by Alexa Woods
she was going to provide and make ends meet. She knew she could do it,
even if it meant working at three terrible jobs until she found something that
was the right fit. But losing June? There wasn’t anyone like her. In so many
ways. June was one of a kind.
“I’m sorry I outed us like that.” June glanced down at her plate. “Thank
you for making this, but I’m not really hungry.”
“Would you rather do something else? I can put it in the fridge. I’m not
really hungry either.”
“I would.” June stood, still holding Arabella’s hand, and gently tugged
her out of her chair. She took a few steps that were as nimble and graceful
as a dance being performed and pulled Arabella into a hug.
It was the most wonderful thing in the world. Arabella leaned against
June, allowing all the heaviness she felt to flow away. She breathed at the
nape of June’s neck when she bent her head and set her chin on June’s
shoulder. She loved the heady tingle that accompanied the action.
“I should have asked you if you were okay with everyone at work
knowing about us.”
“It’s just Beth. She won’t tell.”
“But still. I’m sorry. The way I said it wasn’t very sensitive.”
“I’ve always been okay with anyone knowing about us,” Arabella said.
She closed her eyes and concentrated on the small things. The way June’s
thighs pressed up against hers. The silk of her blouse against her fingers.
Her deep breaths.
“When I said that we should wait to meet our families and friends, it
wasn’t because I was trying to decide if I wanted to be in this. I do. I just
thought it would be better to go slow instead of rushing into it. You’ve
already met my mom. And Summer’s mom. And, of course, you know
Summer. I wasn’t trying to not be involved. The work thing is—I do feel
like it makes things more complicated, but I’m okay with people knowing
too. I was scared that I would be seen as that boss who was totally
unprofessional when I expect a certain level of professionalism from
everyone else, but there isn’t a dating policy at work that says that people
can’t meet and date each other and fall in love. I know it sometimes makes
things messy, but I’m not going to decide that for anyone. It’s not right.”
“I wasn’t mad about any of that. I just thought you needed time. I can
appreciate taking things slow and I know the work situation can make
things complicated. No one wants to mess things up and then have to work
with the person they made a big mess with.”
“That would be awkward.”
“It would be.”
“It’s not going to happen to us. I know that already.”
Arabella’s heart pounded hard, but it was a good hard. “Yeah?” She tilted
her head and studied June. June smiled right back at her, which made
Arabella’s chest feel soft and warm and ultra squishy. “That’s a good
prediction. I like that.”
“I want you to know that I meant what I said. About the universe giving
you bad karma. If it turns out that’s a thing, we’ll deal with it together. I’m
not keeping score. It was never about scores.”
“That’s very generous.”
“It’s very realistic.” June gathered up Arabella’s hair and moved it over
her shoulder. She set her hand against Arabella’s chin, brushing her thumb
over her leaping pulse point. “I was never a scorekeeper anyway. Actually, I
hate sports. You know what I don’t hate? This. Us. Even if it is a little crazy,
even if it is kind of work inappropriate, even if my best friend still has some
doubts about you not being a turdbag. She’ll come around. I’m super
excited for my family to meet you. I’m super excited for everyone to know
that we’re awesome together and we’re only going to get more awesome.
I’m really excited because you bring out the best in me and I want to do that
for you.”
“You already have!”
“Then I want to keep doing it. I want to keep helping you be creative. I
want you to keep succeeding. I want to keep learning about who you are
and all the things you love. I don’t care who you were before. If I did, it
would just be to marvel at how far you’ve walked down a road that wasn’t
easy. I was walking my own road, but now those roads are going to be
going parallel, I hope.”
“You don’t have to hope. You can know. The things in my life didn’t
change me. I wanted to change myself. Even before my dad and all of that,
in college, and after, I tried to be different. Truly me. I guess like everyone
else, I seriously needed to figure out who that was and who I wanted it to
be.”
“I know.” June’s smile was potent like sunshine. The rays of it were truly
lifegiving. “I don’t want to scare you or anything, but over the past few
weeks, I keep having this thought. About you being such a good fit. No,
that sounds horrible. I mean, it feels like you’re my one. I should have just
said that, but then I panicked and thought that maybe it was way too soon
and so I—”
“That’s funny,” Arabella whispered, leaning into June. “Because I keep
having the same thought.”
“Do you?”
“I do.”
“Does it scare you?”
“It’s terrifying.”
June’s throat worked hard. “Okay, good. Because I feel the same way.
About the terror. And the wonder. And the goodness. And the rightness.”
“That sounds like the perfect ad for a new shoe line. Something a little bit
edgy, but also awesome.”
June laughed. “This might be the one time I don’t want to talk about
shoes.”
“Oh really?” Arabella purposely pushed her eyebrows up as she cast her
a dubious glance. “I am shocked.”
June leaned in and kissed Arabella. The same wonderful warmth and the
incredible adrenaline surged through her, and she melted against June at the
pleasure of it. It was crazy how something so small and simple as a kiss
could be so earth-shattering. Every. Single. Time. Arabella wrapped her
hands around June’s shoulders and pulled her closer, deepening the kiss.
“I think we should go to the bedroom,” Arabella whispered huskily after
pulling away. “To discuss that new shoe line.”
June giggled. She pinched Arabella playfully on the bottom and Arabella
squealed with surprise. “That’s what I think about that idea.”
“You could have just said so!”
“You had me at bedroom. If you leave off the shoe part, it would be just
right.”
“Okay. We can talk shoes later.”
“Agreed. As much as you want. Later.”
Arabella grinned against June’s lips as she went in for another kiss.
“Alright, I agree. There are some things more important than shoes, though
I never thought I’d hear the queen of shoes say it.”
“She’s saying it.”
“But later, we’ll discuss it.”
“Later. Much, much later. Seriously later.”
Epilogue
June
“You know which shoes are my favorites, of all the ones that our
/>
company has ever made?”
Arabella grimaced as she sank into one of the office chairs in the meeting
room. One of the many that had been dragged into the company’s largest
room for the baby shower that was being thrown for Arabella and June.
June didn’t miss that look of discomfort that crossed her wife’s face. She
gave her a sympathetic look, but Arabella smiled quickly to reassure her
that she was okay.
Arabella was as stubborn as June had been when she was pregnant with
the twins. She’d refused to stop working until right near the end of the
pregnancy. Anyone might think that their relationship was a little strange,
but it didn’t matter to them. They knew they wanted a big family and that
they would both like to have the experience of being pregnant. It never felt
weird for them while they were making that decision, going through in-
Vitro, or while they both took maternity leave. June took the full year, while
Arabella took six months.
When the twins, who were a crazy handful at the best of times, but a
handful of love aside from all their wild shenanigans, were just over a year
and a half old, Arabella went through in-Vitro since they didn’t want the
kids to be so far apart in age.
“Let me guess?” Beth asked, coming up with a piece of cake on a plate
and handing it to June. “It’s whatever pair is going to be gracing those little
feet.”
June took the cake and laughed. “That’s exactly right.”
It turned out that even though they waited over a year to put their line of
kid’s shoes into production after the whole design selling fiasco, it was
worth the wait. They were able to come up with even better, more unique
designs and better able to put together the best technology they could into
making shoes that would fit newborns all the way up to adult sizes. They
were a huge hit, and now their children’s line of animal and insect-themed
shoes were the company’s new best seller.
June watched Arabella check her phone, just to be sure that the baby
shower, which was being held at the end of the day, wasn’t running late.
She didn’t want to be late to pick up the twins from daycare. Again. She’d
already been late quite a few times that month, but thankfully, Annie gave
her a break since she knew that being pregnant with a second set of twins,
working, and parenting a set of two-year-old toddler boys was tough work.
“We’re good for time?” June handed the slice over to Arabella, who
looked thrilled at the rich chocolate icing and dark chocolate cake. She’d
had the worst chocolate cravings throughout her pregnancy.
“We are.” She bit down on a forkful of cake and closed her eyes in rapt
delight. “Oh wow. This is good. Seriously. Good. This might be the best
thing that anyone has ever handed to me.”
Everyone in the huge room, which was jam-packed with just about every
employee from the company, laughed in agreement. There were multiple
cakes, since there were so many of them, but Beth had known all about
Arabella’s chocolate weakness and had cut the perfect piece for her first.
Unlike June, Arabella hadn’t had a rough pregnancy. June might have
gotten pregnant the first time they did the procedure, like Arabella had, but
she was so sick throughout the entire time. She never got a break. She
wasn’t the first woman to barely gain any weight, even when carrying
twins, but it had been a rough ride. It was hard going to work every single
day when you were so, so sick. She’d had to keep a garbage can under her
desk just in case she couldn’t make it to the bathroom in time. She hated to
think back on how many times she’d had to use it.
She was glad Arabella had only gone through a little nausea during her
first trimester. Unlike the first time, they had wild twin boys to look after,
and it would have been doubly hard if Arabella couldn’t get out of bed most
days or scrape herself off the couch like June.
She knew how horrible it had been for Arabella during that time. How
much she’d worried about the babies and about her. Not that June didn’t
worry. She did. God, some days all she did was worry, but she knew they’d
get through it.
Everything would be fine.
And very soon they’d go from having two beautiful, extra-boisterous,
keep you on your toes constantly little boys to four little boys. Yes. Four.
They’d kind of hoped that there would be at least one girl, but they were
still thrilled when they went for their ultrasound and found out that both of
these babies were boys as well.
Their families might think they were crazy, having four boys under the
age of two and a half, and they very well might be, but who didn’t have kids
and wonder at their sanity sometimes? Both sets of their grandparents
absolutely adored the twins.
Arabella’s parents were incredibly helpful. They’d sold the old house
where they were living after Arabella moved in with June, and they’d
bought a tiny condo in a good neighborhood. Arabella made sure their
health insurance was paid for, but they hadn’t had to use it. Her dad’s health
had really improved, especially after the twins were born. He liked to joke
that his grandsons were like a special batch of medicine, and he was
probably right, except it was likely love that was the best medicine of all.
“Oh, you guys!” Arabella exclaimed when a tide of gifts started to flow
magically into the room. “We said not to get us anything. We already have a
houseful from Luke and Liam.”
“That’s nonsense,” Beth protested as she directed the flow of boxes onto
the table. “Boys are hard on their clothes. So hard that I’m sure only our
company’s shoes survived because they’re built super tough and strong.”
“Strong enough to last from generation to generation and then some,”
Arabella quoted directly from their marketing campaign.
“You bet!” Beth kept waving her arms like she was piloting a plane down
a runway, and those boxes kept appearing.
June had to blink back tears when she noticed Arabella was smiling but
doing the same. They were loved. They were so loved. Their co-workers
weren’t just co-workers. They were friends. They were fellow parents and
grandparents, and everyone had cheered them on when they found out they
were dating, then when they got married, then when they announced they
were pregnant the first time. And the second.
“I can’t wait for the company picnic this year,” Beth said. “Shannon is so
excited to talk to you guys about Amelia’s school.”
“It’s coming up,” Arabella agreed. “Just two weeks away.” She stroked
her huge baby bump lovingly. “I hope I make it.”
“Those babies will hang on a little longer. They wouldn’t want you to
miss the best part of the year.”
Shannon had mentioned to them at the last picnic how well Amelia was
doing at her school. It was hard to believe that in the fall, Sky would
already be starting kindergarten there herself. June and Arabella thought it
was a great idea to send the twins there. Eve
n if it was years down the road,
they both knew that they’d go by very, very quickly.
June had to wipe at her eyes before the moisture overflowed and leaked
down her face. She couldn’t believe the boys were already nearly two and a
half years old. It literally seemed like yesterday that they were in the
hospital with them, scared and so incredibly excited to take them home.
Both her parents and Arabella’s parents were always saying that whole
“blink and you’ll miss it” thing, but they were right.
The next year would be a hard one, with two newborns and two toddlers.
It would be busy and filled with a lack of sleep. Only Arabella was taking
maternity leave this time, and they were hiring a nanny to help out. The
company was going full steam and June didn’t feel like she could take
another year off, which made her more than a little bit sad in some ways,
but Arabella encouraged her and supported her fully.
They worked together, and that was one of the best parts of their
relationship. Arabella knew exactly what was going on with the company at
all times, and she’d also agreed that June really couldn’t take another year
or even six months off. When June suggested a nanny, Arabella had been all
for it. They’d interviewed a few people from a few different agencies. Their
nanny, who was sixty-two with a ton of her own grandchildren, was the
nicest woman in the world. They were very lucky to have found her.
Even though June couldn’t take time off, she vowed that all the minutes
she spent at home would be minutes she made the absolute most of.
It wasn’t long before the cake was finished, and everyone crowded into
the meeting room started to root for the mound of presents to be opened.
June sat down beside Arabella and took her hand.
They still didn’t really do the whole PDA thing at work, but this was
technically just after work hours, and this was their baby shower. She
brought Arabella’s hand to her lips and kissed the back of her palm and the
room erupted in cheers.
Arabella went scarlet, and while the cheering and clapping was still
going strong, June leaned over and whispered in her ear. “Thank you for
making me a one plus one. You’re the best wife in the entire world. You
made me a mother and you’ve made us a family. I promise you I’m going to