Chapter 4
The six of them sit around the table drinking their wine while the curry simmers.
They interrogate Petra while trying not to look like they are interrogating Petra.
The problem is, Shannon, despite being great, has a bad habit of dating people who are horrible.
Her longest-term ex was a woman twenty years her senior who, at the start of their relationship, was Shannon’s professor.
Her most recent ex ghosted her after five months.
So they are all wary as Petra sips her wine and calmly answers one lobbed question after another.
She keeps a lithe arm thrown over the back of Shannon’s chair the whole time, twisting one of Shannon’s curls around her index finger.
Every few seconds, she glances over at Shannon and smiles.
This makes Petra’s stock rise dramatically in Eve’s book.
Eve and Gigi share a nod; the board is in agreement.
Petra, as it turns out, is an earth science engineer at a carbon capture start-up. Shannon met her while reporting on green tech. She lives in Astoria, has a wolf cut, and was, apparently, a competitive downhill skier while growing up in Utah. There’s nothing to be done about it—Petra is so cool.
“Any siblings?” Gigi asks.
“Two younger brothers,” Petra says. “They just bought a brewery together.”
“Hobbies?”
“Animal shelter. Rock climbing. I like to crochet. Shannon and I have been getting really into this car show.”
“Do you consider that hypocritical?” Julian asks. “Liking cars. Working on carbon capture. Is there a dissonance there?”
“Oh my god,” Shannon says. “Must you always?”
“Because the two of you love the ozone layer! I, for the record, also love the ozone layer.”
“Oh, look over there!” Danny says. “Another topic!”
“Travel?” Eve asks.
“I just moved back to the States, actually. I was getting my PhD in the UK, so that scratched the travel bug pretty well.”
“Really?” Gigi leans forward. “What? Where?”
“Earth Sciences at St. Andrews.”
“What was it like?”
Petra shrugs. “Good if you like tea. Bad if you dislike class divides and/or rain. I’m glad I did it, but I’m glad I’m back.”
“Can you speak more to the class divide?” Gigi asks. “How did that manifest, exactly?”
“Can we please stop interrogating my girlfriend?” Shannon says. “As much as I appreciate your relentless and weirdly specific enthusiasm.”
“Girlfriend?” Julian says. “So are you label-official?”
“Dude,” Danny says.
“We are,” Petra says. “No worries.”
“Are you on Pattern?” Julian asks.
“Dude,” Danny says.
“What? It’s a fair question!”
“It’s not a fair question,” Gigi says. “Leave the poor woman alone.”
“Pattern isn’t a fair question but ‘speak to the class divide at St. Andrews’ is?” Julian asks.
“Yes,” Gigi says.
“For what it’s worth,” Petra says. “I think they’re both fair questions. No, we’re not on Pattern. I hope that’s not weird. I just don’t really want two straight men telling me whether my relationship meets their standards. You both seem perfectly lovely, but. You know.”
“That’s so fair,” Danny says.
“Okay, yes,” Julian says, “but if we had a more diverse user base, our algorithms could respond better to the needs of more users.”
“Please stop,” Danny says.
“I’m just—” Julian starts.
“Oh!” Eve says. “But what if you didn’t?”
“Would I be superbitchy if I brought up the environmental impact of AI?” Petra asks.
“No,” Gigi says.
“Like, a little,” Julian says.
“This is going well, right?” Shannon asks Eve. “I feel like this is going well.”
“I mean,” Eve says to Shannon, “I love Petra, so mission accomplished there. One does wonder if we’ve given Petra much to love about us, though.”
“You’re talking really loudly, you know,” Julian says.
“Yes,” Eve says. “We do know.”
“Oh my god, would you look at that,” Danny says. “The curry’s ready.”