Page 12 of Semantics

“What? That’s not true.”

“Sorry, Vi, but it is,” Enya said with a sympathetic expression. “You talked about her all the time. Whenever we’d go out and someone would merely walk up to you, you’d tell them that you were taken.”

“You’d say that you had a girlfriend and give them her name on top of it. I think it would’ve been enough to tell them that you had someone, but you were oddly specific instead,” Sarai noted.

“Yeah. What was that about?” Arlowe laughed.

“I’d never had a girlfriend before. Sue me,” she replied and closed her computer. “Not all of us were super popular, out lesbians who’d had multiple girlfriends or, at least, several sexual partners.”

“Why are you looking at me when you say that?” Arlowe asked.

“Because you fit that definition,” Sarai said for Violet. “You had, like, five girlfriends before Amsterdam. Then, you met Eline.” Sarai chuckled but stopped at her mention of the E word, which the group tried not to say often or ever, if they could help it. “Sorry.”

“You can say her name. We’ve been over this. Besides, it’s been ten years. I am over Eline Claasen, okay? I’ve dated tons of girls since then.”

“Women,” Sarai and Enya said at the same time.

“Sure. Whatever. I’ve dated multiple women since we graduated. I’m sure she’s married to some Dutch guy named Lars, who works on fixing windmills or making cheese, and they have, like, two kids named Elsa and Hans, and–”

“Aren’t those more German names?” Violet asked.

“Yes,” Enya replied. “But they are popular–”

“Not the point, Vi,” Arlowe interrupted Enya. “Their kids are probably, like, five and three now, have perfect blonde hair with little freckles, and they have a dog that they walk, and they all have bicycles, and they pick tulips, and–”

“And you haven’t thought about this at all in the past ten years, huh?” Enya said gently.

“My point is that I’m over it, and she is, too.”

“Because of Elsa, Hans, and the dog?” Violet asked.

“Yeah. Obviously.”

Arlowe looked back out the window.

“You closed your computer?” Sarai asked, changing the topic.

“Huh?” Violet asked back.

“Are you not going to book the demo?”

“You were just talking about how you now agree with Arlowe on the hardware thing. We can’t do both. We’d have to hire someone to figure out the hardware thing, so it’s one or the other.”

“I still think it’s worth seeing the full demo. Maybe this is the right call,” Sarai replied.

“It is,” Enya offered.

“Well, I have requested demos from other companies, too, so I’ll just wait for those responses, and we’ll see.”

“You don’t want to talk to Stella, do you?” Sarai asked.

“Have I ever?”

“Vi, Cerebral is local. Well, not exactly. Their HQ is in New York. But they’ve got a small office here, like a satellite thing, since there are so many companies popping up around here lately that might use them. I read about them before I recommended you reach out to them.”

“So what?”

“So, they’re the only ones with their people close to us. It could be a big benefit for us. Implementing new software is already a pain in the ass and requires people from whatever company you go with to help support it. I’m just saying… I think we should talk to them. If you don’t want to hear from her, for whatever reason, just ask for a rep to do the demo instead of the SVP,” Sarai continued.