Page 88 of Spicy Sapphic Christmas

This didn’t make sense.

Bea tried to take a step and stumbled. Bunny caught her by the waist and tucked Bea into her side, holding her steady. Somewhere behind her Bea was faintly aware of her door being closed with a soft snick and Bunny’s footsteps helping her inside.

Heavily, Bea sat down on the lumpy middle cushion of her couch and tried to focus on the actual words that hadn’t made sense the first time she’d read them. Still she struggled to make out the words and processing them was hard.

Jo and Piper engaged!

Romantic proposal at Eastbank.

Happy couple had a few small witnesses, including manager Siena.

Photos of the happy couple…

“What the fuck is this?” Bea muttered as she read the article again before scrolling down to the photos.

“So you didn’t know?” Bunny asked, hands on hips as she looked down at Bea. But the angry tone from before had tempered dramatically, and the sharp contrast threw Bea for a loop. She couldn’t handle these swings of emotions.

“No.” Anger boiled in the pit of Bea’s stomach, but her heart ached and her mind raced just as strongly. Why wouldn’t Jo tell her? Why wouldn’t Jo even mention that she and Piper were in a relationship before now? She’d seen them getting closer, had hoped that maybe something might grow between them, but to be left out of the narrative completely? That just flat out hurt.

It ripped Bea’s heart apart.

“This is ridiculous. You know, I caught them swapping spit once, but I didn’t think that Piper would take it this far. And your sister’s turning this whole thing into a God damn circus. I never should have agreed to this event. It’s going to ruin everything I’ve built.”

“Excuse me?” Bea stood, slapping the phone into Bunny’s chest, forcing her to step back a little.

“Piper wouldn’t dothis.” Bunny planted the phone into Bea’s face again to show off the press release.

“The photos tell otherwise.” Bea forced the words out as calmly as she could. “She’s the one who proposed.”

“Photos can be manipulated.”

“Right, of course.” Bea scoffed. “It’s all everyone else’s fault, isn’t it?” Each word was harder to hold back.

“First Mandy, and now this,” Bunny ranted as if she hadn’t even heard Bea’s scathing remark.

“Stop.” Bea snapped so forcefully that Bunny jerked her head as though physically injured.

She was so tired. The exhaustion of the last few weeks—the emotional and the physical—she didn’t have it in her to have another screaming match. This just needed to end before it got worse.

“You can’t tell me you’re happy about this.” Bunny looked at her, face angled as though trying to work out what was going on.

“I’m hurt by it, yes,” Bea said, “But why wouldn’t I be happy about it? Would I have liked Jo to tell me herself? Absolutely. But if they’re happy, then I’m going to be happy for them.”

“Was this the whole point?”

“Waswhatthe whole point?” Bea threw up her hands and let her head fall back as she stared up at the stained and cracked ceiling of her living room. “Stop talking around whatever you think’s going on.”

“The angle. Is this the angle you and Jo had from the start?”

Bea’s jaw dropped. “Are you serious right now?”

“Come on. This can’t just be some kind of coincidence.”

“Get out.” Bea stepped forward, into Bunny’s space.

“I’ve worked too damn hard to let your sister ruin everything. And for something as stupid as an engagement, which you know won’t last.”

“And why not?” Bea snapped out. “Why won’t it last? Because you say so?”

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