CHAPTER 34 #2
Sarai stood there, watching after her until Gabi had disappeared on the staircase, and she remained standing in place, looking up at the schedule screen that showed that the train had arrived and then, had departed.
She wasn’t sure why she continued to watch the staircase after that, but she did so for a few minutes.
Maybe it was because she’d hoped that Gabi would come back up and tell her that she’d take a later train, or that she could stay for longer.
Sarai took a second to shake herself out of that because that was ridiculous, let out a deep breath, pictured Gabi’s smile in her mind, pushed it away, and finally turned around and walked out of the station and toward Enya, who was waiting for her outside.
Sarai looked over at Enya, who was sitting on the other sofa next to Mitchell and Clay. Enya looked back at her and gave her a smile with a wink before she nodded over toward Gabi. Sarai smiled and gave her a small nod back, which made Enya’s smile grow.
“You’re amazing,” Gabi whispered into Sarai’s ear before she kissed her on the neck. “Just try to enjoy this.”
“Huh?” she asked.
Gabi nodded toward the TV.
“Oh, shit. It’s on!” Arlowe yelled, raising her arms in the air, which drew Sarai’s attention away from the commercial for a second.
When she turned to the TV, she watched her animation that had taken her weeks in total to put together, listened to the words of her script, watched that QR code and contact info appear on the screen, and it seemed like the whole thing had started and ended in the same second because then, it was over, and everyone in the room, except for her, began clapping and yelling for joy.
Sarai didn’t understand why because, even though the commercial had aired, they didn’t know if it had worked yet.
“Congrats, babe,” Gabi said, wrapping her arms around Sarai’s neck and pulling her in for a side hug.
“For what? It just aired.”
“Sarai, that’s amazing!” Violet exclaimed after she pulled out of a hug with Stella. “We just aired our first commercial. That’s a big deal! Celebrate, damn it,” Violet added, laughing.
Arlowe was the one who pulled Sarai up and hugged her first. Violet got to her right after that, and Sarai held Enya for a little longer.
Then, Mitchell and Clay each gave her a short hug, her intern did the same, and after another hug, this time from Stella, Sarai turned to see Gabi standing by the couch, finishing a hug with Enya.
She swallowed when Gabi’s eyes met her own, and she moved to her quickly and pulled Gabi into the hug she should’ve given her eleven years ago, holding her tightly and breathing her in, never wanting to let her go.
“Thank you,” she said against her neck.
“For what?” Gabi asked, holding on to her just as tightly.
“For helping. For being there. For making me feel like I could do this.”
“You did it all, beautiful,” Gabi replied before she pulled out of the hug a little bit and held Sarai’s face in her hands. “I am so lucky I get to be your girlfriend.”
Gabi kissed her then, and it was Sarai who felt like the lucky one as she kissed Gabi back. She only pulled out of the embrace when she heard Arlowe yell again and turned to see Arlowe pointing at the monitor that she’d set up earlier.
“It’s happening!”
Sarai looked at the real-time data pouring in.
She could see the views and clicks line graph going up first, followed by the downloads data, which was slower, but it was still ticking up.
There wasn’t any movement on subscriptions just yet, but they’d expected that.
A download was one thing, but getting people to sign up for a free trial and then, pay, was another.
They had all worked so hard for over a week to get this thing ready to go, and now, here they were, seeing the benefits of that work right in front of their eyes.
“We got one!” Enya said excitedly, pointing as the first subscription showed on the screen.
It was for a free trial, so there wasn’t any money yet, but they hadn’t expected to get a free trial within a minute of the commercial airing.
Sarai pulled Gabi back in for another hug, but she let her go quicker than last time because she needed to celebrate this moment with her friends, her team, her family that had been working toward a moment like this for over a decade now.
She hugged Violet hard, Arlowe joined in, and when Enya approached them, too, they stood in their living room in a group hug, shaking their heads.
“Still a long way to go,” Violet cautioned.
“But we’re moving into an office, and we have a commercial now. We’re a real company,” Arlowe added.
“We’re doing it,” Enya said. “We’re really doing it.”
“We are,” Sarai agreed.
◆◆◆
Hours later, Sarai lay in bed with Gabi right beside her.
“Babe, put it away and sleep. We both need sleep,” Gabi muttered.
“I know. I just… I’m addicted now, I think.”
She closed her laptop and moved to set it on the floor next to the bed.
“What’s it up to now?” Gabi asked, shifting into Sarai after Sarai settled back into the bed.
“Over ten thousand downloads and one thousand free trials.”
“And it’s only been a few hours. Nice,” Gabi said, running her hand under Sarai’s shirt before she rested it between her breasts. “Now, it’ll be even higher in the morning, which is when you can check it again. Understood?”
Sarai chuckled and replied, “Understood. Good night.”
“Night, babe.”
Sarai kissed Gabi on the top of her head, looked up at her ceiling, and let out a deep sigh of relief before she closed her eyes.