Page 7 of Belle Amour

He let out another sigh and ran his hand over his face. “I went in to wake her up and get her out, and she had vomited all over herself, the carpet and my fucking bed.” Bastian made a disgusted face and shuddered. “That's why I'm not ready to go, I got her into the shower and was cleaning up. I'm sorry, Bunny, I am packed. We just need to drop her off at her place, and we can go.”

Mirabelle felt a moment of pity for him, then reminded herself that he brought it all on himself and got angry again. “But why did you have to look after her at all, Bast? Why didn't you call her father to come to get her?”

He blinked and looked guilty again. “I was going to, but she begged me not to. She was sobbing really loudly and attracting all kinds of attention, going on about how he would be disappointed in her for getting drunk and how no one understood how hard she had it. It was embarrassing, and I just wanted to get out of there.”

“Jesus Christ, Bast!” Mirabelle was done. She didn’t know what happened to him, but this was not the Bastian she knew and loved. Her Bastian would never tolerate this bullshit. “You knew we were leaving at ten. You know how fucking done I am!” Angry tears filled her eyes, and she impatiently wiped her eyes, frustrated that all her emotions were attached to her tear ducts. “Why are you constantly putting her feelings and needs ahead of mine? Or yours, for that matter?” She jammed the call button for the elevator, the doors opened, and she got on, hitting the button for the lobby.

“Bunny, I'm sorry!” Bastian put his hand out and stopped the doors from closing. “Just come back. I’ll get her out, and we'll go.”

“I don't want to go anymore.” She sniffed and wiped her cheeks again. “I want to be alone.”

Bastian looked like he was absolutely devastated that he had hurt her this much and started to step toward her when they heard a door open, and Kelly's nasally, whiny voice reached them.

“Bast?” Bastian looked down the hall and then at Mirabelle pleadingly.

“Mira, please.” He reached for her hand, but she pulled away from him.

“Go on, she needs your help.” She folded her arms again and looked away from him. He groaned softly as Kelly called out to him again, and his shoulders slumped as he realized she was going to leave, and he couldn’t leave Kelly alone in his place.

“I'll come to see you later.” He promised, reaching out and wiping tears away with his knuckles.

“I wouldn't bother,” Mirabelle muttered, pushing his hand away from her. She wasn’t going to be home or at the cabin, but he didn’t need to know that.

“Mira, we need to talk.” He pleaded with her, a desperate edge to his voice. “You can't just resign and make all these decisions without discussing things with me.”

“Pretty sure I can.” She shrugged, somehow managing to get her emotions back under control.

“Bast?” Kelly called again, sounding impatient. “What are you doing?”

“Go on.” Mira encouraged him, unable to keep the snarky tone out of her voice. “She's calling you.”

“This isn't fair, Mira.” She could see the hint of anger in his eyes and wondered where he got the audacity. He brought this all on himself. “You know if I had another choice-”

“You had lots of choices, Bast!” She snapped; she was over his excuses and just wanted to leave. “And in every single one of them, you have put me last and made me put my head down and be the bigger person! I'm done.” She pushed his hand off the door, and she watched as fear replaced anger in his eyes as the door slid shut and felt a small measure of satisfaction. If he thought things were bad now, he had no idea how bad things were gonna get.

Bastian

“Fuck!” Bastian swore loudly and spun around, heading back to his condo. He never should have agreed to the damn drink in the first place, and he definitely shouldn’t have gone without Mirabelle. He was done trying to make the transition of his and Mirabelle's leaving smooth for John. He never should have agreed to stick around after John told him he was bringing Kelly in as a third lawyer in the first place, but John’s pleading that he needed Kelly and Kade to move out so his wife wouldn’t leave him, which meant Kelly needed a job to support herself and the boy had played on his heartstrings. When he reached the door, he glared at Kelly, who stepped back into the kitchen, looking a little nervous about his obvious anger. “Call a fucking taxi and get out of here.” He snapped as he walked in, determined to catch up to Mirabelle before she got too far ahead of him, assuming she was going to the cabin.

“But I'm still sick!” Kelly protested, making Bastian close his eyes briefly. God, she had such a grating, whiny voice. He felt a headache build up in his left temple and pressed his fingers on it.

“I don't care. Get out.” He walked into his bedroom and gagged as the smell of alcoholic vomit hit him. Mirabelle was right; he should have just called her father. He was a sucker for a woman’s tears, though. He hated to see them cry and hated it even more when they were crying because of him. The fact that Mirabelle left here in tears because of him was killing him, and he just wanted to go beg for her forgiveness and take her away to the cabin for the next month. He quickly changed into a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, grabbed the bags of Kelly’s vomit-soaked clothes, brought them back out to the kitchen and tossed them at her feet. “Go. I have somewhere to be.”

Ignoring the hurt look she was sending him, Bastian grabbed the envelope Mira had left and opened it. Pulling the resignation letter out quickly to see what she was putting down as the reason.

“Resigning due to continued disrespect from other members of the practice and the failure of my immediate supervisor to put a stop to it.”

Bastian groaned. He couldn’t even argue with Mirabelle’s reasoning; to her, it probably did look like he had failed to try to stop it, but the fact was he had gone to John numerous times and reported Kelly’s behaviour as well as warned him that everyone was unhappy. John had either waved him off or attempted to talk to Kelly, which would result in her crying and getting her own way. He glanced down at the letter again and noticed the date with a jolt of surprise. She had written it three weeks earlier, and he had to search his memory for what happened.

When it came to him, he dropped his head into his hands and let out a loud groan. He walked in on Kelly berating Mirabelle for a mistake in a legal document in front of the receptionist, interns and other support staff. Mirabelle was letting her go off, scrolling on her tablet calmly. WhenKelly paused for breath, Mirabelle stood up and firmly informed her that she was not her assistant and that, according to the electronic signature, Kelly had typed up the document herself. The rest of the staff had giggled, but instead of admitting her mistake and apologizing, Kelly lost it and started to yell at Mirabelle that she was lucky she wasn’t her personal assistant because she would have fired her for her insolence ages ago.

Not wanting things to escalate with Kelly going to John to complain about Mirabelle, Bastian had stepped in and asked Mirabelle to apologize to Kelly for her tone but didn't have a chance to say anything to Kelly about her yelling at Mirabelle for her mistake, because Mirabelle had stared at him and said very clearly. “No.” before walking away. He had followed her to their office, and she shut the door behind him, looking furious. Before he could explain, she told him she would quit and stop speaking to him if he ever treated her that way again. Realizing he had made a mistake by addressing Mirabelle first, Bastian had apologized and begged her to please keep the peace, promising he would make it up to her, but he needed to maintain a professional appearance and atmosphere while he navigated leaving. She reluctantly agreed but reiterated that being treated that way again would result in her resignation.

He heard the sound of one of his stools scraping the floor as it was pulled back from the island. He looked up to see Kelly making herself comfortable while she watched him. Unable to believe her stupidity, he glared at her. “Get out before I call the cops and have you arrested for trespassing.”

“I'm here at your invitation.” Her voice was sickly sweet, and she put her chin in her hand as she gave him what she clearly thought was a winning smile. How she thought he would want anything to do with her after the scene she caused lastnight, vomiting all over his bedroom and the way she messed up his vacation, he had no idea.

“Which has been rescinded. Leave.” He growled as he returned his attention to the letter, folding it up and attempting to push it back into the envelope. It seemed to be catching on something, and when he looked in, he saw another piece of paper and pulled it out. He frowned as he tried to figure out why she had written him a check. Then he read the memo line and saw it was payment for his services as her divorce lawyer; he ripped it up and began to swear loudly. Kelly finally seemed to figure out she was being an idiot, so she grabbed her things and headed out of the condo without saying another word. When he heard the door close, he grabbed his phone and sent Mirabelle a text, begging for a chance to talk to her and promising to explain everything. He stared in disbelief when it came back undelivered and called the number, only to have a voice tell him the user was busy and hang up. She had blocked him. Anger mixed with fear welled up inside of him. She should know he never meant to hurt her and that there was a reason for how he was handling things.

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