CHAPTER 34
Sarai stared at the TV in the living room.
They’d decided to watch the commercial in there instead of in the garage because of the large TV and the more comfortable seats.
There was also more space in the living room, and since they had her intern, Mitchell, Clay, along with Stella, Gabi, and the four of them, they definitely needed that space.
Sarai was leaning forward in her seat on the sofa, watching, but not really watching the game on the screen because they’d opted to air their ad during a college sport and hoped that the plan would work.
Since their product had many different uses, their strategy had been to go after students who could use help in their classes but also the ones who would soon be joining the competitive job market and looking for ways to differentiate themselves from other jobseekers, for whom being fluent or even able to understand another language and do so with ease could be a massive help.
Their real-time translation functionality was more accurate than any of the ones they had compared their service to, so it should play well with the people who didn’t want to learn but still needed to be able to do a job where another language was required, and their learning element had a casual vibe to it that should appeal to travelers who wanted to understand the basics of a language of a country they were visiting and not necessarily learn it fluently, but once people got into the harder levels, they could really learn the language for work or life beyond a fun trip because Enya’s brain was remarkable, and she’d somehow figured out how to improve language learning science.
Sarai only hoped that her commercial, which would air nationally during a big college sporting event that was geared toward women, who’d been shown to be increasingly making purchasing decisions in the household, increasingly looking for legs up in the professional world, and still dominated the teaching and educational administration positions, worked, because those would be the people deciding to buy their app and browser version for their schools and districts.
It was a lot to ask from one commercial, but Sarai had thought that her thirty-second spot had managed to summarize things fairly well.
There was a QR code that would show on the screen at the end, along with their website info.
They expected to get a lot of clicks and views and knew that there would be a drop-off after that, meaning that if one hundred people viewed, only five percent of those might actually download, and they’d be lucky to get one percent of downloads to convert into paid subscriptions.
Millions of people should be watching this game, though, so if she multiplied by that, they were looking for hundreds of thousands of views and hoping for a higher conversion rate than five percent.
“The campaign is a good one,” Violet said, pacing in the living room. “The social stuff you made is great, Sarai.”
“Huh?” Sarai asked, looking over at her friend.
“She’s a little out of it,” Gabi said to Violet, chuckling at Sarai’s side. “You okay there, babe?”
“What?” Sarai asked again, looking at her now.
Gabi smiled at her, and Sarai smiled back.
Then, she felt Gabi’s hand move over her back, and Gabi could calm her in a way that no one else ever had been able to.
She also had this way of making Sarai want to have more and be more for herself.
This was a major risk, and if it didn’t work, it meant she would have next to nothing in her marketing budget for the rest of the year, but Sarai had realized something after staying up all night, reworking the thirty-second commercial along with the fifteen-second, shorter version that would air online.
She knew that if they ran out of marketing money for her to spend, she could get creative.
She could find ways to use social media and partnerships to do things for free or low-cost, and she didn’t doubt that she could come up with something that would get them what they needed.
It would take more time, yes, but she could do it.
In a way, Gabi had helped give her back her confidence, and Sarai knew that she loved her for that and for everything else Gabi had brought into her life.
It had been over a week since the commercial file had been submitted.
The network person Sarai had been talking to about it had requested a fifteen-second version as well, telling her that they’d had a slot to fill on the streaming side, and they’d included it at no extra cost to the company, which had been a miracle until Sarai had found out later that they were supposed to include that all along.
She had gotten that fixed with the network and had even gotten them a free website ad, which would show worldwide for one week post the commercial’s airing.
It was like she’d gotten her marketing swagger back, which was amazing, but now, the commercial was probably seconds away from airing, and if it didn’t work, she’d be more than disappointed.
“I’ve got everything set up,” Arlowe stated once one of the computer monitors that she’d brought from the garage had been hooked up and sitting on the coffee table so that they could all see.
“It’s going to track views, clicks, downloads, and subscriptions.
Left line chart is views. The right one is clicks.
Below that is downloads. I went with just a flat number there.
Same with subscriptions next to it. Later, Sarai can put it in a fancy graph or something, but we can see it all happen live right now. ”
Sarai got more nervous then. They’d all be staring at that screen, waiting and hoping that people clicked, downloaded, and started their trial, but if that didn’t happen, it would be like watching herself fail live in front of her best friends.
“I asked if you were okay,” Gabi said a little softer after leaning in closer.
“No.”
“It’s going to be fine.”
Gabi ran her hand under Sarai’s T-shirt and pressed it against her skin, causing Sarai to close her eyes for a second from feeling that Gabi calm wash over her.
They’d been dating for maybe a month, but Sarai knew.
She was also pretty sure that she had known it back in Amsterdam, too, but she hadn’t been able to acknowledge it enough to do anything about it.
That had her thinking about Arlowe, who had gone for it with Eline, the woman she’d loved and probably still very much did.
Arlowe had been aimless in her love life since she’d said goodbye to Eline, and as Sarai looked into Gabi’s eyes, she realized that she had been as well.
None of her previous relationships had amounted to much.
She’d always put work over them, and when each one of them had ended, it had been hard, yes, but not devastating how it had been when Arlowe had left Eline in the Netherlands.
Sarai knew that if she lost Gabi, though, it would be devastating, and, in a way, it had been eleven years ago, too.
“So, you’re going back to Paris first, and then, where?” Enya asked as she stood on the tram, facing Gabi and Sarai, who were sitting in the only available seats for the ride to the train station.
“Berlin for a weekend,” Gabi replied. “Then, Munich. After that, back to Paris for my mom’s birthday before I hit up a few more places in Europe.”
“That’s great. Sounds like a lot of fun. Right, Sarai?”
“Huh?” Sarai asked.
She’d been staring out the window, watching Amsterdam pass them by, thinking about how she and Gabi had eaten lunch at one of those restaurants the previous day. Soon, though, Gabi would be gone, and it shouldn’t have bothered her this much that they wouldn’t be having lunch there again.
“Oh, yeah. Fun,” she replied, offering a forced smile.
“I know you all have school, but I’m traveling by myself, and I have hotel rooms booked for most of the places because my dad hated the hostel idea,” Gabi shared. “Anyway, there’s space in my room if you want to go somewhere, see it before you go home.”
“I have a lot of schoolwork to do, and I’ve already gone to Ireland for a week during our break,” Enya said. “Plus, I’ve gone on some small trips. So, I feel like I’ve done a little traveling.”
“Enya has picked up two more languages since being here,” Sarai said to change the subject.
“Really?”
“Not exactly,” Enya replied.
Then, the tram halted, and Sarai realized that they were at their stop. Her heart rate picked up, and her breathing changed from slow and steady to fast and not at all steady.
“We’re here,” she said before she stood up and picked up Gabi’s bag for her, slinging it over her own shoulder.
They hurried off the tram, and as they waited for the light to change, Sarai stared at the massive train station in front of her, feeling a sense of dread hit her.
They didn’t say anything as they walked across the street and left Enya with some tourist asking for directions, and they didn’t say anything as they stared up at the screens, trying to find the track for Gabi’s train since she already had her ticket.
It wasn’t until they got to where Gabi would have to scan that ticket to proceed to the track that Sarai opened her mouth.
“So, I had fun this weekend,” she said lamely and handed Gabi her bag.
“Me too. Thank you so much,” Gabi replied and was the one who leaned in for the hug.
Sarai hugged her back but kept it loose instead of going in for the tight, long hug she wanted.
“I should…” Gabi faded out as she hooked her thumb toward the tracks when they parted.
“Yeah, don’t want to miss it.”
“We’ll text.”
“Yeah. Let me know–”
“When I’m home. I will,” Gabi promised.
“Okay. Well, safe travels. Have a fun trip.”
“Thanks,” Gabi replied and gave her a small smile before she turned to go.