Falling For My Boss

Chapter 30

~~Y/N'sPOV~~
"Hailee? Where are you?" Flo shouts into the dark house.
"Florence?" Hailee's voice is small, coming from her bedroom. "Is that you?"
"Go get her back," Flo says softly and shoves me toward the bedroom. "It is! But I'm staying out here," she tells Hailee.
"Hails?" My voice is barely above a whisper. The bedside lamp flicks on, and there she is, my beautiful Hailee. Sitting in the middle of her bed, looking broken. God, I just want to hold her. I walk a little closer to the bed, but I don't dare sit down.
"Y/n? What are you doing here?" she asks warily.
"I came home to see you." I feel my voice getting thick and fight it. "To tell you what really happened."
"Why did you bring Flo?" She sounds scared.
"To be honest, I wasn't really functioning all that well after you called me," I try to smile softly. "She got me on the plane and here in one piece," I admit.
"Well?" She shifts herself to lean against the headboard, drawing herself up as tall as she can while sitting. "Tell me." And I do. I tell her exactly what happened, and she listens. When I've finished, she looks even more broken, if that's possible.
"I'm so sorry, baby." She bursts into tears, and I run to comfort her. "I should have listened to you!" She clings to me desperately, and I hold her as tight as I possibly can.
"It's okay, I can't say I wouldn't have reacted the same way," I admit. I kiss the crown of her head. "It's okay."
"Can you forgive me?" she looks at me hopefully, and I look back sincerely.
"Can you forgive me? I was pushing you before I left, and then I wasn't really communicating while I was gone." I know I'm not entirely blameless, and I want to make sure she knows it isn't her fault. She reacted like anyone else would. She smiles.
"So we're okay?"
"I think we're better than ok," I whisper and run my fingers through her hair. "We're stronger now."
"I think I need to apologize to Flo," Hailee grimaces.
"Yeah, she might be a bit mad at you," I warn her.
"Great," she groans, and then she shouts, "Get in here, Florence!" Flo walks into the bedroom with a shit eating grin on her face.
"So, you've come to your senses, then?" She asks Hailee.
"I'm so sorry. That was really fucked of me. You're a great friend." Hailee's grin turns to a smirk, and Flo joins us in the bed for a group hug. "And, I think you guys were right, I need to make a statement," Hailee adds, and pulls her phone out. She goes to twitter and types out a little announcement. Then she calls her publicist to tell them to spread the message across her platforms.
"What's happening?" I ask her when she jumps out of the bed.
"I need to get ready! I'm going live tonight." Hailee reaches a hand out to me and pulls me up to stand next to her. "But first," she wraps her arms around me and pins me flush against her body. She dips me super low and plants a big kiss on my lips. Flo whoops at that, but when Hailee keeps kissing me, and I open my mouth, Flo groans.
"Really? You couldn't have done this before calling me in here?" I hear the door shut, punctuating her question. Hailee just stands us back upright and keeps kissing me. I'm not sure how long we stay there, but by the time we finally break apart, my lips feel swollen.
"I love you, you know that?" Hailee says, her voice thick with emotion.
"I love you too. Now go get ready," I direct. She spins away from me and I swat at her ass as she walks toward her bathroom.
"Y/N!" She spins back to look at me, a faux-shocked look on her face.
"What? I like your butt!" I defend myself, and she laughs before shutting the door and turning on the faucet. I call Taylor the second I'm in the kitchen with Flo. He insists on coming over as soon as we're done with the live, and I can't say no to that.
Flo and I have been working on set dressing the living room for the live for a little while when I hear a loud thud in the other room. "Hail? You okay?" I call, and there's no response. I project a little more. "Hailee, baby! Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm good!" She appears in the hallway and runs out to the center of the living room, twirling around. "How do I look? Like I'm in love with a gorgeous woman who's perfect for me?" She's being a little extra nice, but I won't tell her she doesn't have to. She's in a black t-shirt and some comfy looking jeans, and her makeup is subtle, but flawless.
"You're beautiful," I tell her, and see her cheeks turn pink before she turns to Flo.
"Is she right, or is she just in love with me?"
"She's right." Flo rolls her eyes. "How about I help you figure out what you want to say?"
"I don't want to sound like I rehearsed anything though," Hailee looks at me, "I just want to show people what I see when I look at you."
"Well I'll film it so I can help you stay on topic," Flo offers. That's when I realize Flo is expecting me to be in frame with Hailee. The idea of seeing live comments makes my blood run cold with fear.
"Okay it's almost time. What exactly is the plan?" I ask both of them.
"I'm gonna sit here, you stay off camera until I tell you. Flo will record from there, and I'll tell the general public to back the fuck off of you. Nicely," Hailee explains, plopping onto the couch. Martini jumps up with her, and she scoops her up. When the live starts, there's a minute or two of Flo and Hailee making sure everything is working, then Hailee gets serious. "Okay, here we go. As I'm sure many of you already know, an article came out recently with photos, accusing my girlfriend of cheating on me with Florence Pugh. When I saw it, I hadn't spoken to either of them in a few days, and I'll admit, it shook me. Ever since I went public with Y/n and I's relationship, she's been relentlessly harassed. For months, she's been running herself ragged, trying to be her wonderful self without letting the constant messages and comments and everything else get to her. A few weeks ago, she decided to take some time off and visit our mutual close friend who had asked her to help her with a personal project. It felt like perfect timing. And that's all it was. They spent the trip working and sightseeing. Having fun. Those photos were taken out of context, and the people that released them to the press should be ashamed of themselves." She pauses for a second, noticing a slew of live comments on the screen she has set up on the coffee table. "It isn't necessary for me to elaborate. Nothing happened between them. Now that I've addressed that, I'd like to circle back to the harrassment I mentioned. Y/n? Come here, baby." I reluctantly join her on the couch, scooching Brando over as he jumped up at some point during Hailee's speech. Hailee sets Martini on her other side before grabbing my hands and pulling them onto her lap then kissing my cheek. I feel my nervousness melt a little bit. "I'm no longer tolerating any form of harassment toward y/n. I thought if we both ignored it, it would stop. That was a mistake, and I am rectifying it now. If I or anyone on my team sees someone hurtfully commenting about or messaging her on either of our accounts, you'll be promptly blocked and reported. You've been blatantly harassing her, and I'm done watching her hurt. This woman is everything to me." Hailee turns to look at me, and I feel my stomach swoop at the fire in her eyes in my defense. My eyes start to well up at the emotions flooding through me.
"I love you," I mouth so the camera doesn't pick it up. She kisses my nose in response.
"Do you wanna say anything?" She asks me, and I find myself nodding. I clear my throat, trying not to cry before I start.
"I just want everyone to know that I'm not going anywhere. I'm with Hailee because she's the most supportive, kind, generous, and wonderful person I've ever met." My voice breaks, and she squeezes my hands. "Not because of her status, or her money. I'm with her because I love her. And any amount of protest will not change that." I look at Hailee again and I have to bite the inside of my lip to keep from crying. "I love you," I repeat. Hailee reaches up and pulls my face to kiss her, and Flo cheers from behind the camera.
"I love you too." Hailee says after she lets my face go, and then looks back at the screen showing the comments. "Oh, Flo, I guess you should say hi to the fans. They're wondering who cheered" Florence turns the camera around and waves before turning back to us. There are so many heart reactions and comments asking questions about us that I can't make sense of any of it. Hailee does though, and she tells the people watching that we'll do another live together soon and answer questions, but for now, we're going to sign off. Twenty minutes later when Taylor shows up, we get pizza and have a great night, just the four of us.