CHAPTER 9
“How do I look?” Arlowe asked.
“You look dressed up.”
“Yeah, that’s the idea, Enya.”
“No, I mean, you said it was a drink, but you’re dressed up like you’re going on a date. You’re not wearing jeans.” Enya pointed to her legs. “You always wear jeans.”
“I don’t always wear jeans. Sometimes, I dress up.”
“Not really. You wore jeans to the theater.”
“I didn’t want to go to that musical, but Violet bought us all tickets, so I had to.”
“Arlowe, is it a date?”
“I honestly don’t know,” she said and sat down next to Enya on the sofa. “I didn’t use the word, and she didn’t ask if it was a date.”
“Do you want it to be a date?”
“That’s a hard question to answer.”
“Why?”
“Because the answer is yes and no.”
“I think you might need to figure out how close you are to the yes side of things.”
“I’m like eighty-twenty,” she replied.
“Eighty percent on the yes?”
“Yeah. Like, there’s still a spark there. I can feel it. She can, too.”
“She told you that?”
“No, but she also doesn’t have to tell me much. That part hasn’t changed between us. I’ve always been able to read her. Admittedly, I’m a little out of practice, so I might miss some stuff, but it’s still there for her, too.”
“But that’s just the spark. What about the rest of it? The thing that had you thinking she was your one and only back in Amsterdam – is that still there?”
“I don’t know that part yet. I do know that I want to see her.
Now that she’s back in my life, it’s like I don’t want to be without her ever again, and that’s really scary.
We were never friends; not like Sarai and Gabi, who were sort of friends, or even Violet and Stella, who kind of loved to hate each other.
It was immediate with us. I never wanted to be Eline’s friend.
If it’s not a date, and there’s no chance of us dating, I’d have to figure out if I can have her in my life in any other way. ”
“So, going out for drinks with her tonight is not a date, but it might be you trying to figure out if you can be friends if there is no dating?” Enya shook her head. “Confusing. All of this confuses me. Probably why I hardly ever date.”
“No, you hardly ever date because of other reasons.”
“Like?”
“Like you’re always learning. You took that one woman on a date to some Indian restaurant last year just because you wanted to practice speaking Bengali.”
“Not just,” Enya defended.
“Pretty much, Enya. She did not ask for another date and then ghosted you when you did because you spent most of the night talking to the owner of the restaurant. You also don’t date much because it’s hard for you to find someone who can keep up with you.
Your brain is special.” Arlowe patted her friend on the knee and stood.
“You’re looking for someone who understands it, and I don’t think you’ve found her yet. ”
“When will I?” Enya asked. “Vi has Stella. Sarai found Gabi again, and I don’t know what’s going on with you and Eline just yet, but you two found each other in the first place, at least. Then, there’s me…
I’ve never really been in love, unless you count that one week in Ireland, and that was just a silly crush that I thought was love. ”
“It’ll happen, Enya,” Arlowe replied and slid her black blazer over her steel-gray button-down. “You’re amazing. And you shouldn’t settle, so you wait for her because you deserve the best.”
“Well, the best is certainly taking her time.”
“How do I look?” Arlowe asked, changing the subject because she had to go, or she’d be late.
“You look great. Don’t forget to do that hair thing you do. I swear, I’ve seen, like, ten women actually swoon when you run your hand through it. Make her see what she’s been missing all these years.”
Arlowe laughed and said, “Will do. Now, I’ve got to run. You okay?”
“I’m good. I’m just going to work.”
“You should take advantage of being alone in the house, Enya. Now that we have no other roommates, it will happen more often, but if you wanted to run around naked or something, go for it. I’ll just text you when I’m on my way home so that I don’t see anything I don’t want to.”
“Get out of here,” Enya replied with a laugh.
Arlowe grabbed her phone, wallet, and keys off the table and headed to the front door.
She’d decided to drive instead of getting a car because that was one very easy way of keeping her from getting drunk or even remotely tipsy, which she did not want to do in front of Eline, and she’d chosen a bar that was a little more on the classy side than she was used to or preferred because she didn’t want to take Eline to the same bar where she usually met and then made out with random women.
Arlowe definitely didn’t want to take Eline to a club where she’d done the same.
When she arrived, instead of parking her own car, she gave her keys to the valet, loving the fact that she could actually do that now.
They weren’t rich, her and her friends, but they were better off than they’d been a few years ago, when they’d nearly had to close up shop, so she could splurge on things like valet and expensive drinks every now and then.
The bar she’d chosen was a typical place that catered to people who were in town for business-type stuff.
It had blues and purples on the walls and in the lighting, and there were more tables than booths.
Some of those were the standing-only type next to the bar, while others were still tall but had chairs, and the outer rim of the tables was of the normal two-seater and four-seater variety.
Arlowe scanned the room, trying to figure out where to sit, and she also looked for Eline, whom she expected to have arrived early.
Eline had done so for their coffee shop meeting, but then again, she used to always be early or on time, which she viewed as late, so Arlowe wasn’t surprised at all when she found her sitting at the table in the corner.
It was a two-seater, and there was a tea candle with a blue candle holder around it, giving her a glow about her face that only served to bring out her blue eyes even more.
“Fuck. She’s still– Yeah…” Arlowe took a deep breath and walked over toward her. “Hey. Early as usual, huh?”
“Oh, hi,” Eline replied, looking up and sizing her up and down. “You look nice. Sorry. Should I have said that? I don’t know what the rules are.”
“There aren’t any,” she said. “And you look nice, too.”
“I’m in a sweater and a pair of jeans. You’re…” Eline pointed her index finger at her and moved it up and down. “Is this how you dress now? Jackets over everything?”
“Why? Do you not like it?” Arlowe asked and sat down across from her.
“No, I do. I just… You used to wear sweatpants and hooded sweatshirts everywhere.”
“I was in college.” She chuckled. “And I’m pretty sure if I rolled up to this place in sweats, they’d kick me out.”
“Yes, about that…” Eline said and looked around. “Do you come here a lot?”
“Not really. Why?”
“It’s nice,” Eline noted.
“It is, yeah.”
“It’s just not where I thought we’d go.”
“No? Where did you think we’d go?”
“A pub. Like the ones we went to in Amsterdam, where we would both order cheap beer and talk about anything and everything.”
“You wanted to go to a pub crowded with tourists and have to yell at each other?”
Eline nodded and said, “I guess not.”
“Is this place not okay?” Arlowe asked. “We can go somewhere else if you haven’t ordered anything yet.”
“I haven’t yet, no, but it’s fine. I guess when you knew someone before, you have this idea of them in your mind that might not necessarily be the reality of them today. Like, you wear blazers and button-downs now and come to places like this.”
“Sometimes. I wear clothes like this and come to places like this sometimes.”
“It’s good, though. It’s a change, but it’s a good change. You’re like the person you were supposed to be, you know?”
“And what about you? What’s different about you?”
“Not much, I don’t think.” Eline chuckled.
“I doubt that.”
“Well, I’m older now. I’ve probably gained more than a few pounds, and I guess I live here and not near Amsterdam.”
“Eline, I’m serious.”
“So am I. I am pretty boring, just like I was back then. You probably just didn’t notice because I was always tagging along with you and your friends, appearing to be fun.”
Arlowe smiled softly and said, “You were fun. I had so much fun with you. I never wanted it to end.”
“Hi. What can I get for you?” their waitress asked as she set napkins down on their table.
“Can I get a pina colada?” Eline replied, smiling at Arlowe, who had to laugh at that.
“Can you make that two?” Arlowe added.
“Sure. Anything to eat?”
“Can you bring the menu?”
“No problem,” the woman replied and walked off.
“Have you eaten?” Arlowe asked.
“Honestly, no. I was too nervous,” Eline shared.
“Me too,” she admitted.
“And I’m sorry about the coffee thing. I was pretty nervous then, too. I didn’t know if I should greet you with a hug, a handshake, a kiss-on-the-cheek thing, or nothing at all, so I went with nothing at all, and it was awkward.”
Arlowe laughed a bit and replied, “Yeah, I didn’t know what to do, either.”
One of the things she’d always loved about this woman was her honesty. Eline hadn’t ever played games with her, nor had she hidden her feelings. They’d always been honest with one another, and Arlowe was glad to know that that very important thing hadn’t changed between them.
“You don’t have to apologize for it, though,” she added. “We both made things awkward.”
“Can I ask you something?” Eline said, leaning forward.
“Yeah.”
“Are you still mad at me? I want you to be honest, Arlowe. I need to know if–”
“I told you that I’m not,” she interjected. “I had to let the anger go. I’m not mad anymore. I’ve been confused and sad for a while, but not angry. Are you mad at me for not even trying to contact you?”
“No, I’m not. And I think I was before, but it was more that I was angry because I couldn’t deal with the other things I felt.”
“Like what?”
“Arlowe, I missed you.”
“I missed you, too,” she said. “I didn’t want to be without you. You know that, right? Because what you put in your letter, about me not being able to figure this out even though I could figure out some code stuff, kind of made it seem like you didn’t know that.”
“No, I did. That was the anger hiding my pain. I know building a computer program isn’t the same as making a relationship work across an ocean.”
“If it were, I would’ve been great at it,” Arlowe joked. “I mean, I built a whole company with my friends, and that’s mostly my code running the thing.”
“Is this the part where you start bragging about what an amazing coder you are?” Eline chuckled. “You did that before, and it worked. Trying again?”
“What do you mean, it worked?” Arlowe laughed.
“You got me.”
“Oh, please… I had you from the moment our hands touched.”
“Maybe,” Eline said with a laugh. “But when you realized that we were in the same program and both wanted to be software engineers, you started bragging about some app you’d built, and you then spent an hour showing it to me over dinner. You were so cute and proud of yourself.”
“Well, if it worked once, I guess, maybe I should try it again. Do you know how insanely complex it is to build a language translation app with as many languages as we offer, as well as all of the features?”
“No, I had no idea,” Eline said sarcastically.
“Yes, you did.”
“No, I didn’t, because the only one you’ve built has been riddled with bugs that I then had to report,” Eline teased.
“Oh, I see how it is.” Arlowe chuckled. “That’s how it’s going to be?”
“Who’s running your QE team? Or do you even have one? Hard to tell because things keep slipping through those very wide cracks in your code, Arlowe Romano.”
Arlowe shook her head and said, “Think you can build it better?”
“I think I might be able to at least fix a few things that might have escaped your notice, yes,” Eline tossed back.
“Oh, yeah? Want to make a little wager on that?”
Their drinks arrived then, but Arlowe didn’t look up at the waitress, who also set a menu down on the table between them.
“A wager?” Eline asked.
“Yeah. We skip the drinks. I can make us some at my place, but we go back there, go into my garage where I’ve got some old stuff set up, and we see what you can spot in my code.”
“You want to skip the drinks we just ordered?”
“You always liked my drinks better than the ones we got at a bar anyway.” Arlowe raised her hand in the air, and the waitress, who hadn’t gone far, walked back over. “I’m sorry. Can we get our check? Something came up, and we’ve got to run.”
“Sure. I’ll be right back.”
“I didn’t even say yes, Arlowe,” Eline said, laughing.
“You were going to. I could tell. I’ll even pull up a random game level that you haven’t seen yet. It’s in QE now, and I’ll give you the specific section that I built. If you find even one thing in there, I’ll make us margaritas, which I know you like more than these.”
“That’s the wager? One drink?”
“If you’ve got a better idea, I’m all ears.”
Eline squinted and said, “You can’t steal the salt off my glass.”
Arlowe laughed, remembering how she used to pinch her fingers together and take the salt from the rim of Eline’s glass just to mess with her.
“I’ll even give you extra salt and not touch it.”
“What do I get if I win?”
“The knowledge that you’ve found an error in my code,” Arlowe suggested.
“Honestly, that would be a good prize that I can hold over you forever.”
Eline winked at her, and Arlowe liked how she had just used the word forever. She nodded in response, and when the check came, she paid it.