Page 49 of Paradigm

“Then, I’ll probably be texting you until I fall asleep and maybe a little while I’m at work tomorrow, too.”

“I’d really like that,” Arlowe replied.

Eline wanted to lean forward to capture Arlowe’s lips in a kiss, but even one on the cheek felt like a little too much for what they’d just agreed to, so she waited for Arlowe to say something else instead.

“Want me to walk you up?”

“I’m on the first floor just inside the door.”

“I’ll wait here until you get inside, then,” Arlowe said and reached down to undo her seat belt for her. “Sleep well, Eli Fay.”

“Drive safe, Arli Grace,” she replied, using her nickname for Arlowe along with Arlowe’s middle name.

CHAPTER 15

“Whoa!” Arlowe looked around. “How are you?”

As soon as she said that, on the lenses, in perfectly clear letters, appeared the words for ‘How are you’ in Spanish.

“It works for five of our languages right now,” Gabi told her.

“This is fucking amazing, Gabi,” she said.

“And I added the beta version to the app on your account, so if you run it from your phone or your watch, even, it’ll say it out loud.”

“Already? I thought you weren’t going to be able to do that until Q2.”

“In the glasses themselves – yes, I’m still shooting for Q2, but it might be Q3. I need to get the audio components working properly, and so far, they’re working, but I can’t get the volume loud enough for you to be able to hear the voice if you’re in a crowded room or outside, just walking down the street, so I want to see if I can do that first. If not, the sound works fine right now from the phone or watch, so if you say it in your default language, you’ll have the option to see it on the lenses and either say it out loud or use the audio.”

“This is amazing, Gabi. I can’t even believe you’re this far along.”

“Let’s just say I have been getting some encouragement from my head-of-marketing girlfriend.” Gabi laughed a little. “Sarai has some schools breathing down her neck to get them version one. The teachers she’s talked to say this can really help kids learn languages at an earlier age, but with kids, I need to make smaller glasses, so I’m working on doing that next. It’ll be harder. They have really small faces, which means smaller frames. The college students will like these, I think – stylish, but helpful.”

“And we’ve got five languages so far?”

“I focused on the more common ones we need, so it’s Spanish, French, German, English, obviously, and Mandarin. Mandarin was tricky, and it works a bit differently, but it does work. Very basic-level stuff for all the languages right now, but I should have the rest of what we’ve got available in by version three or four, at least.”

Arlowe took off the glasses and carefully handed them back to the woman who had made them.

“We really never thought that this would happen for us,” she said. “Just a few years ago, we were still in the garage, working with Violet’s money because we didn’t have any real investors, sharing a house together to save money, and now, we’re here, in an office with actual employees and contracts with schools and universities to help people learn new languages.”

“Sarai was worried even a few months ago that people would stop learning languages because English, good or bad, had pretty much taken over, so Enya had to tell her that people would always want to speak their native language, even if they learn another or multiple languages. We’re also contributing to Americans being able to keep up with other countries that start teaching foreign languages right away in school, but I don’t know. We’ll see, I guess. I’m a nerd, though, so I just like building stuff and making it work.”

“Yeah, me too,” she replied. “Just in software form.”

“Hey,” Sarai said as she walked into her office. “Oh. Hey, babe,” she added when she noticed Gabi sitting in the other chair. “I was going to see if Arlowe wanted to grab lunch with us.”

“You’re inviting me to lunch with just the two of you?” Arlowe asked with a quirked eyebrow. “Why, exactly?”

“Oh, no reason. I’ve just been tasked with uncovering what went down between you and Eline last night, and I already had lunch plans with my girlfriend, so two birds, one stone, and all that.”

“I hate that expression,” Gabi shared. “It always makes me picture someone throwing a rock at a bird.”

“Sorry,” Sarai offered and walked up behind Gabi to run a hand through the hair she had in a ponytail. “Is it okay if Arlowe tags along?”

“Sure,” Gabi replied.

“What if Arlowe doesn’t want to tag along?” she asked.