CHAPTER 29
“I’ve got it,” Arlowe said. “I’ll have it all taken care of, I mean.”
“Thank you,” Eline replied. “It’s a lot.”
“It’s not that big of a deal. I’ll just have movers pick it up and take it to the house.”
“Arlowe, you should sell it. Use whatever the stuff happens to make for the admin fees for the visa.”
“I’m not worried about that, and I want to keep this stuff. It’ll be in the garage until you get back,” she said.
“I thought you wanted to park your cars in there for once,” Eline said.
“We’ve gone this whole time without doing that. I think we’ll be fine. I’ll cover everything up so that it’s still in good condition for when you come back, and we can move it into your new place.”
“My new place?” Eline asked. “Right.”
Arlowe wasn’t ready to commit to them getting a place together when Eline returned.
It had been about two weeks of awkwardness between them since Eline had told her that she was taking the job, and that had been yet another difficult conversation.
They’d had more than a few of those since their reconnection, and it was all too familiar, except it was happening much faster this time.
Previously, they had had a few months before things had gotten difficult, but it had been a few days, maybe a week this time, and Arlowe was still trying to process having Eline back in her life only to lose her again.
While she knew that she wasn’t losing Eline completely, it still felt like something was ending, and that made her want to hide in her bedroom, curl up in bed, and cry, not moving for the next twelve years.
When Eline had asked her to help her figure out what to do with her stuff, suggesting that she should sell what she could, since most of it was pretty new, and use the proceeds to pay the company for the visa process, Arlowe had agreed, but now that they were sitting on Eline’s sofa, and there were suitcases packed and sitting by the door, waiting for them to be carried downstairs, Arlowe didn’t want to sell any of these things. She wanted to keep everything.
Eline had liked it all and bought it for her apartment, so Arlowe didn’t see the need in selling it when Eline could return in four to six months and would only have to buy new stuff all over again.
It was also selfish on her part. If she kept all of the furniture and everything else that Eline couldn’t take home with her, it made it more likely that Eline would return and sooner.
Of course, she knew that wasn’t true, but she’d take all the hope that she could get today.
“Arlowe, you don’t have to keep it. I didn’t have time to sell it, with everything else that I had to do before… leaving, but–”
Arlowe wanted to remind Eline that she could’ve had a lot more time before she had to leave; she’d chosen to take this job instead and hadn’t pushed back on the start date, but Arlowe understood that Eline was trying not to have to pay rent for another month when she wouldn’t be here.
She really did. One of the things she’d always loved about this woman was her logical and practical side because Arlowe had one of her own, but when logic got in the way of her being with the woman she loved, she hated it.
Eline had asked the employment attorney from GoldStash to stop working on her visa extension since she would be leaving anyway, but she’d also interviewed with Arlowe’s company for the role they’d specifically posted for her.
They had gone through all the motions as quickly as possible so that Eline could move back to Holland with at least the interviews and the assignment completed, which Eline had, of course, aced, and they were going to keep the role open for at least another few weeks to be thorough.
In addition, since they weren’t in a time crunch anymore, they could keep the role open even longer to demonstrate that they had talked to as many candidates as possible.
Still, Arlowe had been surprised to find that while they had gotten over a hundred and fifty candidates so far, none of them had done better than Eline on the coding work, and only about two of them had come close to having her experience and know-how in the interview process.
It had been hard for her to separate herself from the fact that Eline was her girlfriend, but Mitchell and Clay hadn’t known that, and they’d both given Eline a solid yes, asking when she could start, which had Arlowe and everyone else feeling better about this whole thing.
“I’d rather just keep it,” she interjected. “That way, when you come back, it’s already here. You had to go shopping for all this stuff once. Why do it again if you don’t have to?”
“Well, okay. At least, I got all the kitchen stuff packed up.” Eline looked over to the pile of boxes that were on the kitchen table and the floor around it. “Would make it easier to move.”
“Yeah,” she said before she looked down at her phone, tapped the screen, and checked the time. “We should probably get going.”
“We can wait another few minutes, can’t we?”
Eline moved into her side and snuggled against her, and Arlowe resisted the urge to pull away because she wanted to hold Eline for as long as possible before they had to leave, so she wrapped her arm around Eline’s shoulders and rested her head on top of Eline’s on her own shoulder, trying not to think about the fact that soon, she wouldn’t have this again for a while.
“We can take another five minutes,” she replied.
“Good,” Eline said and moved her hand under Arlowe’s shirt, resting it on her stomach, which made Arlowe twitch.
They had been back together for weeks now, but with everything that had happened, they still hadn’t gone beyond kissing.
Arlowe knew that Eline wanted to wait in the beginning, but she suspected that neither of them wanted to make love for the first time in forever right before Eline had to go, so as much as they both wanted to do that, they hadn’t.
In fact, it hadn’t even come up, but now that Eline was stroking her skin with her fingertips, Arlowe sort of regretted that decision because she didn’t know when she’d be seeing Eline again or how long they would have to be long-distance girlfriends.
“Babe, I’m sorry. We…”
“No, I know,” Eline said and shifted away from her. “I don’t want to miss my flight.”
“Do you want to use the bathroom before we go or something? I…” Arlowe chuckled. “I don’t know why I just said that. I felt like I should say something romantic or something, but all I could come up with was that.”
“Save romantic for the airport,” Eline replied and stood up, holding out her hands for Arlowe to take. “Let’s get my stuff into your car.”
“Shit, Eline. Your car,” she said, taking Eline’s hands, but not standing up yet. “What are you going to do with it? I forgot all about it.”
“Oh, Enya said she would pick it up and just let it sit outside of the house until I get back. She even offered to drive it once a week or something so that the battery doesn’t die before I get back.”
“Enya offered that?” Arlowe asked as she stood.
“Yeah, at that really awkward going-away party at the house. She asked what I was doing with everything, and I told her I was selling my stuff and was just going to go back to the used car dealership where I bought it from to see if they’d take it back for a little less than I paid for it.
She said I should keep it at the house. She’s going to pick it up tonight. ”
“I have the best best friends,” Arlowe stated.
“She didn’t tell you?”
“No, she probably forgot, honestly. It’s Enya. She has a way of walking into and out of a room without people even noticing sometimes. I think she goes invisible for a second or something.”
Eline laughed a little and asked, “Are you ready?”
“No,” she answered honestly.
“Me neither, if it makes you feel better.”
“It doesn’t,” she said.
There was no use rehashing their situation.
They’d had arguments and conversations over the past couple of weeks where Arlowe had tried to convince her to stay, and Eline had walked her through the tight timeline.
Arlowe had suggested the premium processing for the application, going against the lawyer’s recommendation.
Eline had reasoned that it could be declined and then, she’d have to go anyway.
Back and forth they’d gone, but nearly every night, Arlowe had stayed over.
There had been some crying on both their parts.
There had been a little laughter, but not much, and in some way, Arlowe understood what Eline was doing.
She wanted them to start again the right way and without all of this constant pressure, and her leaving would at least relieve them of some of that.
The drive to the airport was only about an hour in traffic, but it felt like both forever and only a few minutes at the same time.
Arlowe didn’t know what to say as she drove, and Eline clearly didn’t, either, so they just held hands and sat in silence until Arlowe parked the car in the short-term parking lot.
She helped Eline get her bags out of the trunk, and they walked, rolling them along, unable to hold hands anymore because they didn’t have a free one, until they got to the counter to check in the bags.
After those were all tagged and headed toward the plane, they left the line and stood awkwardly in front of security, where Arlowe would have to leave her girlfriend without knowing when she’d see her again.
“Arlowe, I should go. We start boarding in thirty minutes, and it’s an international flight.”
“I know,” she replied. “I was just thinking of something romantic to say, like you wanted, but all I can think of is the fact that I’m not going to see you for a while, and I’m still a little angry about that.”
“Oh, babe…” Eline pulled her in by the belt loops. “I know. Me too. But this is the right thing to do for both of us.”
“Is this what you felt like when I was leaving for the airport that day?” Arlowe asked.