Page 82 of Paradigm

“Yes,” Arlowe answered.

“Then, we should try to do what we can to keep me here, but I don’t want us to get married until we are both ready for that.”

“I understand, but I just got you back, Eline. Now, you might have to leave, and as much as I want what you want, I don’t see the harm in us doing this to keep you here. We had an existing relationship, and we have evidence of it, so they should believe that when you moved here, we restarted this and wanted to get married. We–”

“Arlowe, no,” Eline stated, dropping her hand.

“Okay. Fine,” Arlowe replied, but she was clearly upset.

“Let it out,” she encouraged. “I know you have something you want to say.”

“No, it’s fine. You’ve made your decision.” Arlowe ran a hand through her hair. “I have to accept it. It’s whatever. We’ll do whatever you want, and I’ll drop you off at the airport if the time comes. Then, we’ll plan a trip for me to visit and just take it from there.”

“You’re angry.”

“I’m upset. We should just eat dinner.”

“We should keep talking,” Eline replied.

“Fine, but… not about this, okay?”

“Arlowe…”

“You might think it was just a… proposal of convenience, but it was still a proposal of sorts, so I don’t really want to talk about it. Just… tell me about the jobs you applied to or something. Our food is getting cold.”

CHAPTER 25

“Hey. You look like crap.”

“Gee, thanks, Sarai,” she said and sat down at the big table in the office kitchen. “I really appreciate your support.”

“My support with what, exactly? I’m already on board with Eline working here.”

Then, Enya walked over with a cup of coffee, sat down next to Arlowe, who was across from Sarai, and noted, “You don’t look great.”

“Is it gang-up-on-Arlowe day or something?”

“Still upset about Eline?” Enya asked.

“Well, yeah. I’ll be upset until we find a solution.”

“I thought we already did: we’re about to hire her,” Sarai pointed out.

“If she gets the visa approved, and that’s a big if,” Arlowe replied. “She can stay on a work visa for only three years before she needs to file for another extension, but since she was terminated, I don’t know if she can extend for the full three years. And she can only extend that three years once, so it’s a maximum of six years. I think that’s right anyway. I’ve got a lot of information inside my head right now, and it’s in confusing legal jargon sometimes. I’m better in code, and I just…”

“Hey, what happened to your whole marriage thing?” Sarai asked. “You said you would probably be married before that. Why are you worried about it now?”

Arlowe took a sip of her coffee and said, “Long story. You know what we did find out, though? It’s somewhat good news.”

“Good news?” Enya asked.

“So, the HR person, or whoever, misspoke when they told Eline about the whole grace period. Apparently, there’s a ten-day rule when a normal visa expires, but if someone gets terminated on an existing visa, they get sixty more days, so it’s four months in total.”

“Hey, that is great news,” Sarai said.

“It’s still only four months.”

“Yeah, but that’s basically two more months for us to get this process moving. That’s good news.”