Page 114 of Paradigm

Eline laughed as she tried to swipe at her hands, but she wasn’t putting in any real effort. Arlowe knew that Eline always wanted her hands on her, even if they were making her laugh because she was being relentlessly tickled. She looked down at Eline, and her hands stopped moving. She held herself up above the woman she loved and stared at her, earning that soft smile and those kind eyes that she’d always loved.

“I’m so glad that I took a chance on a semester abroad,” she stated.

“Oh, baby. Me too.”

Eline cupped her cheek gently and wrapped her other hand around Arlowe’s back to hold her in place.

“I never told you this back then because it didn’t matter, and I was head over heels in love with you, so I never regretted my decision, but I had the chance to do this whole internship thing my senior year. It was at Stanford, and I could’ve completed coursework and done the internship at the same time.”

“What?”

“School was annoying, but not hard for me; at least, not my engineering courses. I was doing really well, and a professor recommended me for this program that was designed to help prepare people like me for the world of work. It’s pretty well known at home. They only accepted five people a year, but I got in.”

“What happened? Why didn’t you go?”

“I had another professor who was Dutch. He grew up here and went to school here. He suggested that I apply for the program because he knew the person in charge of admissions and said it would help me in the long run.”

“So, you chose Amsterdam?”

“I wanted to come here, I guess. I thought it would be a better experience for me. I was already working on my own stuff, freelancing. I wanted to still be in school and not join the workforce just yet, so I chose here. I actually know two other people who got into that program that year just through certain circles. One of them gave up engineering altogether and runs some Etsy shop now. The other one still works in software but is a director at a massive corporation. I didn’t want either of those things. I know that’s a small sample set, but I learned a lot here. On top of that, I met my friends here, and now we have a whole business that’s really starting to kick ass. So, even if I hadn’t met you, I still wouldn’t have regretted it, but that trip to the bookstore that day is the best day of my whole life, Eline.”

“Mine too,” Eline said. “I love you.”

“I love you,” Arlowe replied, lowering herself down to kiss her softly, and Eline had to know what was about to happen next.

They were both done with work for the day, so they’d just been checking the status of her visa, which they’d done daily as a new ritual that Arlowe hoped would end soon, but after that, they either would’ve made dinner or gone out for it. Then, they would have walked a little bit before returning home and maybe having a small snack before spending time cuddled up on the sofa, talking or watching something on TV in Dutch since Arlowe was trying to learn the language. She’d also started taking Dutch lessons in her own app to improve her comprehension, and her goal was to be able to talk to Eline and her parents in their native language one day, which she knew Eline appreciated.

They would be skipping the dinner for now, though, because Eline had clearly recognized the look in Arlowe’s eyes just before the kiss, and she had returned it with a look of her own that Arlowe had known all too well because when Eline looked at her like that, it usually meant that she was about to show her just how much she loved her, but Arlowe wanted to show Eline the same first.

She pulled out of the kiss to lift herself and remove her shirt, and Eline’s hands went immediately to her stomach as Arlowe pulled off her sports bra. She nodded for Eline to do the same next, so Eline lifted herself a bit, removed her shirt, and let Arlowe unclasp and pull off her bra.

Arlowe was wearing a pair of Eline’s sleep pants, so she stood up and pulled them off. Her underwear came along with them, and she watched Eline taking her in for a moment before her focus returned to getting Eline naked as well, and once she had Eline’s pants and bikinis off, she climbed back on top of her.

“You know what I’m looking forward to about us living in the US?” she asked as she settled her hips between Eline’s legs.

“What?”

“Bigger everything,” she replied. “Much bigger sofa that we can both fit on and do more of this without your leg hanging over the side.”

Eline laughed a little and looked down at her right leg, which had to dangle over the side of the sofa in order to give Arlowe space.

“I want to be able to lie behind you and hold you while we watch TV together, or just hold each other without one of us having to bend in uncomfortable shapes.”

“That’s what you’re looking forward to?”

Arlowe went serious and said, “I’m also looking forward to us living together one day.” She rolled her hips down into Eline’s center. “Maybe even buying a house instead of renting.”

Eline wrapped her arms around Arlowe’s neck and replied, “Before I left, you said something about me getting my own place when I come back with my new visa.”

“Yeah. What about it?”

“Arlowe, I don’t want to find a new apartment. I will if you really want me to do that, but I want to stay at the house with you. I know it’s your place with Enya, and she’d have to agree, too, but until we can find a place of our own or take those other steps, I still want to live with you.”

“You do?”

“Yes.”

“You didn’t seem sure before, which is why I said what I said then.”