Page 77 of Paradigm

“Oh. Well, duh,” Sarai stated.

“Duh?”

“I mean, yeah. It would be three years from now, and we all know you’ve always wanted to marry her, so that would make sense.”

“Can we do it, Vi?” Arlowe asked. “Without hurting the company in any way? I know we’re being smart with our cash, and I don’t want us to risk anything here, but it’s the best solution that I could come up with, and I don’t have much time to come up with another one.”

“We can find the money. If we stick to our hiring plan, it would make the most sense to use one of those recs you were going to hire anyway, but my main concern is how long it can take.”

“I know.”

“I’ll talk to Stella about how her company has managed to do it a few times, and I can ask our lawyer, but we would still need to post the job first and actually interview people for it, Arlowe. That makes me a little nervous. If we happen to find a better candidate, technically, we should hire them. We also shouldn’t ethically make a job description that your girlfriend would be a perfect fit for and make it harder for anyone else to get the job just because it’s really for her.”

“Come on, Vi,” Sarai said. “It’s Eline. She needs us right now.”

“I know, but we have to be careful here, Sarai. We can’t treat people unequally without risking our reputation. Everyone puts reviews online, and if someone feels like we asked two questions in a lazy interview and treated them poorly, that could hurt the company. I also don’t want the US government asking us any questions about why we didn’t hire a citizen or a green card holder when there were several who met the job requirements. All I’m suggesting is that we spend a little time together thinking about how best to do this and that we vote first. Unanimous, with our two-minute lobbying rule if necessary, because this–”

“I’m in,” Sarai interrupted and raised her hand. “We’ll deal with the ethics and fairness stuff, but I’m in.”

“Me too,” Enya added, raising her hand as well. “Eline speaks Dutch, and I’m pretty sure she also knows a little of Flemish because she’s lived so close to Belgium. I can always say we’re using her as a translator, too.”

Arlowe smiled over at her friend and roommate.

“We can’t do that,” Violet explained. “Whatever job we need and what she’s done in the past is what we should try to hire her for.”

“Violet, the real question is whether or not you are in, because I’m in, Enya is in, and obviously Arlowe is in. If you don’t want to do it, you have to say so now. We’ll take the two minutes to lobby, and if you still say no, it’s a no, but you need to tell Arlowe that now so that she can talk to Eline and they can figure out other options,” Sarai reasoned.

Arlowe waited, her heart racing. Violet had said that she would help, but Arlowe could see the concern on her face.

“It’s a yes, obviously. Honestly, I think part of a case to USCIS could be employee happiness helping with productivity because I haven’t seen Arlowe this happy since before we left Amsterdam.”

Arlowe let out the breath she had been holding and replied, “Thank you.”

“Of course. It’s not like any of us was actually going to say no. But if Violet had, I would’ve just threatened her with something,” Sarai said.

“What? With what?” Violet asked with a little laugh.

“Telling your girlfriend that you’re acting weird because you want to propose, but you’re too much of a perfectionist to just do it already,” Sarai answered.

“You wouldn’t dare,” Violet argued, squinting at Sarai.

“Oh, I would’ve considered it. Have you gotten the ring, at least, Vi?”

“No, but I’m going shopping for it this weekend. I was going to invite you all and Jen, but I’m thinking about making that a Sarailess Saturday now.”

Sarai chuckled.

“Hey, guys, this is fun and all… Love picking on each other. But can we maybe figure out the next step for Eline?” Arlowe said.

“Get me a job description so that I can post it,” Violet told her. “The sooner the better. And prepare to actually interview people, Arlowe. We have to do this by the book and legally. When you interview, you can’t just think that Eline is getting the job, so the person in front of you doesn’t matter. First, that’s rude to them, but second, we need to have records that we interviewed everyone fairly, so notes in the system, the same questions for the most part, and a whole process like they’d follow for any other role on your team. Have them also interview with Mitchell, Clay, and Enya and Gabi, but don’t tell Mitch or Clay who Eline is. That will help our cause.”

“I’ve got a description ready for a manager role already. We can use that. I won’t change it to fit her specific skill set or anything. Does that help?”

“I don’t know if they’ll even ask or check, but it doesn’t hurt,” Violet replied.

“Whatever help you need, just let us know. I’ll move anything around to help with this,” Enya added.

“Thank you,” Arlowe replied.