Page 11 of Derivation

“We’re cool.”

Thirty minutes later, Violet showed up with coffee for all of them and met them in the garage. There were no other employees there that day, so it was just the four of them, and now that Violet had moved out, Sarai found that she actually preferred it that way because it gave her a little reminder of what things had been like when it had only been the four of them against the world. Ever since the investment cash had come in, things had been changing quickly, and while they’d all been good changes because they’d needed employees and they’d needed to make progress, their old space, which had always been just theirs, had turned into a place where others could show up at any minute, and usually, without any warning. That included Stella, who sometimes liked to visit Violet to pick her up for lunch or just join them for some meetings because she liked helping out, as well as their local employees, who had the option to come in or work from home. Mostly, they did work from home, but on some days, there would be a knock at the door, and one of them would be there, wanting to work from the garage. Sarai liked the progress, but she also missed the old times.

“Sarai, do you have the updated campaign numbers?” Violet asked an hour after they all got to work.

“Yeah. I’ll send them to you. Promising so far. Really solid email open rate of forty percent, and click rate of twenty is also really good.”

“That’s great. How many downloads from it?”

“Percentage or number?”

“Both,” Violet replied.

Sarai pulled up the data on her screen and said, “Five-percent download rate off the twenty-percent click rate, so we’re looking at about two hundred and fifteen downloads from last week alone, but overall, it’s much higher. I’ll link you the report.”

“Great. Thanks,” Violet replied, and Sarai sent her the report, where Violet could mine for more data to use for the deck she was putting together for their board, because they had an actual board now.

They also had a second large investor. They had put in less money than Asset Capital, their first major investor, but every little bit was helping them grow their business. It also meant that Violet spent a lot of time making documentation for them to read and review. None of them had an admin or anyone else who could help, but Sarai’s paid intern did help put together some stuff whenever Violet needed it. She was still in school and only worked part-time, though, so often, Violet relied on the rest of them to get her what she needed, and she would put the deck or document together herself.

When a phone rang a moment later, Sarai looked up to see that it was Arlowe’s. She glanced at the name that flashed on the screen and was surprised to see that it was Gabi Durand. Last night, Arlowe had asked for her number as Gabi had been leaving. Sarai had watched it happen, wondering why Arlowe had done it for a moment, but then, Arlowe had told Gabi that she would text her her own number, and that way, if she did want to know about the room later, she could reach her.

“Hello?” Arlowe answered.

Sarai pretended that she’d gone back to work, but she was definitely eavesdropping because this was just Arlowe’s style – she had a way of coming up with an excuse or reason to get a woman’s number. Sarai hadn’t ever been able to do what Arlowe could do when it came to picking up women, and that thought had her eavesdropping even more.

“Oh, hey. Yeah, I’m good. What’s up?”

Arlowe stood up and, with the phone pressed to her ear, quickly left the garage, leaving Sarai at her desk, listening as Arlowe’s voice trailed off, wishing the woman had stayed in the garage so that she could hear whatever they were talking about.

“Hey, I’m going to get a snack. I’ll be right back,” she said to Violet and Enya, who weren’t paying attention.

Sarai hurried out of the garage and into the kitchen, but Arlowe wasn’t there, so she opened the refrigerator and pretended to look inside for something to eat. Then, she heard Arlowe’s voice.

“Yeah, that’s great,” Arlowe said with a little laugh. “Really? Oh, that sucks.” She paused. “Okay. Yeah, that sounds good. I don’t know if you have a car or not, but I can pick you up if you need me to. I know you just moved.”

Sarai closed the refrigerator and didn’t know what to do now because if she went back into the garage, she wouldn’t be able to hear the rest of their conversation, but just standing in the kitchen, not finding the snack that she had told the others she was getting, wasn’t the answer, either.

“No problem,” Arlowe said. “I’ll see you then.”

That sounded like the end of the conversation, so Sarai quickly pulled open the refrigerator door again to give herself an excuse for being in there and thought about how Arlowe and Gabi had gotten along well the previous night. Gabi had sat down next to Sarai at first, and Sarai had glanced over at her a few times, liking how Gabi looked in glasses. She found herself staring at them and the eyes behind them more than once. Then, Violet had accidentally kicked Sarai in the back, which had probably been a good thing because it had gotten Sarai to realize what she’d been doing.

Later, though, Gabi had gone to the bathroom, and Enya had moved to sit in the vacant spot next to her to ask her a question about something work-related. Sarai had been annoyed, but she hadn’t been able to tell Enya to go back to her own seat, and when Gabi had returned, instead of sitting on the now-vacant spot on the sofa, she had sat down next to Arlowe on the floor, and the two had started talking about football, with Arlowe explaining some of the rules and offering to let Gabi borrow one of her older jerseys if she wanted. Gabi had declined, but the two of them had been laughing a bunch until the game had ended and people had begun to head out. Gabi had hung back for a few extra minutes, still talking to Arlowe, and when she’d given Arlowe her number, Sarai had felt a pull in her gut, but she’d had no right to say anything to either of them. Gabi was single. Arlowe was single. Arlowe was also a bit of a player these days, yes, but Gabi was an adult and could handle herself.

Sarai remembered that first night in Amsterdam when they’d gone out to a bar with her friends. None of them had been carded but Gabi, who’d only been eighteen, and it had reminded her of their age difference and where they’d been in their lives. The whole afternoon before that, though, she’d been having fun with the younger woman. They’d gone to a few of the places Gabi had wanted to check out, and Sarai had watched her take pictures of pretty much everything and smile the whole time they’d been sharing a funnel of French fries, which the city was known for. She had dipped hers in ketchup, and Gabi had opted for a special mayonnaise-based sauce from the place where they’d bought them. Sarai had liked her a lot, and after thinking that she’d probably date no one while in Amsterdam because there would be no point, when she’d watched Gabi nearly get knocked over by a bicycle because she’d drifted into the bike lane while they’d been walking, Sarai had laughed and had nearly asked Gabi out on a date right there and then.

She hadn’t because she’d already been watching Arlowe worry about what would happen to her and Eline when she had to go home, so that night at the bar, when Gabi had been talking about the rest of her gap year and her plans to go to university in Paris after that, Sarai had decided to push her little crush away, show Gabi around Amsterdam, and take her to the train station on Sunday.

Now, Gabi was talking to Arlowe on the phone, making her laugh, and Arlowe was offering to pick Gabi up, which likely meant that they were going out somewhere together; maybe just to hang out, or maybe to even go out on a date. Sarai had no reason to be annoyed or upset, yet she was. She grabbed a bag of chips that one of them had left on the table, opened it, and shoved a handful into her mouth.

“Damn. You’re hungry,” Arlowe noted.

Sarai just nodded and chewed, glad to have her mouth full because she had no idea what to say to Arlowe about her hangout session or possible date with someone she’d liked a long time ago.

“Listen, that was Gabi on the phone. I got her number last night.”

“I remember. I was there,” she replied as she finished chewing and sat down in her chair at the table.

“I think I’m going to get in trouble with you again because she wants to come back and check out the house.”