CHAPTER 12
Gabi woke up from her best night of sleep in ages.
The hotel bed had been way too soft for her back, so she’d been practically falling through to the bed frame beneath the mattress for weeks, and the hotel pillows had left a lot to be desired as well.
Her own bed was a game changer, or at least, it certainly felt that way after not sleeping on it for a while.
Her pillows were the expensive kind, but they’d been so worth it because Gabi woke up rested and ready to begin her Sunday.
It was her first morning in the house, and she wasn’t exactly sure what the protocol was.
Was she supposed to see if anyone else was up?
Should she make breakfast for the whole house if she was making breakfast for herself?
What if she just wanted a couple of slices of toast?
Was she supposed to toast a whole loaf of bread and leave slices on a plate for anyone who might want some?
Did people even eat cold toast if it was sitting out on the table for them?
She checked the time on her phone, and it was still pretty early, so she figured she’d probably be the first one up.
She hadn’t been told yet what the shower schedule looked like, but she could use one because she had been too tired to take one the previous night.
Plus, Sarai had said goodnight to her at her bedroom door, and when Gabi had been considering whether she should take a shower, she’d heard Sarai walking out of her room, followed by the bathroom door closing, so she’d opted to just go to bed and shower in the morning.
Of course, thinking about Sarai in the shower had made sleeping pretty much impossible for the first hour or so.
Taking her first shower in this house had been strange.
It had felt a little like it had back at the hotel, like she was a guest and not a permanent resident there, but with much better water pressure.
After her shower, she wrapped herself in a towel that she’d brought in with her and realized that she’d forgotten to bring in clean clothes to change into.
She hadn’t needed to worry about that since college and was out of practice with the whole roommate protocol.
Gabi listened at the door and, hearing nothing, pulled it open.
She hurried to her bedroom and closed the door behind her, managing to make it without anyone seeing her, but she’d left her hair dryer in the bathroom.
She would have to get used to a new routine.
What did she keep in her bedroom? What stayed in the communal bathroom?
What did she do first, next, and last? She hadn’t thought any of that through before she’d moved in.
She pulled her hair back, deciding that she’d just leave it up and wet for now, dressed, and headed out in search of breakfast.
“Morning,” Arlowe said when Gabi got to the kitchen.
“You’re up early,” she replied.
“Bug.”
“Where?”
She looked around, head on a swivel.
Arlowe chuckled and said, “No, someone found a bug. I’m on call today, so I had to get up to fix it. Small company. We rotate, but I manage our customer support, too.”
Then, Arlowe grabbed herself a granola bar and headed out into the garage without another word.
“Oh,” Gabi said when Arlowe just left.
“Hey,” Enya greeted, walking into the kitchen.
“Hey. Do you all get up this early on a Sunday?”
“Not every Sunday, but sometimes,” Enya replied and pulled a box of cereal from a cabinet. “Want some?”
“I was going to make pancakes. I got the mix yesterday.”
“Pancakes?”
Gabi turned around and saw Sarai standing in the open doorway to the kitchen. Her arms were up in the air. She was stretching and yawning. Gabi’s eyes went down to that skin showing between the gap of her sweats and T-shirt before she moved them back up to Sarai’s eyes.
“I was going to make them, yeah. Want some?”
“Yes, please,” Sarai replied and walked around her, but before she did, she took Gabi by the hips and sort of pulled her to the side a bit so that she could.
Gabi had to take a moment with that new touch before she shook her head, trying to keep herself in check because that felt way too good, and it was her first full day living in this house. She could not make things awkward by asking Sarai to do that again, which was what she really wanted.
“How many do you want?” she asked after clearing her throat.
“Silver dollar or IHOP size?” Sarai checked.
“Important question,” Enya agreed.
“Whatever you want. I’m not picky,” Gabi replied.
“Silver dollar and, like, four or five,” Sarai said.
“Did I hear someone say pancakes?” Violet asked, leaning inside the kitchen from the garage.
“When did you get here?” Sarai asked. “And is Stella in there, too?”
“No, she’s still sleeping. I just got alerted to the bug and wanted to help.”
“How, exactly? You don’t know how to fix it,” Enya said.
“Moral support. Besides, I have some things to pick up for the party tonight anyway, so I let my girlfriend sleep and decided to get an early start.” Violet walked into the kitchen. “And I skipped breakfast, so…”
Gabi chuckled and asked, “Pancakes all around, then?”
“We have a griddle. I’ll get it for you.” Enya pointed to the cabinets under a counter. “And I’ll take three or four.”
“Me too,” Violet added. “And Arlowe will want, like, eight.”
“I do not!” Arlowe yelled from the garage. “I’m busy.”
“Make her eight,” Sarai said softly.
“I heard that!”
“You heard nothing!” Sarai yelled back.
Gabi laughed. As chaotic as this whole thing was compared to her living alone and just being able to make pancakes for herself and then eat them, she liked this.
It was only day one, so there was a chance it would get annoying or old after a while, but for now, she liked having these roommates.
Enya pulled out a portable griddle and plugged it into the wall behind the counter next to the stove.
Sarai grabbed her a mixing bowl and a fork, along with a ladle to use later, and she smiled softly at Gabi when she handed it all over.
Gabi remembered what Sarai looked like first thing in the morning.
She’d seen it only twice and years ago, but she still remembered what that long, brown hair had looked like in a messy morning bun, with wisps flying all over the place, what still-tired brown eyes had looked like when Sarai had smiled at her before she’d put on her glasses, and it was only then that Gabi realized that Sarai no longer wore those dark-rimmed glasses that had inspired Gabi to get dark frames of her own when she’d visited the eye doctor and they’d told her that she needed glasses.
Maybe Sarai wore contacts now or had gotten LASIK or something because she hadn’t worn them at all that Gabi had seen, and she would’ve noticed them because she loved staring into Sarai’s eyes.
She had to look away from them now because she needed to focus on making pancakes for five people; or four, if she believed Arlowe, which she didn’t.
“Hey, Vi, can I talk to you about something since you’re here?” Sarai asked.
“Yeah. I’m useless in helping Arlowe anyway.”
“I already ran it by Arlowe and Enya, but Gabi is actually a hardware developer. Is that what it’s called, Gabi?”
Gabi laughed and replied, “Sure. Let’s go with that.”
Then, she was about to pour the mix into the bowl but remembered that she should probably follow the recipe on the box because she wasn’t just making these for herself.
“Anyway, she wants to help us with our wearable,” Sarai said. “Arlowe and Enya both said it was fine, but I was going to talk to you about it tomorrow.”
“What do you mean, help us out?”
“She wants to design something for us.”
“We can’t afford her,” Violet replied. “We can’t afford you,” she added directly to Gabi, who had turned and saw Violet sitting down in the chair that she’d planned on sitting in herself.
Noticing that each of her roommates sat in the same seat each time, Gabi had planned to make that chair hers, which meant that it was Violet’s first. They would have to figure that out if they were all going to eat breakfast in here together.
“I’m not looking for a job. I have one,” she said. “I was thinking I could mock something up for you based on what you need, and we could go from there.”
“It’s a hobby for her, apparently,” Sarai explained.
“Says the woman whose hobby is literally work,” Gabi joked.
“Shut up.” Sarai laughed. “So, what do you think?”
“It’s not that simple,” Violet replied. “I’d love the help, I would, but you’re talking about having a non-employee design something for us, which is really tricky.”
“I was thinking we could have the attorney work up an agreement where, since Gabi says that she doesn’t need to be paid – at least, not now – we don’t pay her for the work itself, but we do if the device gets made and sells,” Sarai said.
“Gabi?” Violet asked.
Gabi dumped the mix into a measuring cup that she’d found after opening her third cabinet and said, “That’s fine with me.
I get that it’s complicated, but I’m cool with that.
If nothing comes of whatever I do, I get nothing.
If it does, I can get a percentage of the sales up to a certain amount or something. Whatever works.”
“You really want that? That could mean you might not make a dime for five to ten years. It wouldn’t just have to sell; it would have to make money.”
“I know,” she replied to Violet. “Like Sarai said, I just like doing it, and I know the hardware component could help you out. All I’d ask is that if you use any part of my design, I get credit for that part so that I can put it on my resume, so to speak.”
“Yeah, of course,” Violet confirmed. “You’d have full credit for anything you designed for us. I’ll need to talk to the lawyer and the board.”
“I know,” Sarai said before Gabi could.
“And they might say no due to legality and ownership concerns. We’d have to be sure that we own the device outright.”
“Make her a contractor and pay her a dollar a week or something,” Sarai suggested.