Page 64 of Semantics

“What are the odds of that happening, Jen?”

“I don’t know. Maybe check her profile and see if you are even remotely attracted to her physically. If not, we can all still hang.”

“Jen, I appreciate you trying to help, but I really don’t need it. I can find my own dates.”

“And I’m sure Violet can find her own VCs,” Jen suggested. “So, if you’re asking me to lay off, you might want to consider doing the same.”

Stella thought about Jen’s comment, and it had kept her from sending the emails for a few hours, but before she left the office and went home, she couldn’t stop herself. Typing them up quickly but still trying to give enough details, she hit send on two of the emails and left off the other contact who would likely only want the tech anyway. If they come back and say they weren’t interested, Violet wouldn’t even have to know about it, but if they were, maybe she’d actually get the help she needed to keep her business running for a while.

Stella knew being an entrepreneur wasn’t that easy. Her own father had tried to start his own business on four separate occasions, getting the family into financial trouble every time one failed. Eventually, the banks had stopped loaning him money, and their family and friends wouldn’t give him a dime, either, knowing they wouldn’t get anything back. Her dad had meant well. He just hadn’t exactly been the most business-savvy kind of guy. He worked for the post office now, and while it wasn’t a glamorous job, it was a steady income, and he’d been able to pay people back over the years.

That had also meant that any money Stella had hoped might be there for her to go to college disappeared long before she’d gotten accepted to three universities; one of them being a very expensive Ivy that she’d had to forget all about because she couldn’t get a scholarship big enough to cover everything, and the bank, believe it or not, had said that her parents had somehow made too much money for her to get any significant assistance by the time she’d been applying for loans. Stella knew what it was like to ask for help, and while it wasn’t usually pleasant, it was sometimes necessary, and if she could do something to help Violet Russell now that she could, she wanted to.

CHAPTER 19

Violet and Arlowe wrapped their initial meeting with Monique at Cerebral, and Violet thought that it had gone well while Arlowe appeared to be over the moon about the whole experience.

“She’s ridiculously smart,” Arlowe said in the kitchen post-meeting.

“Who? Me?” Enya asked when she walked in from the bathroom down the hall.

“You too, but no. Monique.”

“With Cerebral?” Enya asked after she sat down in her chair.

“Yeah. I think we’ll be able to tackle this thing just the two of us if she works as fast as I do. The implementation will take a while, obviously, but for now, we can at least get everything connected and whatnot.”

“Did you just say whatnot?” Sarai asked when she walked in from the garage.

“Yes, I did. Do you have a problem with that, Sarai?”

“Nope. Just curious. What are we talking about?”

“The meeting,” Violet said.

“Oh, yeah. Enya, Arlowe was giddy like a schoolgirl. You should’ve been out there to see it. She was all about this Monique. It was like, ‘Monique, you’re so smart. Monique, you’re so amazing.’ I think our little Arlowe has a crush.”

“Yeah, I do… on her brain. She’s married with three kids, Sarai. Not exactly my type, either. I do think she’s going to be really helpful getting this thing implemented.”

“That’s great. How long until it’s useful?” Sarai asked.

“Minimum a couple of months,” Arlowe replied, pouring herself a cup of coffee.

“Hey, how’d your night go last night?” Enya asked her.

“Can we keep it focused on work right now, please?” Violet asked. “This is a really big deal for us.”

“We can’t have a little break for some small talk? And that’s me asking for that. Am I getting sick or something?” Enya joked.

“Well, it would be a brief break.” Arlowe sat down next to her. “I went out. Made out. Left.”

“You made out with someone?” Enya asked.

“In the corner of a dark, sketchy bar. It was hot, but that was all I wanted.”

“Did she want more?” Enya asked.

Arlowe nodded and said, “I’ve got her number in case I change my mind.”