Page 73 of Paradigm

“Right. Yeah, that’s good. I’ll pick up dinner and bring it over,” Arlowe offered. “We can eat and talk then.”

“Talk?”

“Yes. We didn’t do that last night.” Arlowe rubbed her arm and lowered her hand to meet Eline’s, entwining their fingers as their hands dangled between them. “I want to talk about what to do if or when something happens; plan for all the possibilities. Like, do you need to move in with me for now? I don’t know if you have anything saved up to keep paying rent on this place.”

“I don’t need to move in with you, Arlowe.”

“I don’t mean move in, move in. I meant that you could stay with me while we sort this out, and you wouldn’t have to pay rent at the house. That’s all I was saying. But we can talk about it later. I just want to make a plan for us. I made you coffee.”

“Thank you,” Eline replied. “Now, go. Get to work. I’ll be all right today. I think I just needed you here because I was in shock and worried that I was going to lose you again.”

“You’re not. And I want to be here whenever you need me, Eline. That’s what this is.”

“I know. I’m going to drink that coffee you made and take a shower. I think I need it to wake me up, and then, I’ll get to work trying to figure this out.”

“I’ll text you, and I’ll leave no later than five, okay?”

“Okay,” Eline replied and kissed her again. “I’ll see you later.”

Arlowe gave her another kiss, and within a few minutes, Eline was alone again, and she felt it even more acutely than she had on Sunday when she hadn’t known what to do without Arlowe after only one date.

She took a sip of the coffee that Arlowe had made her and smiled because, of course, it was perfect. Arlowe was perfect for her. Eline carried the cup into her bathroom, where she started the shower and got out of her clothes, and it was still strange to her that she didn’t need to get ready for work. Even stranger was that her alarm hadn’t gone off. Then, it dawned on her that Arlowe had likely turned it off for her because it wouldn’t have taken much for her to have guessed the password – it was her birthday. Eline had Arlowe’s birthday as her password since they’d become a couple, and her own birthday was probably still Arlowe’s password, too.

As she took her shower, she thought about how best to handle the conversation with the employment attorney. She wasn’t sure if talking to him was included in her ten hours of his time, but she imagined that it was, so she decided to send an email with all of her information and questions in it, hoping that would take less time or not be considered part of a billable hour at all.

When she got out, Eline carried her half-finished coffee into the bedroom, dressed in sweats and a T-shirt since she had nowhere to go, pulled out her laptop, and sat with it on her sofa. Then, she wrote and rewrote that email before hitting send and went to job websites where she could look for one company, any company that might hire her. She didn’t care what they did or even how they did it. She just needed a job because she needed to stay in the country. After searching for an hour and finding only jobs that mentioned no sponsorships or work visas, she realized that she needed to update her resume and cover letter, and it took her another hour to do that because she wanted them both to be perfect.

Stopping with zero results around lunchtime, she made herself something to eat and sat back down with her food, deciding to switch gears. This would be her life for the foreseeable future. She would be making a sandwich for lunch, searching for newly posted jobs, reworking her resume to try to get someone interested, and updating her budget because while she’d already paid rent this month, she didn’t have much saved up now that she’d moved here.

Everything she was doing today depressed her, but she had no choice because she had no time. After checking her email for a response from the attorney and finding nothing, Eline decided that since she was already upset, she might as well call her parents and give them the news since neither of them would likely be asleep yet.

“Hello?” her mom said.

“Hi, Mom,” she replied.

“Your father still wants us to speak English, even though you can practice every day over there now, I see?” her mom chuckled.

“He’s your husband,” she replied with a laugh, instantly feeling slightly better just by hearing her mother’s voice.

“And he’s right: it’s good for us, too. We both use English at work. We should practice as well. How are you?”

“Actually, I’m not doing very well,” she shared, leaning back on the sofa.

“What happened? What’s wrong?”

“I lost my job.”

“What?”

“I was made redundant yesterday. They did the same with other employees, but none of them were on work visas like me.”

“I need to get your father. Hold on. You’ll tell us both at the same time.”

Eline had figured this might happen, so she waited somewhat patiently for them but wished she didn’t have to. She wanted to get this over with as quickly as possible.

“All right. He’s here. You’re on the speakerphone.”

“What’s wrong, Eline?” her dad asked.