Page 98 of Paradigm

“And you were upset with me for leaving,” she added.

Arlowe dropped her smile and said, “Yes, I was. I can understand it logically. I mean, in my mind, it clicks, Eline. I get it; I do. But in my heart, all I could think was that you were choosing to leave me, leave us. So, yeah, I got it, but I didn’t like it. Still don’t, but now that I know I can see you sooner than we thought, I guess I’m more okay with it.”

“I know. I don’t like it, either. I wish I still had my job and that we were going on a month or so together already where things would’ve been normal.”

“Yeah, me too,” Arlowe said. “Look, I still need to get your stuff from the apartment, which I’m doing tomorrow, but I’ll hand over your keys and everything after it’s all clean. Enya already picked up your car, so it’s here, and it’s safe. I need to make sure work will really be taken care of, but I’m going to book a one-way ticket. That will give us some flexibility when it’s time for me to leave. Maybe your visa will be approved by then, and we can fly back together; who knows?”

“You’re really…” She shook her head in disbelief, and her eyes welled with tears. “I get to see you in a few days?”

“Four to five, if that’s okay. I’ll book something tomorrow or the day after, depending on how work goes. Gabi’s going to help out while I’m gone. She’s great, and I trust her with our software, so that makes me feel a little bit better. We might have to name our firstborn Gabi, though. Not sure how that works.”

Eline laughed for a moment, but then she stopped because Arlowe had just referenced their firstborn child, which had her smiling.

“I’ll pick you up at the airport, and we’ll take the train back to my new apartment. We’ll have a tram to get on after that, but it’s not that long of a ride, and you’ll still be close to Amsterdam. My apartment isn’t in the city, obviously, but we can go there whenever we want. God, Arlowe… I can’t believe it. I’m so happy.”

“Want to see what kind of flight options I have, so we can at least try to work around your new work schedule before I book something?”

“Yes,” she said immediately.

◆◆◆

Eline waited at Schiphol Airport with a single red tulip and a heart pounding in her chest because Arlowe’s flight had just landed after they had been apart for six days. It had been six days too long, and she wasn’t sure how they could’ve lasted any longer than that, but they might have had no choice. She still couldn’t believe that Arlowe was doing this for her, though. She knew how important Arlowe’s work was to her, but Arlowe was willing to live in another country temporarily and work from there, probably at odd hours, just to be with her while they waited to hear about Eline’s visa.

They’d agreed on two months for now, unless something came up and Arlowe had to go home for a week or two, or if Eline’s visa was approved sooner. That would allow Arlowe more time later in the year to come back, should they need it, without her having to apply for a visa – which they could do, and it would likely be approved, but would be yet another bureaucratic process that they were both hoping they wouldn’t have to go through.

She’d moved out of her parents’ place two days prior to Arlowe’s arrival, and while the apartment furniture wasn’t her taste, it was there, which meant that she had more of a home to offer Arlowe than she would’ve had otherwise. She’d gone shopping and had food for them to eat for the week, including some of the things she knew Arlowe had liked when she had lived here before, and her new job meant that she could work from home with only a visit or two a week to the campus to meet with her employer, who was still wrapping things up there and didn’t have an office yet.

She danced on her feet, bouncing back and forth as she waited for her girlfriend to walk out with the other passengers who’d be leaving the airport, but when she saw Arlowe walking toward her, holding on to her backpack straps and looking around for her, she knew that everything was going to be okay. Arlowe spotted her then and gave Eline the most beautiful smile that she’d ever seen. Eline smiled back at her, and her eyes welled with happy tears.

Wanting to meet her halfway, she walked briskly toward Arlowe and around a few other people in the crowd, and when they stood in front of each other, she held out her arms. Arlowe moved into them and pulled Eline in for a tight hug.

“God, I missed you so much,” Arlowe said.

“I missed you, too,” she replied.

They pulled out of the hug a moment later but didn’t go far. Arlowe leaned in and captured her lips in a slow kiss that felt almost like the first one they’d shared years ago. They had time now, just like they’d thought they’d had back then, and when Arlowe pulled out of the kiss and stared into her eyes, Eline shook her head a little.

“I need you to know something,” Arlowe said. “I don’t need time. I’m ready now.” Arlowe kissed her once more. “I love you, Eline. It’s always been you. If you need time to say it back because you want us to keep getting to know each other now, I understand, but from the moment I laid my eyes on you, you’ve had my heart, and that will never change. I know because I’ve tried.” Arlowe ran her thumb over Eline’s cheek, wiping away a tear. “I love you. I always have and I always will.”

Eline gave her a small smile and said, “I love you, too. Always have and always will.”

CHAPTER 31

Arlowe sat on the train next to her girlfriend, who had her head against her shoulder and her arm through Arlowe’s. They’d just said that they loved each other again for the first time in forever, and now, they were going to Eline’s apartment, which would be Arlowe’s home for the next couple of months.

Making this whole thing happen had been chaotic and intense at times. First, she’d had to get all of Eline’s stuff out of the apartment, pay the cleaning person she had hired, and hand over the keys to the landlord. She’d also had everything cleaned up in the garage in order to make room for Eline’s stuff, and that had taken most of the first day after she’d made the decision to come here.

The next day, she had spent working with Mitchell and Clay on how to handle things while she was away and interviewing three more candidates for Eline’s job. She’d felt bad with each interview, but she’d been taking them seriously and had logged details on everyone she talked to, thinking that not only did she need to be thorough for the government, but if the candidates were good, they might want to hire them later. The day after that had been much the same, but she’d booked her flight and sent Enya her portion of the rent for the next two months to make sure that she wouldn’t forget and end up leaving Enya in a lurch.

Then, the packing, sorting, and repacking had started. All of that had been done around her talks with Eline every night Eline’s time, which was early her time, so they would talk briefly then, and then again during the night for Arlowe. She’d spent all her spare time getting ahead at work, making sure Gabi was in the loop on anything she might need to do or know about, so she hadn’t slept much and was exhausted now with the jet lag, but she’d never been happier. It was all absolutely worth it.

When they’d gotten off the train that had taken them from Schiphol Airport to Amsterdam Centraal, the city’s largest depot on the water in the historic part of town, Arlowe couldn’t believe that she was back in the place where they’d met, and if they hadn’t had to lug all of her bags, she would have requested that they stick in the city and walk around it for a minute to take it all in. Instead, they’d changed to a tram at the stop nearby and managed to find just enough space for themselves and her bags. They’d had to transfer trams once, which had been annoying, given all her luggage, but they’d loaded her bags up again and about ten minutes later, Eline told Arlowe that this was their stop.

The neighborhood was over by the university that they had attended together and now where Eline’s father worked, as well as the professor Eline currently worked for, so Arlowe had walked these streets before, but it was a far cry from her dorm room or Eline’s old apartment, which hadn’t been in a nice neighborhood at all. Arlowe got off the tram first, and Eline passed her the bags before hopping off herself. Then, they pulled the bags about half a block down the road, and Arlowe was glad that it wasn’t the dead of winter because this would’ve been a lot harder to do then.

“So, I’m on the third floor, and there’s no elevator,” Eline told her when they turned toward the door to her building.

“What? Why didn’t you tell me that?”