Page 78 of Paradigm

“Yeah, me too. I’ll tell Gabi what’s up because she already knows about you and Eline, so no need to keep it a secret from her, but don’t worry, Violet – I’ll tell her we’re doing this by the book.”

“It’s good for us, but it also gives us the best chance at getting Eline’s visa approved, so it’s win-win. I’ll post the job once I get the description, contact our lawyer, and I’ll check with Stella tonight to get any tips I can.”

“Thank you all so much. You have no idea how much this means to me. I mean it,” Arlowe replied.

“Hopefully, she won’t even need it. She could find something else on her own, right?” Violet asked.

“She could, yeah. She’s looking. And I know she’s talking to that lawyer about the extension, but it might be impossible for her to find someone who’d want to go through the whole process. I don’t want to get her hopes up, but I’m going to tell her about this option and see what she says. I own part of a company that might be able to help her. I know it’s nepotism, but she’s also a great engineer. I knew it in school, but we stayed up all night coding, and she found an issue that our own QE team might have missed. It was an error that I had made, and she not only fixed it, but she also helped shorten the code to improve it. So, it’s not that I’m asking us to hire someone who’s not capable.”

“We know, Arlowe,” Enya said softly.

“Let’s get moving on this. The faster we post the role, the better,” Violet suggested. “Arlowe, just tell your team that we’ve decided to move up a rec so that they know to expect the posting.”

“Shit,” Arlowe said, remembering something.

“What?” Sarai asked.

“We have to post it internally first. We said we’re a promote-from-within company.”

“You’re right. Our policy is five days before we post externally. Do you have any people in-house who will apply?”

“Yeah, but none of them are ready for it. Most of them are new hires.”

“Well, we have the six-months-in-existing-role policy, so that might rule some of them out,” Violet added.

“I can see maybe three people applying, but only one of them has been in his role for more than six months, and he’s not great at his current role. He’s also only a junior engineer, so the next level up for him won’t be manager.”

“That helps. Let’s get the role posted today, and we’ll go external next Wednesday. I’ll check on the timeline with the lawyer.”

“Okay,” Arlowe said. “I’ll go send the description, but then I’m going to head out. I need to go home and get some stuff before I pick up dinner and go to Eline’s. I was picking Enya up this morning and changing so that I wouldn’t be late for a meeting, but I’m going to pack a bag and stay at Eline’s tonight. I might work from there tomorrow. I don’t know. If I need to be here to help this along, though, I will be.”

“Hey,” Sarai began. “It’s all going to be okay, you know? We’re four very smart people, and Eline makes five. We’re going to figure this out.”

Arlowe nodded.

CHAPTER 24

She buzzed Arlowe into the building, got the door unlocked for her so that she could just walk in when she arrived, and went to the kitchen to get something for them to drink, having assumed that Arlowe would have only brought food. When she set the drinks on the small round table that she had just off her kitchen, she heard the door open.

“Hey, can you grab this?”

Eline turned and hurried over to Arlowe, who was carrying a big, brown bag of food, along with her backpack and another bag.

“What’s all this?” she asked, taking the food bag from her.

“Backpack is for my computer and work stuff. Overnight bag is for, well, overnight.”

Arlowe dropped both bags onto the living room floor and closed the door behind her.

Eline smiled and said, “I thought you liked borrowing my stuff.”

“I do, but I figured I could maybe have my own toothbrush here, at least, and a hairbrush, too. Besides, I put stuff in my hair to make it look this good, so…”

Arlowe ran her hand through it as she smirked. Eline laughed, walked over to her, and waited for her to lower her hand before she moved both of hers into Arlowe’s hair and promptly messed it up.

“Hey!”

Arlowe laughed and took a step back, but Eline moved into her and wrapped her arms around Arlowe’s neck.