Page 85 of Paradigm

“Yes,” Violet replied. “And I still have a hard time believing that I’m about to buy Stella Ross an engagement ring, but it’s happening – I’m going to ask her to marry me after more than two years together. I love our work, and I love all of you, but finding the love of my life changed my priorities, just like it did for Sarai.”

“And you already know that I’m with them,” Arlowe told Enya, pointing to Sarai and Violet. “I realized who Eline was first, though, so my perspective is a little different.”

“How so?” Enya asked.

“I knew what this kind of love was when I was in college, and I’ve been pushing myself into work and everything else to avoid feeling the pain that can come with it when you let them get away.”

“But you didn’t, Arlowe,” Sarai argued.

“Didn’t what?”

“You didn’t let her get away. She’s here.”

“For however long,” she said and picked up her coffee cup. “But, yeah, we’ve found our way back to one another, and we might just have a chance this time to make it last.”

“So, anyway; I guess what we’re all saying is that when you meet her, you might just be willing to put those note cards down for at least one night a week,” Violet teased.

“I’d shoot for two,” Sarai said. “Personally.”

“Not every night, or, like, at least five?” Enya asked.

“No, because then you wouldn’t be you,” Arlowe said. “And you want her to want you for you, not for whoever you think she wants you to be.”

“I’d love it if I met someone who wouldn’t mind doing the note cards with me,” Enya said with a dreamy smile. “Like, helping me write the words out and putting them on the wall in the order I need them to be in. It would be fun, you know? Have her there, helping. Then, maybe I could finish early, and we could… well, you know.”

“Have sex?” all three of them said at the same time.

“Yeah, that,” Enya replied. “But also, just spend time together doing something else. Maybe we could do something that she’d like to do, whatever that might be.”

“That sounds pretty perfect, Enya,” Sarai said. “We’ll all happily play wing-women. Is it wing-people?”

Arlowe laughed a little, and it felt good. She loved her friends. She wasn’t sure how she had gotten so lucky to have met them that day at the airport, but she was more and more grateful for that every day that had passed. She took another drink of her coffee and rose from the table.

“Well, I should get to work. I need the distraction,” she stated.

“We’re here if you need to talk,” Violet told her.

“I know. Thank you,” she replied.

CHAPTER 26

The role had been posted internally for a week. Arlowe had texted her that they were about to post it externally for people to apply, but Eline had been going back and forth about whether or not she even would. On one hand, she wanted to stay in the country more than anything. On the other hand, she hated putting people through what she was going through now: an application process that would likely lead nowhere. On yet another hand, a third one that she didn’t actually have, Eline had agreed to it, and Arlowe’s company was doing this for her, so she’d feel bad if she didn’t go through with it at all.

Arlowe sent her the link the moment it went live. She knew that because when she went to check it out, the job had only been live for seven minutes. Arlowe had shown her the job description, so she had known what to expect. It wasn’t exactly what she wanted to do, and it would be a couple of steps back in her career, but she was grateful to even have the chance to apply for something with a guaranteed interview, even if it might be considered unethical to some, including herself.

She hovered over the submit button after she added her resume and cover letter. She’d had to answer a few questions about herself, but overall, the process had taken less than five minutes, which was a breath of fresh air for someone who’d applied for over fifty jobs in one week and had had to not only upload a resume and cover letter for some, but also had to enter the information in manually, which was frustrating. She’d yet to hear back from any of them, and she didn’t have much time. It had already been over a week. Even if she heard back from one of them the following week, she’d still have to schedule the first interview, and for the kinds of jobs she was applying for, she’d have to go through at least two to three interviews that would probably be a week apart if her experience was any indication. There was also usually an assignment or test of some kind for engineers, so she’d have to complete that as well. She was probably looking at a minimum month-long process, and that was only if someone actually reached out for an interview knowing that she would need a visa from them to stay in the country.

Eline did end up hitting the submit button because, in the end, she felt like she had to. Then, she took a break from the job search and decided to clean up her apartment. Arlowe had been staying over every night, and Eline had always been a little more on the tidier side than the ex-girlfriend whom she was dating again. They’d talked about using the girlfriend term for what they were today, too, but things had been both confusing and complicated, with Eline losing her job, so she wasn’t sure if she should call Arlowe that until they talked about it again and decided that they both wanted and were ready for that definition and not merely because Eline might have to move. She didn’t want them to escalate their relationship just because she might be leaving. She wanted them to go at their pace and enjoy being together without some ticking clock looming over their heads all the time, but that might not be possible.

“Eline, I have news,” her father said when she answered the phone.

He hadn’t even greeted her first and sounded like he was in a hurry, which was odd and had her a bit concerned.

“News?”

“I know you want to stay there and that we need to respect that decision, but I met with someone from the university yesterday, and they are looking for a software engineer to work for their business. He’s a professor currently, but he’s about to retire from teaching. He has a good business idea, and he’ll be working on it part-time until he leaves the university, but he needs someone to help him build it from scratch and grow the business with him. He told me he’d even be offering part ownership to the people he needs to get things moving. It’s a great idea. He explained it to me, but I was only focused on the fact that he’s in need of an engineer. I mentioned that you were looking for a new job and told him a little bit about you and what you’ve done. He was very interested, Eline. He mentioned wanting to offer the product in English first, so the fact that you’re fluent is very helpful. Anyway, I told him that you’d be interested in talking to him about the job. You’d be in charge of all engineering for the company. It really is an amazing opportunity.”

“I assume it would be based in the Netherlands?”