The meeting came to an abrupt halt and June’s attention was shifted
abruptly as well, back to where it should have been all along. Her eyes
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