CHAPTER 26
The agreement had been sent back, which meant that she, as the SVP of sales, had to countersign, and because they’d given Violet and her team such a big discount, a regular rep couldn’t move it from the sales stage to the implementation stage.
“Hey, Monique? Got a minute?” Stella asked when she saw the woman walking by her office.
“Yeah. What’s up?” Monique said, walking in.
“We just got the signed agreement back finally, so you’re good to get started on their implementation. I think Arlowe is your main point of contact, but feel free to check with Violet first on that. She might want to run point on any meetings.”
“Okay. Cool. How many hours am I supposed to give them again?”
“Twenty-five, but if they’re about to go over and need a few more, let me know. I’ll okay it.”
“Really?” Monique asked her. “We’re normally pretty big sticklers with my hours.”
“I know. I… am hoping they lead to bigger fish, so I want to help a little more if I can.”
“Oh, yeah? I thought they weren’t really a big deal.”
“On their own, they’re not, but the CEO has a few connections, so I’d like to keep her happy.”
Stella thought about how she had tried to make Violet happy the other night in a very different way and how she’d failed.
She shouldn’t have cooked dinner or set out candles.
She should’ve known better. Violet had run out on her a few times, and she’d made it clear that she only wanted sex from Stella. Stella should have listened.
“Whatever you want. You’re the boss. I’ll let you know when they get close to twenty-five and if they need more time.”
“Thanks,” she replied.
“Hey,” Jen said when she walked in. “Hey, Monique.”
“Hey. Want to grab lunch later?” Monique asked.
“Sure,” Jen replied.
“I’ll grab you around one,” Monique said and headed out of Stella’s office.
“So, how did it go? You’ve been in meetings all morning, and I texted you yesterday, but–”
“But I was busy,” Jen interjected and closed the office door before she turned around and smiled at her. “All day.”
“Yeah?” Stella laughed.
“Oh, yeah. I mean, my God, Stella… the orgasms.”
Stella continued laughing as Jen sat down in her usual chair.
“We made out at the movie, which was amazing, and her hand slid up my dress. I’m not going to lie…
I wanted her to keep going, but we weren’t exactly alone, so we left the theater early, and she came back to my place.
I think we went to sleep around five in the morning, and we didn’t wake up until afternoon, which was why I missed your text yesterday.
We pretty much started going at it again and only stopped for food and water until midnight.
Then, we passed out again. I’m exhausted, but it was totally worth it. ”
“When are you two going out again?”
“Friday night because she’s out of town on a work trip. Her plane just took off. She texted me when she was boarding and gave me her flight number just in case.”
“A flight number just in case? Are you her emergency contact already, too?”
“You’re hilarious,” Jen replied. “She just wanted me to know. We’re going to FaceTime tonight and have dinner together.”
“How very lesbian of you,” Stella teased.
“Yeah, well, when you find a good one…”
“She’s good, huh? More than just in bed?”
“She’s great so far, but I’m not getting ahead of myself.
I mean, I knew I wanted to sleep with her for sure, so I did, and I don’t regret that, but it’s also good to get to know her a little more this week while she’s away and we can’t do that.
If she were here tonight, I’d go to her place, and we’d end up in bed again, so I’m kind of glad we get to talk a little more this week before she gets back. ”
“Then, you’re going to end up back in bed?”
“Oh, absolutely. So, how was your night with Violet?”
“Um… Yeah. Like yours.”
“Like mine? What? That’s all I get?”
“Don’t you have a meeting or something?”
“No. I was back-to-back all morning, but I’m free all afternoon.” Jen tilted her head. “Tell me what happened.”
“Nothing happened. What are you talking about?”
“Which one of you took things too far and tried to turn it into a relationship, and which one of you tried to convince the other that it was just sex, and it should stay that way?”
“What? How did you–”
“I’ve seen the movie, Stella.” Jen rolled her eyes. “What happened?”
“It’s a long story.”
“I’ve got time.”
“Maybe I don’t,” Stella argued.
“Make the time. Come on. What happened?”
“It was me. I’m the one who tried to make it more, okay? You were right. I like her now.”
“I knew it.” Jen chuckled. “How bad is it?”
“I’m not in love with her or anything, but I do like her. She’s different than she was back then. I am, too, I guess, but it’s like those differences make us work now. Or, they could, at least.”
“And she wasn’t into it?”
“She called me and asked me over for dinner with her and her friends, so I went, and we had fun. I brought my bag, but she didn’t even mention sex when she asked me to come over, so that was going to be a bonus if we did anything. Anyway, she’s got that investor meeting today.”
“The one you set up?”
“All I did was send an email and suggest my VC friend maybe give them a look. They reached out to Violet on their own.”
“Sure. Let’s go with that.”
“Anyway… We all went out to the garage, and I helped them brainstorm some stuff. Violet suggested I stay over.”
“Let me guess: you didn’t sleep together.”
“No, we just fell asleep, but she held me, and I held her.”
“You’re smiling now.” Jen pointed at her and laughed. “You loved that.”
“I liked it. I haven’t been held like that in a while.”
“Want me to big-spoon you now? There’s a couch in the kitchen.”
“Asshole,” she replied, laughing. “And I went out to the garage the next morning. We all worked together on the deck, and Violet argued with me a bunch, but it was, like, the good kind of arguing. I left in the afternoon, and it was a little weird, but then she texted that she wanted to come over. You texted that you had a date, so I asked her to come over earlier.”
“Wait… That would mean she was there when I called you. Were you two in the middle–”
“No, she’d already left by then. I didn’t want to tell you and ruin your night with your date.”
“You could’ve told me, Stella.”
“I knew I’d see you at work, so I figured I’d fill you in then. I made the mistake of cooking dinner for us, and there were candles and stuff. I didn’t exactly ask her if she wanted to go out on a date. I just set it up. I don’t know that I even thought about it at first, honestly.”
“What do you mean?”
“She said she could come over early, and I thought that I hadn’t eaten dinner and that she probably hadn’t either, so I put on water to boil. Then, it was like my brain went on autopilot, and there was a cream sauce in a pan, and I’m learning how to fold napkins.”
“I’m sorry; you learned how to–”
“Just one-fold. It took me three minutes. It’s fine. But I set them up on plates and lit the candles I had, and she rang the doorbell. I didn’t even think about it looking like a date until she got there, and I saw the look on her face.”
“Which was?”
“Fear.” Stella shrugged a shoulder. “And confusion. But mostly fear.”
“She was afraid of a date with you?”
“I think Violet is afraid of a date with anyone. Her first girlfriend was a cheating bitch, it sounds like, and I don’t even know that she’s dated much since then.
Her parents also did a number on her, and she’s got so much damn pride that she wouldn’t even let me help her when I could have, but yes, she’s afraid. ”
“And you like her for all of that, don’t you?”
Stella smiled and said, “I do, yeah. I’m a masochist, apparently, but she’s just… she’s totally uptight in the best way that really works for me now when it wouldn’t have back then. She’s beautiful, smart, kind, and she’s carrying that whole company.”
“What do you mean?”
“She’s keeping them in business. She’s paying for things out of her trust fund.
It’s why I wanted her to talk to a VC: she can’t do that forever.
And this company is important to her, but so are her friends.
She’s doing everything that she can to keep it all together, and I think there’s something admirable about that. ”
“That’s sweet, Stella.”
“She’s annoying, yes, but I think you need a little annoying in a relationship.
Keeps you on your toes. Besides, she’d never let me off the hook.
I wouldn’t let her off the hook, either, and I think you need a little bit of that, too.
Am I crazy to think that it could work between us, given our history? ”
“No, you’re not. You were practically kids back then,” Jen replied. “But what happened? You said she left.”
“She did. She said we’d agreed to sex and that that was it and left. You called me right after.”
“Have you talked to her since?”
“No. Well, sort of. I got an email from her with the signed agreement, but that’s an automated thing that happens when she actually confirms her signature in the contract system.”
“That’s it? That’s annoying.”
“She only had until today to send it back, or the pricing wouldn’t be locked in, so it was expected, but, yeah, it’s also annoying.” Stella laughed a little. “I want to talk to her, but I don’t know what to say.”
“You don’t want to just sleep with her now, do you?”
Stella shook her head and replied, “I really want to sleep with her, but I think since there are feelings here now, even though they’re new, and I have no idea if we’d get beyond a first date, I probably shouldn’t, huh?”
“I wouldn’t recommend it, no,” Jen said. “You’d only end up sadder than you are now.”
“Yeah,” she agreed. “I’m kind of hoping she just texts me after the meeting. I want to know how it went, but I don’t want to bug her.”
“Maybe give her some time and then ask.”
“Maybe, yeah.”
Stella’s phone rang, so her mind instantly went to Violet, but when she looked down at the screen, she frowned because it wasn’t her.
“It’s Ant.”
“Ant?” Jen asked.
“The VC. Well, she’s a partner there. She must be calling about the meeting.”
“I’ll let you take it. Want to go to lunch with Monique and me later?” Jen asked and stood up.
“No, I think I’ll skip it, but thanks for the invite.” She picked up the phone. “Hey, Ant.”
“Hey, Stella.”
Stella waved at Jen as she left her office and closed the door behind her.
“How are you?”
“Good. Good,” Ant replied. “Listen, I wanted to say thank you for your email.”
“Yeah?”
“We met today. We got done about an hour ago, actually, but the meeting went really well. I got to meet their whole leadership team, and I’ve got a lot of confidence in them.”
“That’s amazing.”
“We met with them already a few years ago; more than that, I think, but they didn’t impress then, so I wasn’t sold on meeting with them again initially, but I checked out their site and got a free trial of their product.
It’s good. I had some of my employees test it, too.
We’ve got offices all over the world for several of our companies, so I crowdsourced some language feedback, and everyone said it was the most accurate translation app that they’d ever used.
Plus, they liked some of the other features, too.
It’s not where we want it to be today, but their projections look good, and they have some partnership opportunities with companies in our portfolio, so we’re thinking about investing.
We still have a lot to talk about on our end, but it’s looking good. ”
“Really? You are? That’s great, Ant.”
“I hope so. They’ve got a small team, so their progress has been pretty slow, but we think with an investment, they could staff up a little at a time and actually grow much faster, which is what we’d want, obviously.”
“I’m glad to hear it.”
“Yeah. I was calling to check with you about something else, though.”
“Okay. What’s that?”
“Well, their CEO, Violet Russell, didn’t seem to know that you’d put us in touch.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah. She asked why we reached out after turning them down years ago, and I told her that you recommended them to us.”
“You did? You told her?” Stella asked and swallowed.
“I hope that was okay. We normally don’t give companies a second look unless something has changed massively, which it hasn’t there, so if it weren’t for you suggesting it, I never would’ve thought about them again. She didn’t know it was you, though.”
“Oh, yeah. It’s fine. I meant to tell her about the email I sent, but I haven’t gotten around to it yet. Was she… mad?”
“Mad? No. But she seemed to be, I don’t know, thinking about it. We’re going to talk further internally, but I’ll be reaching back out to them soon, probably with an offer.”
“Great. Well, I’m glad to hear that it’s all working out.”
“Want me to follow up with you on the outcome, or can you get it from Violet now that she knows you were the one who sent me to her?”
“Oh, I’m sure I’ll be hearing from Violet soon.”
They wrapped up the call, and Stella turned in her chair to look out the window behind her desk. Then, she decided to get ahead of it, turned back around, and picked up her phone.
Stella Ross: Can we talk?
The response came back almost immediately.
Violet Russell: I can’t right now. We had a great meeting today, and we’re back at the house, celebrating.
We’re going out tonight, too, because it looks like they’re going to give us the money.
Arlowe is making us go back to that club.
Can we talk tomorrow? I’m not trying to put you off, I promise.
I know we need to talk, but we really can’t believe it.
Asset is working up an offer sheet right now.
Stella Ross: Congratulations! That’s amazing news! And tomorrow is fine.