CHAPTER 5
“You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” Sarai noted. “And we promised that if we ever saw a ghost, we’d tell each other about it so that we could go full Ghostbusters on their ass.”
“Huh?” Violet said without looking up from her computer screen.
“What are you looking at?” Sarai asked, pulling Arlowe’s desk chair over next to Violet.
“You know she hates when you do that. It’s a very particular chair.”
“It’s a chair. She can calm down.” Sarai looked at Violet’s screen. “Is that from Stella the boss Ross?”
“I opened my email for the first time this morning because you guys always make fun of me for being glued to it, and I was met with this. It came in around nine last night.”
“Dearest Violet Russell? What the fuck?” Sarai laughed. “Nice way to open an email. Old-school. I respect it.”
“It’s really weird. She says that even though I was a bitch back in school, she’ll still do a demo with me, but I haven’t replied to her email to set one up.”
“Oh, my God. She really called you a bitch?” Sarai set the computer in her own lap, leaned back in Arlowe’s ergonomic chair that she’d custom-made for herself, and began reading the email out loud.
“Dearest Violet Russell, you still haven’t responded to my email, even though you sent me one first. Well, you sent the company an email, but I replied, and now, you won’t reply.
Even though you were a bitch to me in school, I’ll still do a demo for you, but you have to click the little blue icon with the words ‘book a demo’ on it and then choose a date and time so that we can do that.
If you don’t want to do that anymore, fine.
I’ll take you off the list. I just wanted to check because it’s been a few days and, in your form, you said that this was urgent.
” Sarai looked up at her and asked, “What form?”
“The contact form. It asked if this was an urgent need for my business. I said yes because I thought that would grab their attention.”
“Please reply at your earliest convenience with either a no, so that I don’t have to email you again, or click the demo button, so that I can show you what we do. Okay. Bye.” Sarai laughed wildly. “Oh, my God. She said, ‘Okay, bye.’ What is this?”
“I have no idea. And I didn’t think I was exactly a bitch to her. We didn’t get along, yes, but I definitely didn’t expect to get an email like that from an SVP of anything.”
“That’s hilarious. And a little disturbing, too. Like, what made her think she should send that?”
“I don’t know. I also don’t know what to do now. Do I tell her that I’m not interested anymore? Cerebral was the best fit for us from what I gathered with my initial research.”
“Maybe reply and ask for someone else there to do the demo, but do it like you’re perfectly cool with her weird-ass email. Wait.” Sarai turned Violet’s computer around in her lap, showing Violet the screen. “She just emailed you again. Came in, like, three seconds ago.”
“She did?”
Violet took her computer back.
“Out of my chair,” Arlowe said when she walked back into the garage office, carrying a cup of coffee.
“It’s closest to Violet’s,” Sarai explained as she stood.
“Your chair has wheels. This floor is concrete. You do the math, Sarai. And what are you all looking at? Did she see a ghost? We said we’d talk about that.”
Arlowe pulled her chair closer to herself and sat down.
“I know. I reminded her as much. But no, she just got an email from Stella, and it’s weird as hell. Then, Stella sent another one. Vi’s reading it now.”
Sarai took Arlowe’s coffee cup and stole a sip.
“I’m sitting right here and can hear you,” Violet stated.
“We know.” Arlowe took her cup back and asked Sarai, “Why was her email weird?”
“She’s apologizing,” Violet said.
“For what?” Arlowe asked.
“The first email.”
“The weird one?”
“Arlowe, shut up for a sec,” Sarai said. “What does this email say?”
“Violet, I am so sorry,” Violet began reading the email out loud.
“I cannot believe I sent that email, let alone typed it. I know once you put something out there, you can’t take it back, but in case you didn’t know by now, this is Stella Ross from our semester abroad program.
I noticed that it was you on the intake form, so I thought I’d be your sales rep since we already knew each other.
Then, last night, I, very unfortunately, had a little too much wine at dinner, and some old, very immature feelings from back then rose to the surface.
I let some of them out via email, which was entirely inappropriate and unprofessional.
I remembered this morning when I woke up that I’d actually sent it instead of keeping it in my drafts to delete later, and I am mortified.
I know there’s no excuse, and I apologize.
I’d understand if you don’t want to go with Cerebral because of my unprofessional behavior, but if you are still interested in a demo, you don’t have to have it with me.
I’ll happily have my best rep work with you.
Again, I am very sorry. Feel free to ghost me because you’d have every right, but if you do want a demo, just let me know.
I’ll move anything around to make that happen for you. Stella Ross, SVP of–”
“We know the rest,” Arlowe cut her off. “So, she’s saving big-time face, huh?”
“I guess so,” Violet replied. “Was I really a bitch to her back then?” she asked them both.
“I don’t know. I was in a different program. I know you talked about her a lot, but I don’t know how you were with her,” Arlowe said.
“Not nice but, like, competitive, I thought,” Sarai answered. “Maybe a little too competitive, but she was that way with you, too, so it went both ways, from what I saw.”
“What do I do?” Violet asked. “I don’t think we can get hardware going right now, even if we hire someone tomorrow. We would still need to work out the whole plan of attack there, and we need to start making real money. None of us has made an actual paycheck yet. We’re being funded by–”
“The bank of Vi?” Arlowe asked.
“I was going to say investors. A good tool could help us move a lot faster.”
“You’re right,” Arlowe stated.
“Well, is Cerebral really the best option you’ve seen, like you said?” Sarai asked.
“I think so, but I’ll know more after a demo or two. I have one set up with a different company tomorrow, and the other one I looked into is set up for next week.”
“I think you should at least do the demo with them,” Arlowe suggested. “Might be uncomfortable for the two of you, yeah, but she’s the one who messed up, so at least there’s that. Now, can I get to work, or are we going to keep talking about this?”
Then, not waiting for a reply, Arlowe turned her chair toward her computer and put on her noise-canceling headphones.
“She went to manners school with Stella, I guess,” Sarai said.
“I think I have to reply.”
“Do you want to be a bitch to her first? I can help with that. I’m a great copywriter. Tell me what you want to say, and I’ll type it out for you,” Sarai offered as she sat down in her own chair in front of her computer.
“No. I was already a bitch to her back then, apparently. I’d like to have the upper hand now, if possible. Might get us a sizeable discount later if I hold on to her email and don’t use it against her just yet.”
“Dirty.” Sarai pointed at her and winked. “I like it.”
Violet then typed her response to the second email, deliberately not addressing the first one, and read it to Sarai, who nodded but told Violet that she wished she’d be at least a little bitchy.
Violet held strong, though, and a few minutes later, she hit send and got back to work just as Enya walked in with her headphones on, saying words in some language over and over again, which was a normal occurrence for their genius friend, roommate, and co-worker.
Fifteen minutes later, Violet had Stella’s response.
She looked around and noticed that Arlowe was deep into whatever she was coding, Enya was typing something, too, and Sarai was up at the dry-erase board she used as a blank canvas to work out marketing strategies before typing them up, so she decided to read the email to herself and share it with them later.
Violet,
Thank you for giving Cerebral, and me, another chance.
I really cannot believe I sent that email.
I apologize again, and if you’re free sometime today, I’d be happy to show you how Cerebral works or introduce you to my top rep, as I mentioned.
Her name is Monique, and she used to be a sales engineer before moving into direct sales.
She’s a genius with our tool, and I think she can explain it better than I can, if I’m being honest, but I can at least do the initial demo for you anytime today or this week. Just let me know.
Thanks again,
Stella
Violet decided to take a chance. She was more curious about Stella Ross than she was about Cerebral, and given the fact that Stella was trying to make things up to her after that initial email, she also thought it would be interesting to watch the woman grovel over a Zoom meeting.
If that made her a bitch, so be it. She clicked the blue icon that Stella had directed her to so passive-aggressively earlier, booked a slot for later that day, and chose not to reply to Stella’s actual email and just get back to work, letting Stella stew for a while.