Page 52 of Paradigm

“I’m with her.”

“Yeah, I know that already, Gabi. You’re one of the we now.”

“What?” Gabi asked, laughing a little.

“When Violet and Stella started saying things like, ‘We might go,’ or, ‘We’ll see,’ instead of them each speaking for themselves, we started teasing them and calling them we people. You and Sarai are just like them now,” Arlowe replied.

“Jealous?” Sarai asked.

“Yes, I am,” she admitted.

“Text her now. The sooner you do, the faster you can become a we person like us.”

“That’s a weird sentence,” Gabi said to Sarai as Arlowe pulled out her phone, deciding to put the idea out there.

If Eline said no, she would probably give her a reason, and she could deal with whatever that was, unless the reason was that Eline didn’t want to see or talk to her again. Arlowe wasn’t sure she could handle that ever again.

Arlowe Romano: Are you doing anything Friday night? I was thinking we could hang out if you’re not too tired from work this week.

She hit send and prepared to set her phone down on the table, but seconds later, the three dots appeared, and Eline’s reply followed.

Eline Claasen: I won’t be too tired to hang out with you. Just tell me when and where, and I’m there.

Arlowe smiled when she read that.

CHAPTER 16

Arlowe Romano: What time will you be done there?

Eline Claasen: No later than six, but I’m trying to leave sooner than that if I can. We have a patch to deploy. It goes out tomorrow morning, and we’ll have some downtime, so I need to make sure everything is good before I leave, but I can still meet you at seven like we planned.

Arlowe Romano: If you need to push it back or reschedule, I’d understand. I wouldn’t be happy about it; I’d actually be disappointed, but I’d understand.

Eline smiled down at Arlowe’s most recent text message. She loved how honest this woman was, how she’d never had to guess how Arlowe felt about her back then, and she wasn’t sure that she had to guess today, either. She knew what they were headed toward here, and she wanted to protect it. She needed to keep it safe and make sure that it happened; that they didn’t go too fast. She didn’t want to go too slowly, either, but Arlowe was worth it, and their relationship could be too if they took their time and got to know one another again, which Eline wanted to do because, if they were going to be together today, she needed to be sure that she loved this version of Arlowe and wasn’t just holding on to the old version of her that she once knew.

They’d agreed to meet at this little restaurant that was on the shore, if Eline could call it that, of a man-made lake owned by one of the big tech companies that had moved in a few years ago. The office building was twenty stories high, and the restaurant was on the first floor, but despite the whole office-slash-parking-lot vibe, the restaurant was actually lit up like a nice place at night. It probably offered employees in the building a decent lunch place during the day, too, but it had a great dinner vibe with red and yellow lighting that was dim and a back patio for dining that overlooked the lake and the path that surrounded it.

Eline had looked the place up after Arlowe had recommended it, which was what she usually did the first time she went to a new restaurant because she liked looking at menus in advance, wanting to make sure she could find something to eat there or plan ahead and eat something else before going if she was meeting people, and when she’d pulled up the restaurant’s website, she’d gone to the menu first and noticed a few things that had her smiling. For one, it was an upscale restaurant, without being too fancy, and two, they had a menu with a little European flair. She should’ve known that since Arlowe had chosen this place, there would be something for her to eat there because Arlowe had always been a considerate person.

The menu had things like roasted chicken with cabbage, pork medallions in an onion sauce with roasted potatoes and peppers, coq au vin, and a roasted duck with spaetzle, which Arlowe had to remember that Eline had loved since a trip to Germany as a kid with her parents, where she’d had it for the first time. There were other options of a more American variety as well, which was probably why Arlowe had chosen it for them: they’d both be able to find something they liked.

Eline walked into the restaurant and wished that she’d picked Arlowe up or vice versa, but she understood why they had opted to meet there instead. If one of them had picked the other up, it would’ve felt too much like a date, and while she wanted that, Arlowe had used the words hang out to describe the night, so Eline wanted to respect that and let them work their way up to a date. She found Arlowe sitting in the lobby, looking down at her phone, and walked over to her. Arlowe was wearing yet another blazer, a checked-patterned shirt on underneath it, and she had on nice skinny jeans and some boots that those jeans were tucked into. Yet again, she looked perfect.

“Hi,” she greeted.

Arlowe looked up at her, gave her a smile, and tucked her phone into the interior pocket of her jacket.

“Hey. I was getting worried. You usually beat me everywhere.”

“It’s six-forty-five. I’m actually early,” she said. “Traffic wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.”

“I just got here, but they told me that even with a reservation, I had to wait for my whole party to get here before they’d seat me.” Arlowe stood up then and walked over to the podium. “Hi. My whole party is here. Romano for two. Reservation is at seven, so if we need to sit at the bar first, that’s fine.”

Eline joined her at the podium and waited for the host, who was looking down at a tablet.

“I can seat you now,” he replied after a moment and went to grab a couple of menus before nodding for them to follow him down a row of tables.

“Great. Thanks,” Arlowe said and added to Eline, “After you.”