EPILOGUE
“Nervous?” Stella checked, squeezing her hand before they walked into the bar. “Are you sure you want me to be here for this? I can go home. Or, maybe I should just sit at the bar and wait.”
“Are you afraid of my friends?” Violet asked, laughing.
Then, she stopped their progress and turned toward her girlfriend on the sidewalk just in front of the door.
“I’m not afraid of them, but Arlowe is going to glare at me.”
“So, you’re only afraid of Arlowe? You know, it’s really Sarai you have to worry about.”
“She’s probably going to punch me on the shoulder, and she punches hard, Violet.”
“Poor baby.” Violet leaned in and kissed her. “I’ll protect you from Sarai’s oddly strong arms for someone who doesn’t work out.”
“You’re sure you want to tell them tonight?”
“Yes, I’m sure. We’ve been waiting. They’re starting to notice, Stella. Besides, we invited them here specifically to tell them.”
“I know. I heard Arlowe make a comment about how we are a we now.”
“Huh?” she asked.
“You don’t say you invite them somewhere. We do. It’s we’re going somewhere. It’s all we now and not you or me.”
“Those are confusing sentences, but I get what you’re saying. We’re a couple, Stella. We have been for over a year.”
“I know. And I’m more than ready for us to make this official.”
“Me too. So, let’s go in there and tell them,” she said.
“I brought Kleenex.” Stella shared, holding up a travel pack of tissues. “Just in case.”
Violet laughed and said, “None of them will cry, but you are so fucking adorable sometimes.”
“I love it when you curse.”
“Maybe I’ll do that a little more for you later.”
“I hope that’s true,” Stella replied.
“You realize that for that to happen, first, we have to go inside and take care of that thing we came here to do, right? Then, you can maybe have the thing you really want,” Violet told her.
“How quickly can we tell them? Can we blurt it out, toss the tissues, and run?”
Violet laughed and kissed her once more.
“I love you,” she said.
“I love you, too,” Stella replied.
They’d been together officially for thirteen months and twelve days.
On their one-year anniversary, they’d exchanged gifts, and Stella’s had been to ask Violet to move in with her.
Violet had said yes. She’d wanted to move in with Stella even earlier than that, but she’d wrestled with what it would mean to no longer live with her friends.
It was going to be hard to be away from them, but it was time.
She’d already spent four to five nights a week at Stella’s place anyway, but for the past month, she had spent pretty much every night there to help them all begin to get used to her not being there.
She’d also started to move some of her stuff over to Stella’s.
Initially, they had carried bags of things back and forth, but over time, more of her stuff had ended up at Stella’s, and after Stella had asked her to move in, she had begun to more purposefully migrate her belongings when her friends hadn’t been paying attention.
Now, all that was left in her room was the furniture, and she didn’t need to keep her bed.
Stella’s was better, so she’d see if one of her friends wanted it, or she’d sell it instead.
Her desk would come with her, though, and they’d planned for it to sit in the living room for now.
Her dresser could come or go. She didn’t care either way because Stella’s had enough space for her stuff, too, and they’d made a plan for the bedside tables already.
All Violet had to do now was actually tell her friends that she was moving out.
“Hey,” Enya greeted when they walked in. “Sarai is at the bar, ordering us drinks. I told her to just get your usuals. Hope that’s okay.”
“Yeah, thanks,” Stella said for both of them, and they sat down across from her in the booth.
Arlowe sat down next to Enya and said, “Hey. About time. You’re late.”
“By one minute. We had to park,” Violet said.
“We, huh?”
“Oh, calm down. We’ve been together for over a year, and the we thing started a long time ago. You should be over it by now.”
“So, what is it that you needed to talk about?” Arlowe asked and took a sip of her beer.
“We should wait for Sarai. And in case you’re going to make fun of us again, I meant the whole group. That’s the we I was referring to,” Violet said.
Arlowe laughed.
“Who’s that?” Stella asked.
Violet followed her gaze and noticed Sarai talking to a woman at the bar.
“Maybe someone is finally about to get lucky. It’s been a while for her,” Arlowe suggested.
“No, wait. I recognize her. Why does she look familiar?” Enya asked.
“Because it’s Gabrielle,” Violet replied.
“Gabrielle? As in, Gabi?”
“I think so. Looks like her, anyway. Older, obviously,” Violet said to Arlowe.
“Who’s Gabi?” Stella asked.
“We all met her in Amsterdam. She was, like, eighteen, back then, I think,” Violet explained.
“She’s an American, but she was living in Paris, going to some international school because either her mom or dad was a diplomat or something.
I don’t remember exactly. Sarai introduced us to her when she came to Amsterdam for the weekend. ”
“They had a fling?” Stella asked.
“No, Gabi was too young for Sarai, in her mind. And I get it. Four years isn’t a big deal when you’re in your thirties, but it is when one of you is eighteen and on a gap year, and the other is twenty-two, about to graduate college.
They met through some connection with their parents, or maybe it was Sarai’s aunt.
I really don’t remember much about it, honestly.
They didn’t stay in touch, I don’t think. I can’t believe she’s here.”
“Me neither. Sarai told me that Gabi wanted to stay in Europe to go to school and then, possibly forever. Maybe she’s here on vacation or just visiting family,” Arlowe suggested.
“Maybe,” Enya said.
Violet watched Sarai nod toward the table. Gabi looked over and waved when she realized they were all sitting there.
“They’re coming over. Act cool,” Enya added.
“We weren’t acting cool already?” Stella asked. “And, Arlowe–”
“Oh, my God! I know. You meant we as in the whole group. I’m letting it go.”
Violet smiled at Arlowe and patted Stella’s knee.
“Hey, do you guys remember Gabrielle Durand?” Sarai asked as she placed the drinks she’d ordered for them on the table. “Gabi, you remember Violet, Enya, and Arlowe?”
“Yeah, hi. Wow! Small world, huh?” Gabi said.
“And this is Violet’s girlfriend, Stella. She was actually in Amsterdam when we all were, but they just got together about a year ago.”
“Nice to meet you,” Gabi said.
“You too.”
“Do you want to join us?” Violet asked. “Sarai can pull up a chair.”
“Maybe we should tell them another time now,” Stella whispered to Violet.
“No way. We’ve been waiting.”
“Waiting for what?” Sarai asked.
She pulled up a couple of chairs and set them at the end of the booth, where she and Gabi sat down.
“To tell you what we asked you all here for. I’m moving in with Stella. She asked me on our anniversary, and we’re… I’m ready.” Violet glanced at Arlowe, who rolled her eyes at her. “I’m ready to move out of the house.”
“Oh. Well, duh,” Sarai said.
“Duh?” she asked.
“We assumed you’d done that already and didn’t want to make a big deal out of it. Your bedroom looks like a dorm room after a student moves out and they come in to inspect the place to make sure that nothing’s missing or damaged,” Arlowe noted.
“It does not.” Violet laughed.
“Your mattress is bare, Violet.”
“I’m washing the bed linens,” she argued.
“You’ve been sleeping at Stella’s every night,” Enya replied.
“Yeah, to help us all make the adjustment.”
“Can I have your room?” Sarai asked.
“Nope. I have dibs, remember?” Arlowe said.
“She’s right,” Violet replied.
“You guys don’t care?” Stella asked. “I brought Kleenex because I thought you might cry.”
She held up her cute little pack of tissues.
“I love her,” Violet said and laughed before she rested her head on Stella’s shoulder.
“Yeah, we know,” Sarai stated. “And we’re happy for you, Vi. We all knew this would happen eventually, and we’ve been preparing for it.”
“I’ll pay rent until you find another roommate, so you don’t have to worry about that. Arlowe, are you paying attention to anything I’m saying?”
Arlowe had her head down, looking at her phone.
“Sorry. You two think this is a big deal, but we’ve been expecting it for months.” She finished typing something on her phone and looked up. “It was Mitchell. He had a question for me about the patch he’s working on.”
Mitchell was one of three engineers they’d hired since the investment money had landed.
They also had a part-timer who helped Enya work on the gamification side of things, and an intern for Sarai, who was in college for marketing.
Their little company now had ten full-time employees, five regular freelancers, and a consultant who was sleeping with the CEO.
Most of them were fully remote, but two of them lived in town, so sometimes, they’d come to the garage for meetings or to work.
Violet patted that consultant’s thigh, kissed her on the neck, and said, “I don’t think they’re going to miss me.”
“Yes, we will. This sucks. Everything’s changing,” Enya said. “But it’s also supposed to change. Hopefully, we will all move out of the house one day because we’ve found our person how you found Stella.”
“I hope so. I want that for all of you. Well, you and Sarai. I’m not sure about Arlowe because she’s an ass.”
“Plus, she already found her, about–”
“If you say about eleven years ago, I’m going to punch your shoulder harder than Sarai does, Enya,” Arlowe stated.
“You punch hard?” Gabi asked Sarai, and Violet turned to her because with all the conversation about her move, she had forgotten that Gabi was there.
“Only when they deserve it, which is often,” Sarai said.
“So, Gabi, what have you been up to? Are you here on vacation or something?” Enya asked, and that had been the extent of what Violet had heard because she was no longer paying attention to whatever else was being discussed.
That was probably rude, yes, but Violet was too focused on how good Stella’s arm around her shoulders felt and how amazing it was that they were taking this next step together.
They had already argued about how to redecorate the house, with her living there, and it had led to some pretty hot sex and a few compromises on Stella’s part.
Violet had given her a few extra orgasms to make up for it, and she knew that they had a few more arguments in their future and that not all of them would end in orgasms, but she also knew that she could handle that now.
Things at work were stable, bordering on good, and she had an amazing girlfriend whom she was going to live with officially now.
“Hey, I have a question for you,” Stella said when they had a moment alone at the table after Gabi and Sarai went to the bathroom and Arlowe and Enya went to the bar to order more drinks.
“What’s up?”
“When do you want to go home?” Stella asked, smiling at her.
“After this next round,” Violet replied, causing Stella’s smile to widen. “But you’re driving because this is my third martini and you’re still on your first beer.”
“We should’ve taken an Uber. I hate pulling out of the parking spot when you parallel park.”
“Because you can’t parallel park.”
“Because it’s stupid,” Stella said.
“That’s parking in a city, babe. You really need to learn how to do that.”
“Who’s going to teach me? You?”
“No, I’d like to remain in a relationship with you, and I fear that me teaching you how to parallel park will result in you either breaking up with me or the car getting damaged. Maybe even both,” Violet replied.
Stella chuckled, and their friends returned to the table. Sarai and Gabi were laughing about something. Arlowe and Enya were arguing about some product feature Enya wanted but Arlowe said would take forever.
“After this round, we’re going home,” Violet told them once they all settled down.
“You just wanted to say that out loud, didn’t you? That you’re going home,” Sarai teased.
“Yes, I did,” Violet replied.