Page 15 of Paradigm

“Want me to type it for you?” Sarai asked.

“Yes, please,” she replied and handed Sarai her phone.

“Hey, since we’re all here, can I maybe ask for a vote on something else while Sarai types?” Violet asked.

“If it’s about my request for a new coffee machine, you already know my answer is yes, VI,” Arlowe said.

“No, it’s not a work thing.” Violet smiled wide. “I want to ask Stella to marry me.”

“What?” Sarai exclaimed and handed Arlowe back her phone. “Just hit send.”

“You’re proposing?” Enya asked.

“I want to. Stella is it for me. She’s the love of my life, and it’s been over two years. I want to marry her.”

“You don’t need us to vote on that, Vi,” Arlowe replied before she read Sarai’s message.

“She would be a part of our family,” Violet noted. “This family. You three are really the only family I have since I don’t talk to my own much these days, and I want your blessing; all three of you.”

“I vote yes,” Enya said immediately. “Stella is great, and I can see how much you two love each other.”

“I vote yes, too, obviously, but do I now have to get the group’s permission if I want to propose to Gabi?”

“Sarai, you just moved in with the woman. I’d say give it a minute,” Arlowe said.

“I didn’t mean today. I mean in general. If we’re going to do that, I’d want you all to give your blessings, like Vi said, I think.”

“We all love Gabi, and we know you do, too. Plus, it’s easy to see how much she loves you. So, it’ll be a yes when you do that. Now, can we please refocus on me? I’m about to send this damn email.”

“You didn’t vote, Arlowe,” Violet reminded.

“Violet, you have my blessing to marry the love of your life,” she said. “You don’t need it, but it’s all yours. I’ll stand up beside you when you say, ‘I do,’ and I’ll be the one planning your bachelorette party because these two are lame and don’t know how to party-plan.”

Violet laughed a little and told her, “Send the email, Arlowe. It’s time.”

Arlowe reread the message yet again, decided that what Sarai had typed would have to be enough, took another of the many deep breaths she’d been taking that day before actually hitting send, and when she set her phone down quickly, as if it were going to self-destruct, they all got silent for a minute.

“You’re really getting married, huh?” Sarai said, breaking their silence eventually.

“Well, first I have to ask her, and she has to say yes, but I hope so, yeah,” Violet replied.

Then, Arlowe’s phone dinged, but it wasn’t an email notification. It was a text message from an unknown number.

“It’s her,” she said, opening the text app, and with her shaky hands, she added Eline’s name into her phone for the first time in a dozen years before she went back to the message itself.

“What did she say?” Sarai asked.

“Just letting me know that this is her number. Should I reply?”

“Yes, Arlowe. Set up the coffee thing,” Enya instructed.

“For when?”

“Arlowe, set it up for as soon as possible,” Violet said. “Skip work if you have to. You two have been waiting long enough.”

CHAPTER 6

Eline had arrived an hour early. She hadn’t been able to sit at home and wait after she had gotten ready, also way too early, to see Arlowe for the first time in forever, so she’d gotten into her car and had driven to the local café that was filled with people in their twenties and thirties, all on their laptops or phones, wearing noise-canceling headphones and sipping way-too-expensive coffee. She’d gotten into the line, ordered a large plain coffee, and after finding a table, she’d sat down and stared out the window to her right, turning every minute, or so it seemed, to the front window where the door was, not knowing which direction Arlowe would be coming from.