Page 37 of Paradigm

“That’s right; I forgot you lived here when you were a teenager,” Violet said.

“Whose phone is that?” Stella asked.

“Shit. That’s mine,” Arlowe said. “I left it in my office. It might be work. I’ll be right back.”

Arlowe glanced at Eline, who gave her a wink, and she hurried down the hall and found her phone on the floor of her office. She picked it up and answered Mitchell’s call.

“Hey. What’s up?”

“Hey. Did you do something to what we were going to push to QE last night?”

“Yeah. Why?” she asked as she walked over to her computer.

“I just wanted to check. It looks like a lot of changes.”

“I worked on it all night. Is something wrong with it?”

“Not from what I can tell. I’m still getting it to QE today, right?”

“Yes, first thing. Tell them to double-check everything. We’ve had too many issues slipping through the cracks.”

“Okay.”

“And I’m going to work from home at least this morning,” she told him.

“Yeah, no problem. We should be good here,” Mitchell replied. “Sorry, I called so early. I just got in, and I thought we were done with this, so it was weird that there had been a lot of changes.”

“Just me. I was about to email you about it. All good.”

“Cool. Well, I’ll talk to you later.”

“Bye, Mitch.” Arlowe hung up and turned around to see Stella standing in her doorway with her arms crossed over her chest. “Jesus, Stella! You scared me.”

“Sorry, but I need to talk to you.”

Stella walked into her office and closed the door behind her.

“What about?”

“My girlfriend.”

“What about her?”

“Something’s up. She’s been acting really weird lately, and I’m getting worried.”

“What is she doing?”

“I don’t know. She’s, like, extra nervous or anxious or something around me, and she keeps asking if I want to hang out with Jen and Haley all the time,” Stella said of her best friend and Jen’s girlfriend, Haley. “Or, she’s asking if I want to come over here or have a double date with Sarai and Gabi. I like all of you; don’t get me wrong. I just also love my girlfriend and kind of want us to be alone sometimes.”

Arlowe took a deep breath and said, “You know Vi… She probably left the house in mismatching socks once last week and is still freaking out about it.”

“Arlowe, I’m serious. Something’s up. She turned down morning sex for breakfast here this morning. Violet doesn’t turn down morning sex.”

“Okay, I didn’t need to know that,” she replied, waving her off.

“You’d tell me if something was wrong, right? Is everything okay at work?”

“Everything’s great at work, and I’m sure Vi’s fine. Just talk to her, Stella. Now, I need to go back out there. Eline is out there alone with Violet and Enya, and there’s really no telling what your morning-sex-loving girlfriend is talking to her about.”