Page 20 of Paradigm

“So, that was it?” Arlowe asked.

“No, I’m here now. I wasn’t sure how, or even if you’d respond, but we’re both in the same place at the same time. I thought maybe we could get some closure now that it’s been a long time and we’ve both… well, moved on with our lives, I suppose.”

Arlowe wanted to tell her that she hadn’t moved on with her life because she really hadn’t, but she didn’t want to get into that here, or maybe ever, because it felt like if they took things much further right now, she would have to tear her heart open again, and she wasn’t sure that she could handle it.

“Would you have told me it was you if you still lived in Amsterdam and found the bug?”

“I don’t know. I think so, but I might have taken a little more time to decide.”

“Why?”

“Because this way, I thought I might get to see you again, and with me there, I probably wouldn’t have.” Eline looked out the window then and added, “I don’t know how to do this, Arlowe. I’ve wanted to talk to you again since the moment we said goodbye, but this feels…”

“Weird?” Arlowe finished.

“Like we’ve lost our–”

“Spark?”

Eline smiled softly and turned back to her.

“We did have one of those, didn’t we?”

“Oh, yeah,” Arlowe replied. “Lots of them.”

“Remember the time we were at your dorm, and I told you I was going to take a shower? You–”

“Let you go but followed you in, like, a minute later?” she said. “Yeah, I remember. One of my favorite times.”

Eline’s smile widened, and she said, “Mine too.”

Arlowe’s phone dinged, but she didn’t pull it out of her blazer pocket, where she had it resting against Eline’s letter.

“Do you need to get that? It’s okay if you do.”

“It’s probably one of my friends,” she said right before her phone dinged again.

“It’s really okay, Arlowe.”

“I’m technically on call at work. I’m in charge of support, too, which is why I was the one who responded to your bug email. Just give me a sec, okay?”

“I get it,” Eline replied.

Arlowe pulled her phone out, careful not to pull the letter out with it, and checked the two messages.

Sarai Kaplan: Just breathe. It’s going to be okay.

Arlowe smiled a little at that. She’d messaged her friends while in line because she hadn’t been sure how to handle things after the initial awkwardness.

Mitchell Herbert: Hey, everything’s fine, but I wanted to let you know that Travis didn’t show up today. I’m staying to cover for him, but he didn’t call out, and I can’t get ahold of him. It’s the second time he’s done that now, I think, so I thought you should know.

“Shit,” she said.

“Something wrong?” Eline asked.

“Someone didn’t show up for work. He’s a junior engineer, only been with us for about six months, and has a habit of being late or not showing up at all. I need to fire him, but he’s really talented, so I hoped he’d get out of this phase.”

“What phase?”