.
Arabella blinked at her. “Why would you do that?”
There was only one answer and June never had a problem telling the
truth the way other people did. She always tried to be tactful, but she never
skirted away from it. “Because I have to. Because I know you need it. I
know you have people depending on you. I know that’s why you did this. I
also know you didn’t mean to do it to me personally. I get that things are
rough and that when they get that way, people get desperate. I know you
know that since you got found out, that means you don’t have a job
anymore, but I know you’re sorry, and not just that you got caught. I know
you’re probably expecting the worst from me right now, but I didn’t come
in here to do that to you. I think you’ll beat yourself up enough about all of
this.”
“I never meant for this to happen,” Arabella whispered. She couldn’t
look at June. She was looking at the floor, and that made everything worse.
June wished she had the courage to look her in the eye like she’d done. It
stuck her like a thorn, pricking at her already slashed up pride. “What about
—what are we going to do?”
June cleared her throat. “I think that’s a conversation we should have
later. Privately.”
She glanced behind her, but there wasn’t anyone ou
t gawking in the
hallway. Even if the entire office knew what had happened, they wouldn’t
have done that. She knew they wouldn’t have. They would have been sad,
would have wondered why anyone would do that, and then hoped things
would get better for Arabella whatever her reasons were. There wasn’t a
single person there who would have lashed out or enjoyed someone being
fired. In other offices, maybe, but not in hers.
“You’re right. I-I already have everything packed. I can leave right away.
If someone has to search my things or escort me out, I understand.”
“No. Of course not.”
Arabella still couldn’t look up. “How can you still trust me?”
June’s throat felt raw. She’d been scraping down extra hard swallows for
hours and she really felt it. “Because I believe in giving people the benefit
of the doubt.”
Loud footsteps thundered down the hall and June turned, confused.
Maybe someone had heard and was coming for the show after all. An
immediate stab of disappointment hit her, but when she saw that it was
Beth, she relaxed.
For all of a few seconds before she realized Beth was running. Not just
running but flying towards the office. In heels. And a skirt. Her face wasn’t
just flushed, it was red. She looked like she’d just run a hard mile uphill in
ninety-degree heat.
“Wait!” Beth careened to a halt. “Wait!” She huffed as she pushed
through the door. “You can’t fire her. It wasn’t her! It was me. I did it. It
was all me. I told Arabella it was me and she said she wouldn’t tell you. I
have no idea why, but she was going to take the fall for me, and I can’t let
her do that. I just can’t. I sat there and sat there and tried to make myself
accept it and move on, but I can’t. I can’t lose this job. I don’t want to lose
this job. I love this place more than anything, but I should have thought
about that before I did what I did.”
June crossed her arms, because it was all she could do to stay upright
after being just about literally bowled right freaking over by that little
newsflash.
It was Beth. Beth had sold Arabella’s designs. Arabella was going to lose
her job, take all the blame, be the one humiliated, and risk their relationship
as well. For Beth. A woman she hardly knew. Why?
