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some level of friends, June would still believe her if she thought she was

being sincere.

“Yes. I kept thinking about the kids. How can the world be a better place

if the next generation has to keep doing what we did, and our parents did,

and our grandparents did? How can anyone be better? The world seriously

needs a lot of better right now. Like your company. It does a lot of good. If

Beth had just stolen my designs and sold them because she wanted some

fast cash and put the blame on me because she was an asshole, you better

believe I would have stood up for myself.”

“So it wasn’t that you were scared to talk to me? That you didn’t trust me

to work things out with you and be fair to Beth?”

Arabella held her breath until her lungs ached, then she slowly released

it. June’s eyes were so pretty and dark that she just basked in them, losing

herself in their softness for as long as she could.

“If there’s anyone I trust, it would be you,” she said softly.

“Beth stuck you in a hard spot. I’m not mad. It isn’t fair for me to tell you

that you did something wrong.”

“You’re not mad at me anymore?”

June’s face was soft and a little sad. “No. I was disappointed in your

office, but I needed time to think. I shouldn’t have been. That wasn’t right. I

know how new we are and that means that we don’t have that deeper level

of intrinsic trust, but I hope we can get there.”

Arabella found she was fighting back tears again. She reached across the

table, past her plate, past June’s plate, and grasped her hand. June’s fingers

clasped back. It felt so astoundingly freeing to be able to do this. To still be

able to reach for June’s hand and have her squeeze back. To have her here.

To have that piece of her soul and offer hers in response. Arabella had

thought that, along with losing her job, she was going to lose June.

That had stung far worse than any of her worries about how she was

going to come up with money for the thousand things she needed it for, how