Page 12 of Paradigm

“What did you decide to do about your ex?”

“I sent the email and asked her to meet.”

“Hey, that’s amazing. Congrats! I hope it works out for you two.”

“I don’t know what working out would mean for us, but thank you,” she said before she nodded back toward Marissa and added, “You as well.”

“No pressure, but if you want to hang out again, just as friends or whatever…” Marti looked up at the bartender and asked, “Got a pen?”

“Sure.”

He pulled one from his chest pocket, handed it to Marti, and she wrote her number down on the napkin under Eline’s drink.

“My number. No pressure. And not still hitting on you or anything. I love her,” Marti said with a little smile and shook her head. “I wish she would’ve given us a chance back then.”

“Maybe she’s ready now,” Eline suggested.

“Maybe. I’m going to go, but it was nice meeting you, Eline.”

“You too,” she replied.

Eline’s food arrived after Marti stood and joined Marissa and the girlfriend, and she watched as the three women walked out of the bar a few minutes later, finding it interesting that when Marissa opened the door, she let her girlfriend walk through it first before she put her hand on the small of Marti’s back and walked out with her.

CHAPTER 5

Arlowe sat there, waiting for a response, and her three friends were all just chatting like the most important moment of her life, outside of meeting Eline, wasn’t happening right now. Sarai was telling them something about her upcoming cabin trip with Gabi, and Enya was listening intently, probably trying to live vicariously. Violet was on her phone, likely texting Stella a play-by-play of her night so far or even telling her girlfriend that she would be home soon. Arlowe, meanwhile, still couldn’t believe that life just continued to go on around her, because the moment she’d first seen Eline, time had stopped, and it felt like it should stop again now that they might be on their way to talking once more.

“I bought lingerie,” Sarai shared.

“You did? Do you wear lingerie?” Enya asked.

“Not usually. I’ve never worn it for her before, but it’s our first trip together. I should do something special, right? For our one-year anniversary, we just went to dinner, and we still lived here. You two were both home, so we… kept things quiet. And we were working so much then, too – we didn’t have a ton of energy to do much. Yes, we’re still working like crazy, but we’re going to have four uninterrupted days off, and I cannot wait. I plan on having sex with my girlfriend all over that cabin, and I want to wear something special just for her to take it off.”

“I wish I had someone who wanted to take lingerie off me,” Enya replied dreamily.

“What about you, Vi?” Sarai asked.

“What about me?” Violet asked and looked up from her phone.

“When are you and Stella going to go on another vacation?”

“We just went on one, like, three months ago.”

“I meant a real vacation. You did the whole long weekend thing, too, because we’re all pretty much obsessed with work,” Sarai said.

“Oh, I don’t know. She’s busy at her own job, and I’m busy here.”

Arlowe stood up and went into the kitchen, not wanting to listen to them talk about things that were not important right now. She pulled a beer from the fridge, opened it, took a long drink, and sat down at the table just as Enya walked in.

“How are you doing?”

“I’m freaking out. You can’t tell?”

“No, I can. That’s why I left those two to talk about their girlfriends, lingerie, and their vacations and came in to check on you.”

Enya sat down in her chair before she stole the bottle from her and grabbed a sip.

“I never really moved on from her, Enya.”