Falling for My Bully: A Lesbian Romance

by Alexa Woods

Arabella’s attention fixed on the stapler on the edge of her desk. “But

  what if someone finds out that it’s more than that?”

  June wished she could reach across the desk and touch Arabella’s hand or

  gather her up in her arms and hug a heavy dose of reassurance right into

  her. “It’s not a secret, remember?”

  “I do, but I guess we should maybe talk about how we want to tell

  people. The when and the if. If we had a plan, it might make things easier.”

  “Definitely. Alright. At lunch? Or tonight?”

  “Whenever it feels right.”

  June gave Arabella a look that she hoped conveyed all of her joy, her

  hope, the whole wild elation she felt at this—them—being real. She wanted

  to reach that next step where it was more than just them who knew. She

  wanted Arabella to meet her parents. She wanted a real dinner with

  Arabella’s parents too, with Arabella’s sister there as well.

  What June really was ready for was the whole world to know about them.

  Not just because she was simply ready, but because she couldn’t contain all

  the wonderful sensations inside her anymore. If the road got rocky when

  people found out they were dating, and she was sure it really wouldn’t, but

  if it did, she’d be more than ready to get out the patching equipment and

  start smoothing over those holes and flattening bumps. She was ready to

  work for it, to fight for it if she had to.

  “So, what were you thinking for lunch?” Arabella asked shyly.

  “I was thinking whatever you were thinking.”

  “Oh good. We’ll spend the entire hour trying to figure out where to go

  and come back here starved.”

  June stood up and snatched out her phone. “Actually, there’s this little

  place I’ve been dying to try.”

  “Great. I’m in.”

  “Just like that?”

  “I’m not fussy. You know that.” Arabella paused, then with even more

  shyness that was completely adorable, she added, “As long as I’m having

  lunch with you, I could eat anything, even chocolate-covered bugs.”

  “What about if they weren’t chocolate covered.”

  Arabella gulped. “I guess I would try, but I don’t think they’d go down as

  smooth. Doesn’t chocolate make everything more appetizing?”

  “So does a deep fryer.”

  “Eww. Okay, I hope it’s not really bugs.”

  “It’s not really bugs. It’s actually this food truck that opened up. They

  have the most amazing sandwiches, or so I’ve heard.”

  “Then we should try said amazing sandwiches.”

  June knew she should really get back to her office to tackle the crazy

  amounts of paperwork she had stacking up, but she paused after walking to

  the door and walked back to Arabella’s desk. Arabella stood, glancing at the

  door and the front of her office yet again.

  “I was just going to ask if you thought there was anything off with Beth

  at that meeting?”

  “Oh, I-I don’t know. I didn’t really notice anything. Why? Did you?”

  “I don’t know. I guess she’s just stressed. She just looked…I don’t know.

  Different? It’s maybe just because I’ve known her for a long time. I was just

  going to talk to her and make sure she knew that it isn’t her fault if this

  thing crashes and burns.” Arabella looked panicked. “I mean, it’s never

  going to crash and burn. Sorry. It’s an amazing idea and I know people are

  going to love it. Beyond love it. I could just see that Beth might be taking a

  lot of this on herself and it’s normal to have doubts about anything that’s

  brand new that we’ve never done before.”

  “You notice everything,” Arabella whispered. Her eyes locked with

  June’s. “That’s one of the things I love about you.” She seemed to realize

  she’d used that word only after she’d said it. It was casual, something

  anyone would say, but it wasn’t that way when Arabella said it.

  June softened. She glanced behind her this time, then she grasped

  Arabella’s hand tightly, just for a second before she let it go. “Thank you.

  There are many, many things I love about you too. At lunch, I hope I can

  tell you a few.”

  Arabella’s face lit up. “I can’t wait.”

  June left Arabella’s office feeling like she was floating. She had so much

  work that she bypassed Beth’s office and decided to work on an email

  where she could properly write out everything she wanted to say. She’d

  have a few days to complete it, then she’d send it and book a meeting with

  Beth privately right after. They’d talk it out and everything would be fine.

  The new shoe line was going to be amazing.

  Even more amazing was that they’d both just used that word. That crazy

  four-letter word that was so hard to say. While it wasn’t I love you, it was

  always a good idea to encourage your partner and starting with the things

  you appreciated and loved about them was a great place to begin using that

  word.

  She’d said it to precious few people in her life who weren’t related to her.

  Yes, she used it all the time, like everyone else did, but just thinking about

  using it with Arabella, when the time was right, made her feel like she was

  floating even higher, so high that the spectacular shoes she had on, that so

  many people had worked so hard on to make a reality, her favorite pair ever,

  felt like they were miles and miles above the ground.

  Chapter 20

  Arabella

  Beth’s face was ashen when she stumbled into Arabella’s office. Not

  walked. Stumbled. She didn’t knock and she hesitated, the door hanging

  open. Her skin was white, not chalky, but waxy. Arabella jumped out of her

  chair as soon as she looked up and saw Beth.

  “Oh, my God, are you okay?”

  Beth moved her hand to signify something, what exactly, Arabella wasn’t

  sure. She tried to make eye contact, but Beth’s eyes strayed away, darting

  around the office. “I-I-I need to…”

  “I think you should sit,” Arabella said when Beth trailed off. She wasn’t

  being impatient when she pointed at the chair in front of her desk. She

  actually thought that Beth might fall over. She looked truly and utterly

  terrible and it was alarming.

  Hadn’t June just asked her a few days ago if she thought something was

  off with Beth? If the stress was getting to her? Yes, yes, she had. Arabella

  knew June had booked a time to speak with Beth soon. She’d been so busy

  lately, but she was writing her an email. Yes, she certainly remembered June

  telling her that she was writing something, and she was going to meet with

  Beth in person after she’d had time to digest what she’d written and make

  sure everything was okay.

  Beth extended a hand that looked like a claw. She grasped for the arm of

  the chair and pulled herself into it, not so much sitting down as collapsing.

  Arabella watched her, her skin so milky white that the vein throbbing in her

  forehead was nearly visible. The pulse pounded at her neck, leaping in time

  to the amount of times that Beth swallowed.

  Arabella’s first instinct was that Beth had just found out she was sick,

  and it was something terrible
and terminal and she’d come in because she

  needed someone to talk to. She didn’t look well at all. Arabella clenched

  her teeth against the outpouring of questions she wanted to ask. She told

  herself to be patient and wait for Beth to talk to her. She didn’t want to

  stand over her, so she forced herself to sit back down in her chair. She

  nearly missed it and gave an anxious little laugh when it skittered out

  behind her, and she caught it at the last second before she fell on the floor.

  Beth stared at Arabella. Arabella tried to maintain eye contact, but it was

  getting unnerving. Beth hadn’t blinked once, she swore it. She stared,

  silently willing Beth’s eyelashes to flutter. She even blinked a few times

  herself, dramatically, hoping that Beth would follow suit, but she didn’t.

  “I-I did…”

  Arabella leaned forward. She tried to smile softly, calmingly,

  encouragingly, but that sentence started with I did, not I am. Not, “I’m

  sick.” Not, “I just came from the doctor.” Not, “The doctor just called me.”

  What had Beth done that was so terrible that she looked like she didn’t have

  a drop of blood left in her face?

  Beth’s eyes flooded with tears, and then she did blink, so furiously and so

  many times that Arabella grabbed the edge of her desk. She felt like

  something was coming at her. It was like sitting in the driver’s seat of your

  car, knowing you’re about to be in a wreck, but being virtually powerless to

  stop it from happening. It was a terrible feeling. She hated the way her heart

  slammed over and over again, drumming out a sick rhythm that made her

  whole body feel numb and shaky.

  Whatever Beth had done, she was here to tell her, not June, not anyone

  else. What did that mean?

  Beth swallowed thickly and brushed at her tears. “I—Arabella, God, I’m

  so sorry. I did something and I don’t know how to undo it.”

  Arabella didn’t think she was an overly good problem solver, but Beth

  had come to her, and she would do what she could to help, even if she felt a

  disgusting hollowness in the pit of her stomach. It felt like it was growing

  with every second that Beth didn’t say anything. The suspense was a gross

  thing, a shadowy monster waiting to devour them both.

  “Why don’t you just try to tell me what it is, and I can help,” Arabella

  said. She gave Beth a watered-down smile that was supposed to be much

  stronger than it was.

  Beth looked away quickly, as if shed been chased by Arabella’s gaze,

  which wasn’t a good sign at all. “I’m sorry. I never meant it to get so far. I

  thought we could still beat them to market. I thought the designs would be

  useless for them then. They weren’t far enough along in the planning stages

  to actually execute something like that, but they have. They are. They did.”

  “What are you saying?” Arabella’s heartrate was painful now.

  “I sold your designs,” Beth gasped out.

  “Sold my what?” Arabella was so confused that it was like Beth’s words

  hadn’t even reached her. She felt like she was in another room or standing

  outside the glass of her office and it was noise-canceling glass and whatever

  Beth said never reached her.

  “Your designs,” Beth whispered. “I sold them. To another company. I

  only did it because I thought I had time to undo it. I needed money for

  Amelia. Shannon found this incredible private school, but it’s expensive

  and none of us have that kind of money. It would be a great opportunity for

  Amelia. I want her to succeed and be happy more than anything. Public

  schools just have too many kids and not enough teachers. Even if people

  care, there just isn’t enough of that care to go around.”

  The sky was crushing her. Or maybe that was the office ceiling. Arabella

  flicked her eyes up anxiously, actually afraid the tiles would be pressing

  down on top of her head, but nope, it was still up there where it always was.

  She was suffocating. The air in the office was in short supply. She

  realized she was holding her breath. The oxygen in the place was just fine.

  The crushing sensation she felt wasn’t the ceiling or the sky. The building

  wasn’t falling down around her. It was dread. Terrible, aching dread that

  curled up inside of her like a feral animal digging its claws into her belly.

  “How did you get them?”

  “That meeting. Where you had to leave early. You left the folder in the

  middle of the table with the designs in it. I had all your notes and research

  from the shared marketing folder.”

  “But everyone signs an NDA when they start here.”

  She realized how dumb that was. It was like saying that no one was ever

  allowed to cheat on a test because there were consequences for doing so.

  People still took that chance and rolled the dice. If they didn’t get caught,

  their deception would pay off. If they did, maybe they hoped they’d still get

  out of it. But what about Beth? Wouldn’t she have known that she’d get

  caught? It would have been so obvious if another company came out with

  all of their designs.

  But who would have suspected her?

  No one.

  So why was she in Arabella’s office, confessing what she’d done?

  “I did,” Beth whispered.

  “June’s going to find out. I don’t know how to fix this.”

  “She already knows. The ad for the new shoe line came out this morning

  and she saw it right away. She called me to ask me what the heck was going

  on. I told her I didn’t know. She said that she was going to come talk to you

  as soon as her morning meetings were over. She’s away from the office this

  morning, which is why I’m here, talking to you now, before she gets here.”

  Arabella’s throat closed up again and she lifted a hand and thumped

  herself there like she was choking. “What?” she squeaked. “She knows?”

  Suddenly, it made sense. It made sense why Beth was there, confessing

  what she’d done. It made sense that June knew, but that she didn’t know

  what Beth did. Those were Arabella’s designs. Designs no one else had

  access to because she normally kept them locked in her filing cabinet with

  all the other paperwork. It was an old habit, from working at places where

  sensitive information was just about always a thing. June wouldn’t

  remember that Arabella had left her folder the day her dad had been taken

  to the hospital.

  June thought Arabella had sold the designs. That she’d sold them to

  another company for more money. Ultimately, June thought she’d betrayed

  her. Not just in the sense of the whole working together, business side, but

  that she’d betrayed her. Betrayed her as a person. Betrayed her hopes and

  her trust. Betrayed her personally. No one knew they were dating. Beth

  didn’t know. She couldn’t realize what a big blow she’d just delivered.

  It really sucked to feel like she was drowning. She couldn’t focus on

  Beth, even though it wasn’t like she was trying to not look at her. She

  wanted to look at her. She wanted to search her face for some clues, for

  something else, for a way out of this.

  “I’m sorry,” Beth said again. Th
e shitty part was that her voice was

  breaking, and her eyes were tearing up. She honestly sounded truly sorry. “I

  thought we could get there ahead of them. Or put something better out

  there.”

  “But you couldn’t have got much for them.”

  “I didn’t.” Beth laughed harshly. “That’s the worst part. I got a little bit,

  but not much. I have lots of friends that I’ve met over the years who work

  in other companies, and I had lunch with one of them last week. She

  mentioned how they’ve been trying to do a kid’s shoe line for ages.

  Something fun and unique. I told her I might have some designs if they

  were willing to compensate for them. I don’t know why I said it. It just

  came out and then it was out and done and they liked the designs. They paid

  me more than enough. They’re not even a shoe company. They do clothing

  for kids. It’s all for kids, but I still thought we’d be so much further ahead,

  we’d blow them out of the water.”

  “By putting out the same designs and sending their whole production into

  a funk?”

  “They don’t recycle anything, so it wouldn’t have been the same.”

  “But similar enough that June could have gotten sued.”

  “I-I thought I could change them enough that maybe that wouldn’t

  happen. We would have put ours out first anyway. In my head, I was going

  to make it work,” she moaned. “I thought I could work it all out, but I didn’t

  have time.”

  Beth wasn’t a dumb lady. Arabella knew that. She was very smart and

  very capable. If she said she thought she could have worked it out, then she

  really did think so. She wasn’t being malicious. She wasn’t trying to hurt

  anyone. She knew that she could, but she had hoped she wouldn’t.

  Arabella didn’t understand why Beth had taken the risk, but she did

  understand one thing. The love that one person could have for their family.

  That love made people willing to do anything, even if it was crazy or bad or

  underhanded.

  “So, June thinks I did it?” Arabella asked again, just to confirm. She

  desperately wanted the answer to be no and was actually disappointed all

  over again when she watched Beth nod.

  “She does.”

  Arabella desperately wished she could erase the last few minutes and

  rewind the words Beth had just said. Even if that wouldn’t do any good, she