Page 38 of Derivation

“Oh, yeah. I don’t want to just invite myself. Can you make sure it’s really okay that I go? I know you said that the four of you have a thing where it’s okay, but I’d rather she knows if I’m going to be there.”

“Sure. One sec,” Sarai replied and pulled out her phone.

“I didn’t mean right now,” she said, laughing a little.

“It’s fine. I just texted her,” Sarai told her and looked down again. “Oh, she just texted back. She said it’s fine, but she spelled it…”

“What?”

Sarai held up the phone, and Gabi saw the word ‘fine’ with, like, six Is and nine Ns.

“What the hell?” Gabi asked before another message came through.

Violet Russell: Sorry. Stella was kissing my neck, and I hit send before I could fix the typo. Don’t message again tonight. I’ll be busy.

Gabi laughed, so Sarai turned the phone back toward her own face and rolled her eyes.

“Jealous?” Gabi teased.

“Obviously.”

Gabi pushed her glasses up higher on her nose and said, “Well, I think Jo likes you. If you ask her out, she’ll say yes.”

“She’s not my type,” Sarai replied as she put her phone away.

“What is your type?” she asked, suddenly interested.

“Not Jo.”

“So, not Jo specifically, or not a Jo-like type?”

“This is a weird conversation.” Sarai laughed. “And Jo’s nice, but not my type physically. Is that what you’re asking?”

“Yeah, I guess.”

“What’s your type?” Sarai asked and picked up her glass to take a drink.

“I don’t know that I have one,” she replied and thought back to seeing Sarai in the train station for the first time.

Her dad had given her Sarai’s information, so Gabi had looked her up before she had left Paris for Amsterdam. She remembered thinking about how beautiful Sarai was in her social media pictures, but seeing her in person had been a whole other experience. Sarai was still just as beautiful, if not more so now, and Gabi really wished that Sarai had accepted her offer to come to Paris for a visit. She’d actually planned the whole weekend without Sarai knowing. They would’ve hit up all the usual tourist spots so that Sarai could see them, but she’d picked a few things that only the locals knew about, too. She had been planning on making a reservation at a nice restaurant, impressing Sarai with her fluent French, and even telling Sarai that she liked her before Sarai would have to go back. That last thing would have taken a lot of courage, but Gabi had planned to do it, at least.

That trip hadn’t happened, and when Sarai had basically said no to her coming back to Amsterdam, Gabi had given up on the idea of telling her, and their texting had grown more and more infrequent until it had ceased altogether. Then, her dad had died shortly after, and her whole life had changed. Gabi still couldn’t believe that she was sitting in front of the woman she’d had a crush on all those years ago and that she was now going to be living with her, too.

“Nachos with no sour cream. I had them add extra guac since you usually order that. I’m guessing you just forgot tonight.” Jo set the plate of nachos down and added, “Our guacamole has extra onions in it.” She nodded to Gabi. “And a burger with onions on the side, just in case you change your mind.”

“Thanks, Jo,” Sarai said.

“No problem.”

When Jo walked away, Gabi laughed hard. Sarai joined in and scooped off all the extra guacamole, which Gabi kind of loved.

“I only get guac when I’m with my friends because they like it. I’m not really a fan.”

“Oh, can I tell her to take it back and have them make it again?” Gabi asked, not feeling petty in the slightest.

Sarai laughed again.

CHAPTER 11