Chapter Eleven
"Not fucking jealous!"

Arabella had a splitting headache, and Michael's constant pen tapping was slowly driving her insane.

"Do you have to keep doing that?" She eventually snapped, looking up at him through her reading glasses.

Michael paused for a moment, meeting her stare with clueless eyes. "Doing what?"

"Tapping your pen," she replied exasperatedly, fingers pinching the bridge of her nose. "I'm trying to finish these sums and all I can bloody hear is that."

"Sorry," Michael mumbled, though his tone suggested otherwise. Arabella released a sigh, turning her attention back to the papers in front of her. He shifted his gaze back up, watching her silently for a short while, still coming to terms with actually having her back in the office after being apart for so long.

A few minutes of silence passed, until Arabella suddenly slammed her pen down, startling Michael from his thoughts. "Michael, are you sure you've done these papers right?" She asked, looking up at him once more.

Michael's eyebrows drew together in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"None of this is adding up," she replied, holding up the papers in front of her. "Look," she pointed to one of the sums with her pen, tapping it against the paper. "This isn't right."

"Well, maybe you're not doing the sums correctly," Michael countered with a shrug, glancing back down at his own work.

Arabella inhaled sharply, her jaw clenching at his words. "Pretty sure I'm not the one that's been distracted this past week."

Michael lifted his head again, eyes narrowing at her. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing," Arabella muttered, shaking her head as she tried to focus her attention back on her work again.

Michael exhaled heavily to make his irritation clear, whilst Arabella gripped tightly onto her pen, desperately trying not to snap at him again. It was no secret that Michael had been getting on Arabella's nerves the past week, leaving her to finish up a lot of the work so he could meet his posh London girlfriend, Charlotte, or spending most of the day distracted on the phone to her, making mistakes on his work that Arabella had to clean up.

So when Michael picked up the phone for the fifth time that day, she'd had enough. "I swear to God, Michael–"

"What?" He snapped, slamming the phone back onto the receiver. "Am I being too loud for you again?"

"Just do some bloody work for once!" She shouted, Michael unable to retort anything back as the door flung open, Tommy Shelby stepping inside the overwhelmingly tense room.

"Everything alright?"

"Fine," Arabella and Michael both snapped in unison, burying their heads back in their work.

"Arabella," Tommy nodded his head in the direction of the door. "A word?"

The chair legs scraped loudly against the floor as she pushed her seat back. She moved out from behind her desk, giving Michael a cold glare as she passed him. His eyes followed her and Tommy out the room, until the door was closed shut behind them.

Arabella stepped into the corridor, pressing her back against the wall as she looked at Tommy with a scowl. "Things been tense in the office?" He asked her, lighting up a cigarette.

"How'd you guess?" She responded sarcastically. Tommy studied her firm expression for a few moments, hiding his growing amusement about Arabella and Michael's bickering. It hadn't affected their work, as of yet – mostly he assumed because Arabella was always very thorough in getting things finished – so Tommy decided to let it play out for a while rather than reprimanding them.

"Got some more work for you," he said, flicking some ash from his cigarette on the ground.

"In case you haven't noticed, I'm rather fucking busy, Tom," Arabella responded, unable to keep the bitter tone from her voice. Tommy picked up on it, of course, and found it increasingly difficult to bite back a smile. "Don't look at me like that."

"Like what?" He asked, smirk ghosting over his lips.

"I have seriously had it with you Shelby men," she responded, crossing her arms over her chest. Arabella turned away from him for a moment, allowing her frustration to simmer down.

"When's Nick getting here?" Tommy asked, tactically changing topic.

"In a few days," she responded, features softening a little by the mention of her new man. Arabella and Nick had met during business in America, him coming from a long line of wealthy businessmen and trusted Shelby company associates. The two of them found common ground fast, their immense attraction to each other lending hand to their budding relationship. When Arabella had to leave to go back to Birmingham, Nick had promised to follow her, finding a way to do his work in England for a while and spend time with the girl he was falling in love with.

"Have you told Michael?" Tommy asked, the question irking Arabella for some reason. In fact, the simple mention of Michael was now getting on Arabella's nerves.

Tommy watched her expression change in amusement, taking another drag of his cigarette. "Michael is too busy fucking Charlotte Murray to give a single shit about anything, let alone my love life," she snapped back in response.

"Careful, Bells," Tommy began, slowly blowing out an air of smoke. "You're starting to sound jealous."

Arabella's mouth opened in disbelief, the single insinuation snatching any sort of retort from her tongue. "I–" she stuttered out, Tommy's inability to hide the smile forming on his lips irritating her even further. "For your information," she pointed a finger at him, quickly collecting herself. "I don't care who Michael romances, I care about this business and getting the work done together. In fact, I think you should start paying me more."

"Oh really?" Tommy raised his eyebrows.

"Yeah, I do," she decided firmly. "If I wasn't here, absolutely nothing would get done. So yeah, Tommy, yeah."

"I'll have a think about it," Tommy replied, stubbing out his cigarette. "In the meantime, keep working hard. Might even give you the day off to see Nick."

Arabella's lips tugged. "And that is why you're the best boss in the world."

Tommy titled his head to the side in consideration before turning to head down the corridor. "We'll see. All right, get back to work."

"Yes, sir," Arabella responded.

"And Arabella," Tommy glanced back at her, loving nothing more than to push the young girl's buttons. "Ease up on Michael. He's young and in love. You know what it's like."

Arabella sent a glare his way, Tommy taking great satisfaction from winding her up. "Fuck off, Tommy."

John, who was heading in the direction of Arabella, couldn't help but chuckle as he moved past his brother, also taking enjoyment from seeing Arabella so annoyed, him usually being the one her sharp glares were directed at.

"Careful," Tommy told her tauntingly. "You don't want to sound jealous."

Arabella scoffed in disbelief as Tommy turned away, satisfied grin playing on his lips as he began to head down the corridor. "Not fucking jealous!" Arabella called after him.

"Sounds jealous to me," John commented as he moved past her, earning a slap on the back of his head.

"Fuck you."

"Think you should be telling that to M–," John quipped back in response, mischievous grin on his face, even as Arabella smacked a hand over his mouth to shut him up, moving on to whacking his arm a few times whilst John still relentlessly continued to try and tease her.

"Bloody hell, it's like looking after kids again," Polly muttered in disapproval as she stopped a short distance away from them both.

Arabella and John both straightened up, sending weak smiles in her direction. "Sorry, Pol," they both apologised in unison. John nudged her shoulder lightly, and Arabella dug her elbow into his side in response.

"Get back to work," Polly ordered them.

Arabella and John finally separated, the girl sending him the harshest glare she could muster before slipping back into her office, only to find Michael sat on the phone with a stupid smile on his face and his his feet up on the desk.

Arabella suppressed a groan, leaning her head against the door. "God give me fucking strength."

A/N

This was just a whole chapter of Tommy and John winding up Arabella, really.

Is she jealous? 🤷🏻‍♀️

The first two episodes of season 5 already have me hooked, I need it to be Sunday already 😭