Page 120 of Semantics

They got out of the car, and just as Violet locked it with her key fob, her phone rang in her purse. She pulled it out and saw that it was Enya calling.

“Hey, one second.”

“What? Just let it go to voicemail, Violet.”

Stella unlocked the front door of the house.

“It’s Enya. I just need a second.” She answered the call. “Hey. Everything okay?”

“Have you checked your work email?”

“While I’m on a date? No. Why?”

“Asset Capital emailed.”

“What did they say?”

“They’re going to have the money in our account in eight to twelve weeks.”

“Really?” she asked, following Stella into the house.

“Yeah. You said we were good for five to six months. We’re going to be okay waiting for two to three, right?”

“As long as they don’t take any longer than that, yes, we should be more than fine.”

“It’s happening, Vi. It’s finally happening for us. I just thought you should know. Sorry for interrupting your date.”

“It’s okay. This is good news, so thank you. Stella and I just got to her place, though, so I’m going to hang up now. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Violet hung up the phone and slipped it back into her purse as Stella closed and locked the door behind her.

“What’s going on?” Stella asked.

“The money will be there in eight to twelve weeks,” she said and placed her purse on the floor next to Stella’s couch.

“Why do you not sound happy about that? That’s good news.”

Violet sat on the couch and said, “Because there could still be delays, and I can’t count on that money until the lawyer approves the agreement that we haven’t yet signed. I asked them for a timeline post signature, so that’s what Enya just told me they said. It’s still great, obviously, but lawyers aren’t cheap, and there’s a chance that we’ll be coming up against me having to use my savings or ask my parents for a short-term loan if it gets that far.”

“You’re still worried about that?” Stella asked and sat down next to her.

“Yeah. I mean, I’m always going to worry about money, aren’t I? I’m the CEO. It’s always going to fall on me. I suppose if we actually had any money, I’d be less worried about it, but I’ll figure it out. It’s fine. I don’t want to ruin our night with yet another freak-out about work.”

Stella cleared her throat and said, “Hey, I wanted to celebrate your good news and, well, us tonight, so I didn’t say anything before, but we signed that major client today at work.”

Violet turned to her and replied, “You did? Stella, that’s amazing. They’re the biggest client for Cerebral yet, right?”

“Yeah, it’s a pretty big deal.”

“You should’ve said something. Babe, we can celebrate all of it tonight. Let’s have our–” She stopped. “Shit. We left the desserts in the car.”

“I don’t care about the desserts right now. I wanted to talk to you about something.”

“Yeah, your massive success. I think now I’m going to reward you a few more times than I’d already planned to.”

“Violet, can I talk to you about something?”

“You still want to talk?” she asked and spread her legs.