CHAPTER 18
Sarai watched as Arlowe and Gabi laughed over at Arlowe’s desk.
She knew what Arlowe had told her about not being interested in Gabi, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that maybe, just maybe, something was or could be going on.
The two of them could speak a language that Sarai didn’t understand, and she was used to that with Enya, but not with Arlowe, who, like Gabi, was a self-taught coder.
They loved making computers do what they wanted them to do, and yes, Gabi preferred to work in hardware, but the hardware needed the software to make it work, and that was what they’d been talking and laughing about together for the past five minutes while Violet had given them all a quick break so that she could call Nancy back.
The woman had left a voicemail about the furniture and the lease, and Violet knew that Nancy would be at a convention of some kind for the rest of the week, so she’d wanted to call her back as soon as possible.
Enya was at her computer, eating a cookie and staring at the screen like it was about to unveil something to her.
It was likely that she was trying to figure something out, so Sarai left her alone.
Stella was in Violet’s chair, probably checking her email on her phone.
Sarai was sitting at her desk chair, which she had turned around to face the monitor where, before their break, Violet had stood, presenting, and she really wished Violet would just finally call this meeting to a close so that she could disappear into her bedroom and talk to no one for the rest of the day.
The previous day had been nice. They’d checked out the office space, which Sarai had been excited and also nervous about, but then, she’d talked to Gabi, and she’d left there feeling like they’d made up a little in that lobby.
What Sarai had found interesting, though, was that Gabi had, apparently, believed that she had brought someone home after Violet and Stella’s party.
Gabi had thought for an entire week that Sarai had had sex with someone that night when, in reality, all she’d done was bring an intoxicated Enya, with her famous drunk laugh, home.
When they’d gone to lunch the previous day after checking out that office, Sarai had sat next to Gabi, with Enya on her other side.
Arlowe and Violet had dominated much of the conversation, which was normal for their group, but soon, Sarai had started participating, Enya had joined in as well, and then, surprisingly, Gabi had, too, begun offering thoughts on where they could put desks and what they could name the conference rooms. Sarai had been excited that Gabi cared and had been trying to help, but there had also been something that scared her about it.
First, Gabi had been just someone she’d met years ago for one weekend before she had run into her again at a bar.
Then, she’d been driving Sarai home, and Arlowe had offered up her old room.
Gabi had become their roommate, which was fine because Sarai could crush on her roommate without it being a big deal, but now, Gabi was also technically a contractor at their company, and while she wasn’t exactly making any real money, she’d signed paperwork and had joined the company.
So, Sarai was now living with and working with her crush.
That was already a little much for her, but after lunch, they’d come home, Violet had left, and Sarai had planned to go to her room to take a nap since she hadn’t been sleeping well lately, but Gabi had asked again if she wanted to hang out, and Sarai hadn’t been able to resist the invitation.
Unfortunately for her, Arlowe and Enya hadn’t been able to resist it, either, and they’d ended up in an impromptu work meeting yet again, where Arlowe and Gabi had started a conversation around the software, which Enya and Sarai hadn’t been able to participate in, so Sarai had gone to her room then.
Now, they were in yet another impromptu work meeting, and Sarai was yawning.
She was also annoyed because she knew when Arlowe was flirting.
The woman couldn’t turn it off to save her damn life, so she’d been right about that.
A petty person might have decided to look Eline up on social media, send her a message, and ask her to reach out to Arlowe like right this very moment to throw Arlowe off her game, but Sarai wouldn’t do that, of course. Still, she was tempted.
“Okay. I’m back. Let’s keep going,” Violet said when she walked back in. “You were saying something about a watch, Gabi?”
“No update on the office?” Sarai asked.
“She had the prices for the furniture. I asked her to negotiate that down. Office furniture is incredibly expensive as is, and they wanted me to take all of it, which we don’t need.
They were offering a volume discount, but that was still more expensive than us paying full price on the furniture we actually do need, so I told her we wouldn’t take any of it if they don’t go a little lower on the monthly rental. ”
“Get ‘em, Vi,” Arlowe said with a little laugh.
“Yeah, get ‘em,” Gabi added, laughing next to her.
Sarai wanted to throw up in her mouth.
“Back to the hardware,” she stated. “I’d like to be done with this meeting as soon as possible, please.”
“Why? Got a hot date tonight?” Arlowe asked.
“No, Arlowe,” she said, turning to glare at her. “Some of us just like not working on a Sunday.”
“Something you want to share with the rest of the class there, Sarai?” Violet asked.
“Violet, it’s Sunday. We worked all day yesterday, too. I thought, when you moved out, that we might actually get a weekend day off at least once a month.”
“We’re making real progress, Sarai,” Violet said. “And Gabi’s here now. She has a day job. We’re going to have to make some adjustments. She can’t design hardware for us all on her own. She’ll need our input.”
“I get what Sarai is saying, though,” Enya said, surprising everyone.
“You do?” Violet asked.
“We’ve always done things this way, but it doesn’t mean we should keep doing things this way.”
“Meaning?” Violet asked as she crossed her arms over her chest, which was the first sign of the impending meeting apocalypse.
“Just that Sarai is in marketing. She’s not in product design or engineering. We’ve always had meetings with all four of us here, but sometimes, someone isn’t actually involved in the project, or at least, not at that time.”
“Sarai has to market the hardware,” Violet insisted.
“Yes, in, like, five years,” Sarai said.
“So, you don’t want to be in the meeting today? That’s what I’m gathering?”
“I’m only saying that we look at who actually needs to be in these meetings from now on, like Enya is suggesting.
Odds are, Enya doesn’t even need to be here anymore.
She already handed her notes around the user experience that she wants over to Gabi and Arlowe, and she can’t code or build things.
Neither can I. Hell, Vi, you don’t really even need to be here.
So, if Arlowe and Gabi want to work on something on a Sunday, they can, but maybe they would prefer to have a meeting at, like, five, Monday through Friday, or on a day Gabi is working from home.
You wouldn’t have to give up your Sunday, and neither would Stella, who I actually forgot was here. ” Sarai looked over at Stella. “Sorry.”
“No, don’t be. I agree with you. I’d love to have a weekend with my girlfriend that doesn’t involve driving over here for something work-related,” Stella replied.
“You’re a consultant,” Violet said, looking slightly betrayed.
“Oh, is this when it starts?” Gabi whispered. “The foreplay?”
Arlowe laughed and replied, “Yeah, this meeting will be over in, like, five minutes if we let them get going.”
“Should we?” Gabi asked Arlowe.
“Yes. That way, you and I can actually get some work done, and everyone else can go.”
Sarai looked down at her feet.
“I am a consultant, but that doesn’t mean that I need to consult on the weekend, babe. I can come over on a day I’m working from home and work on something with you during lunch.”
“No, you can’t,” Arlowe said loudly.
“Why not?” Violet asked, her arms still crossed over her chest.
“Because Violet doesn’t have a bedroom here anymore, and if you two argue about something, I’m not walking in on you out here or in the living room.”
“We don’t always fight and then have sex,” Violet said.
“Um… I think Stella’s face would disagree,” Gabi replied.
Sarai glanced over at Stella, who was looking around the room, meeting no one’s eye.
“We have self-control,” Violet asserted.
“Sure, you do,” Arlowe said.
Gabi laughed. Enya laughed. Sarai wished she weren’t here.
“Let’s spend five minutes talking about the watch idea, and then, we can end the meeting and Sarai’s apparent suffering.”
“Don’t make it dramatic, Violet,” Sarai said.
“I don’t think a watch is the right idea,” Gabi replied.
“I spent some time yesterday working on a few mock-ups, and based on what Enya said would be the best user experience, I think glasses are the way to go. The trick is going to be making them look good. Most smart glasses and goggles don’t because they have to be big and heavy, and even the ones that look okay still aren’t the most stylish.
Since ours don’t need all the other features, we won’t need as many components, which means we can make lighter glasses.
I’d like to work on a few different versions, and I was thinking about how there’s that glasses company that makes the magnetic clip-ons for frames.
The frames themselves are the same, but they could clip on different-colored accessories or something.
Those are easily made, and it would give us something to entice people to get them. ”
“I love that idea, but I’m still worried about only having the translation feature,” Violet shared.
“We could also have gamification,” Enya said. “Right, Arlowe?”
“We could put the gamification inside the glasses, yes. It will mean more work, but it could be cool for the students who would use the glasses. Sarai was thinking about a school volume discount to entice schools to buy and use our app for their language classes. If we add gamification into the glasses and tie it to the game in the app, the students would be able to earn points through using the glasses, not just the app.”
Sarai got an idea and said, “And what if there’s a merch store?”
“I’m sorry; a what?” Violet asked.
“For prizes?” Stella asked.
“Yes, but only – or, at least, primarily – marketed to the schools. There could be prizes that the schools or students could earn. We could have stuff drop-shipped for us so that we don’t have to do it ourselves, and we can make it something that really gets the kids to learn.”
“So, not stuff with the company logo on it all over the place? We could have that, too, but other stuff mainly,” Stella said. “I can look into how that would work.”
“Babe, I love you, but we’re years away from that.”
“Not if you launch it with a partnership,” Sarai argued.
“You mean as part of a partnership with someone else’s glasses?” Gabi asked.
Sarai turned and replied, “Potentially, yeah. They’d buy our software with the gamification working on their glasses, which–”
“Gives us testing and proving ground for the concept,” Arlowe interrupted.
“Yes. Then, we launch a merch store that’s small but respectable and obviously work out the costs so that we don’t lose money, but we’re probably not going to make much on it, if any at all.”
“I like this. We can have a school store where students can get things they’d need for school,” Stella said. “Supplies, fun things, and maybe something worth a ton of points that they’d have to save up for.”
“Yeah. And if we need to change pricing to accommodate all of this, now is the time to do that before we sign any partnership agreements anyway. We might even be able to convince them to carry some of the costs. I don’t know. That’s more Violet’s area than mine,” Sarai said.
“And this is why we all have meetings together,” Violet added. “Because we’re better when we bounce ideas off each other.”
“Gabi, how hard is it to add the gamification piece into the hardware instead of just the real-time translation?”
“I don’t know. I’d have to examine Arlowe’s code some more, but from what I’ve seen so far, it shouldn’t take much. Her code is great.”
“Tell that to the bugs she has to wake up to fight,” Sarai said, and it only took her a moment before she realized that she’d said it out loud.
“Hey! I was a one-person team before we hired other people, doing this alone with no support, and we hardly had any downtime. Do you know what a miracle that is?”
“No, I obviously don’t, because I don’t speak binary.”
“Me neither,” Enya added.
“The one language you don’t know,” Violet joked with a little laugh.
“I bet I could learn to code using similar techniques to how I learn other languages.”
“She has idea face,” Arlowe noted, pointing at Enya.
“We could add a computer language component.”
“I thought you were going to work on ASL next,” Sarai said.
“I am. I’ve got the plan down already. It’s on Arlowe’s backlog.”
“I think that one comes first,” Violet said.
“Me too, for what it’s worth,” Stella added.
“So, do you all want me to go all-in on glasses and add in the game and prize feature?” Gabi asked.
“Yes, I think so,” Violet replied.
“I’ll need to dive in, which means headphones and being out of this meeting,” Gabi said.
“Yes, she gets it,” Arlowe replied with a laugh.
“I’m going to grab something to eat,” Sarai stated and stood.
“And then what?” Violet asked.
“Work out a plan on the prize thing,” she replied. “And the marketing component of it, obviously, Vi.”
Violet walked over to her and leaned in a little.
“You can do that tomorrow if you need a break, Sarai.”
“No, it’s fine. Everyone else is still working. I should be, too.”
“You don’t have to. You can go if you want. I mean that.”
“Well, I’m in it now. I’ve got, like, five ideas that I need to write down. I just need a break, and maybe…” She turned to see Gabi and Arlowe still talking. “I’ll do that in my bedroom.”