Page 44 of Paradigm

“And watch you all judge what I say? No way.”

She got up and walked toward the entrance to the restaurant, where she pushed the door open, headed out to the sidewalk, and pulled her phone out of her pocket. Then, she took a deep breath and dialed Eline’s number.

“Arlowe, hey,” Eline greeted.

“Hey. Uh… Is now an okay time to call?”

“Yeah, it’s fine. What’s going on?”

“You just said that you were going to text me, and you didn’t. I wanted to give you a couple of days, but I also don’t want what happened with us before to happen again, so I figured I’d call and check on where you might be with that… sending me a text message thing.”

Eline laughed softly and replied, “I’m sorry. That night, after work, I called my dad and fell asleep right after. Then, I got called into work early yesterday morning because there was an issue, and they needed all hands on deck. I was there until after eight, and I wanted to text you, but I also needed some sleep. I thought I’d text you after work tonight.”

“And?”

“And I’m still at work,” Eline shared.

Arlowe pulled her phone away from her ear and checked the time.

“It’s after seven.”

“I know. We had an email compliance issue. Some bad actors got our email list and sent messages acting like us to all of our customers and leads, and we’ve been dealing with the data breach on top of angry customers. I’m finally about done with what I can do, at least. Legal is handling most of it now.”

“Shit,” Arlowe said. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. Just a little tired.”

“I was going to ask you if you wanted to come out for a drink with me and my friends, but I’m guessing you’d prefer to go home and sleep for the next several days.”

“A drink?”

“Yeah. And don’t worry, it’s not at that fancy place. It’s at a local one that we like. They only have six-seater booths, so we’d have to bring over a chair for Sarai.”

“Why for Sarai?” Eline laughed.

“Because she’s annoying me tonight.”

Eline chuckled again and said, “I’d actually love to get a drink with you and your friends.”

“You would?” she asked.

“I could use one after the past couple of days, and I can go to bed after, right?”

“Right,” she replied. “We’re out at dinner right now, but we’re about to pay and head out. When can you meet us?”

“I can leave here in ten and be there after that,” Eline said. “Can you send me the info?”

“I’ll drop you a pin. Want me to get you a drink when we get there?”

“Whatever you’re getting is fine. We always had similar tastes in alcohol, so I trust you.”

Arlowe smiled at that and said, “Okay. I’ll send you the location, and I’ll see you there in maybe about thirty?”

“I’ll be there,” Eline said. “And, Arlowe?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m sorry I didn’t text you right away. I know it takes a second to send a message, but it wasn’t that second that was the problem.”