CHAPTER 33
“We’re good,” Mitchell told her. “But how long are you going to be there again?”
“At least another six weeks. Thanks for meeting with me outside of business hours.”
“No problem. You know I was up. I’m pretty much always up.”
“I remember those days,” Arlowe said. “I don’t know that I can do that every night now how I used to, though, and I’d rather you be working than having to update me on that work, so feel free to hop off and get back to it.”
“Hey, while I have you – we’ve got the update for the glasses. Everything’s ready. Gabi’s doing a review before we send to QE, but do you want to take a look, too?”
“Yes, please.”
“After Gabi gives it the all-clear, I’ll let you know.”
“Thank you,” she replied and, hearing a noise, turned to see Eline standing up from her position at the table that occupied about fifty percent of the open space.
She must have gotten hungry because she grabbed a bag of these cheese twist things that she loved and pulled a bowl from the cabinet.
“Arlowe?”
“Huh?” she asked Mitchell.
“I guess I’ll let you go.”
“Yes, thanks,” she said.
Arlowe left the remote meeting, closed her computer, and wiped at her face, feeling exhausted.
She’d been working remotely in another time zone for two weeks, and it hadn’t been easy.
Some of her meetings had been in the middle of the night for her, so she was on a pretty strange sleep schedule on top of the fact that she was working from the tiny apartment, with Eline asleep in the bedroom, so she had to keep her voice down and wear her headphones so as not to wake her, which often meant that someone would be asking her to repeat herself a little louder.
It was annoying at times, and it was inconvenient all the time, but she was here, and she could handle it.
“Hey, are you done with your meeting?” Eline asked, setting the bowl down on the table in front of Arlowe, who usually worked on the sofa.
“Yeah.”
Eline picked up a couple of those cheese twisty things, handed one to Arlowe before eating the other, and leaned into Arlowe’s side.
“Want to go somewhere today? I’ve gotten all my work done.”
“Really? It’s only two.”
“Yes,” Eline said and shifted a little until she was sitting facing her, with her legs somewhat in Arlowe’s lap, and she had her hand at the base of Arlowe’s neck. “So, I was thinking that if you wanted to, we could go for one of our walks and have dinner out tonight.”
Eline then moved her hand up and into Arlowe’s hair, which was one of Arlowe’s favorite things.
“You seem to be finishing work pretty early every day. Is it because I’m here? Are you going to get in trouble for calling it a day before five?”
“Oh, baby… This isn’t America. Most places aren’t as intense as you’re used to when it comes to working until five o’clock every day, as long as the work gets done, but I’m done for the day because what he’s asking of me isn’t all that difficult, and he did a lot of the coding work already that I didn’t know about before I took the job.
I thought I would be building things from scratch, but he has some of it worked out already, so I’ve been reviewing, fixing, and building from there.
I update him on my progress as I go, and he tells me when that’s good for the day because he wants to review it before I go any further, but he’s still teaching, so he can’t do that until later. It’s pretty boring, but it’s work.”
“You’re bored?”
Arlowe placed her arm over Eline’s legs.
“At work, but not with you.”
Eline wiggled her eyebrows.
“Well, that’s good to hear because we’ve only been together again for, like, six weeks.”
“It’s a job,” Eline replied. “You know I’m only doing it until I can go back with you.”
“And he’s okay with that, your boss?”
“He doesn’t know yet. I know that’s not ideal, but even with the visa application now filed, it’s still likely to take a few months to hear back. I’m going to do as much as I can for him before I tell him, and there are plenty of great engineers here who can replace me.”
“Where do you want to walk?”
“Depends,” Eline said.
“On?”
“Do you want to be around tourists or not?”
“Ah… Well, I really don’t care as long as I’m with you, so whatever you want.”
“Want to take a short tram ride and walk around the city aimlessly until we want dinner?”
“That’s the best kind of walk,” Arlowe said with a smile before she leaned in and kissed her.
Eline got up and grabbed a handful of her snack before she walked into the bedroom.
Arlowe followed her, and they moved around the small space with relative ease.
Arlowe would put her hands on Eline’s hips and move her to the side when she needed to get by her.
Eline would lean against Arlowe’s back and wait for Arlowe to move for her turn at the sink in the bathroom.
It had only been two weeks of them living there, but it felt like they’d been living together for years.
“You look really cute in this shirt,” Eline said, helping her button up a short-sleeved white button-down.
“Yeah?”
“Yes. But now I want to undo all the buttons I just did for you.”
Eline leaned in and kissed her on the neck.
“We could always take a shorter walk… later,” Arlowe suggested.
Eline chuckled against her skin and replied, “It’s such a nice day out, love. Let’s enjoy it. We can come back here after dinner, and I’ll take this shirt off you then.”
“I like it that you’re doing that again. I don’t think I’ve told you that.”
“Doing what?”
“You used to call me ‘babe’ but also ‘love’ or ‘my love,’ and when we started dating again, you stuck with the first one, but now that we’ve said, ‘I love you,’ you call me ‘love,’ and I really like it.”
“Me too, my love,” Eline said and kissed Arlowe’s neck again. “Now, if you’re ready, let’s go. We can get coffee at that place you like and walk around with it.”
“You spoil me.”
“I will tonight.”
Eline winked at her, causing Arlowe to laugh, and a few minutes later, they were outside the building, walking toward a café hand in hand.
They tried to walk without a purpose at least a few times a week.
It was good for them to stand up and move around, but the apartment was a bit small for both of them to work in, so getting outside and taking a break was also good for their relationship.
“I wanted to ask you something…” Eline said, holding Arlowe’s arm with her free hand and leaning against her as they walked.
“What?”
“Well, my parents are going to Paris for a couple of weeks for some seminar that they’re doing there, but when they get back, my mother wanted to see the apartment since she hasn’t yet. My father would come with her, obviously, so…”
“So, you still haven’t told them that I’m here.” Arlowe laughed a little. “Want me to hide my stuff? There’s not much room for it, but I think I–”
“What? No, Arlowe. I don’t want you to hide your stuff. I want them to meet you again.”
“You do?” she asked, looking from the canal on her left to the woman on her right, whom she couldn’t really see much of because Eline had put her head on her shoulder.
“Yes. I was thinking that I’d tell them about you before they come over and that we could all have dinner.”
“How do you think they’ll take it?”
“They liked you before. I don’t see why they wouldn’t like you now.”
“Oh, I don’t know… They might not like me because they’ll assume I’m trying to take you away from here.”
“But you’re not.”
“No, I am,” Arlowe replied, laughing again.
“Yes, you are, but I meant that that’s not the only reason I’m going back if my visa application gets approved.”
“Do you think they’ll believe you once they know we’re back together?”
“It doesn’t matter what they believe. I know what I said before about thinking that something kind of directed me to you when I saw that GoldStash job, but the reality was that I had no way of knowing that then. I applied and went through the process having no idea that you lived nearby.”
“Okay. Your point?”
“I went there for me, and I would have stayed there for me,” Eline replied.
“Meeting you again was the best bonus, but I had no intention of moving back to Holland; at least, not unless I ended up not liking it there.” Eline lifted her head and looked around.
“This is my home, and I love it, don’t get me wrong, but I’m also more than okay with moving back to the US, working there, and being with you.
It’s what I want, and if they don’t believe that, I’m not sure that there’s much I can do to change their minds. ”
“I guess that’s true,” Arlowe said and yawned.
“Tired?”
“Working weird hours isn’t as easy as it used to be. It’s taking a toll, but I’m all right.”
“Are you sure?” Eline asked.
“I’m sure, but let’s get me some of that coffee.” Arlowe nodded toward the café that they’d been to a few times now. “I’m getting the largest one they have. What about you?”
“Decaf and small,” Eline said.
“Decaf? Quitter,” she teased before she pulled open the door and let Eline go in first.
At the counter, Eline ordered for them in Dutch and paid with her phone before she took Arlowe’s hand, and they walked over to wait for their drinks.
Then, just like she always did while they waited, Eline wrapped her up in a hug, with her arms around Arlowe’s waist, and her face pressed to Arlowe’s shoulder.
These were the moments that Arlowe lived for.
She wrapped her arms around Eline’s neck and rested her chin on Eline’s shoulder.
“So, you’re really all right with meeting them again? It’s not too soon?”
“I’m good,” she said. “I hope they’re okay with us, with me, but if they’re not, that will just have to be whatever because I’m in love with their daughter, and I really don’t care about anyone’s opinion on that.”
Eline kissed her on the neck just as her name was called, but Arlowe didn’t want to let go of her yet, so she pulled Eline’s face to her own and kissed her sweetly.
After that, they took their coffee outside to continue with their walk, and instead of talking about their classes and their professors or what they were going to do on the weekend like they’d used to, they discussed their work, their friends, and what they wanted from their life together.
Tourists bumped into them. Eline nearly spilled her coffee.
Arlowe held her closer, and the sights and sounds of the city made her feel alive just like it had all those years ago, but as much as she loved it here, and she did, she knew she didn’t want to live in Amsterdam permanently.
She couldn’t wait to get home to be with her friends, see her own parents, who had only learned about her trip to Amsterdam after she’d arrived, and she wanted to get back to the office, which her younger self never would have thought she’d say.
Most of all, though, she wanted to start that part of her life with Eline.
They ate dinner at an Argentinian restaurant, choosing to sit outside to watch the crowds of tourists pass them by, and they laughed about how Arlowe wanted yellow mustard, but the restaurant only had the brown or the spicy stuff.
They found ice cream at a small shop when they were done with their meals, and they headed back to their apartment building and up the steps, finishing their ice cream just before they got inside.
They threw their trash away in the kitchen, and Arlowe watched as Eline pulled a giant bottle of water from the small refrigerator and poured two glasses.
She moved behind her and wrapped her arms around Eline’s middle.
“I love days like today,” she said.
“Me too.”
“But I can’t wait to be back home with you, too. Is that all right to say?”
“Of course, it is,” Eline replied, placing her arms on top of Arlowe’s. “This is our temporary home, and we both love it, but that doesn’t mean we can’t be excited about what’s to come elsewhere.”
“What’s to come?” Arlowe asked, kissing Eline’s neck. “Or, maybe you meant who’s to come…”
Eline chuckled as Arlowe reached for the button on her jeans and said, “Smooth.”
“I know,” she replied before undoing the button, followed by the zipper, and moving her hand down and inside Eline’s underwear. “You know that thing we bought this past weekend?”
“Yes, I was there when we bought it.”
“Well, we cleaned it,” she said as she slipped between Eline’s folds. “And put it into the harness.”
“Yes,” Eline whispered when Arlowe dragged her index finger along her clit.
“Maybe I could put it on for you.”
“Yes,” Eline repeated and wrapped her arm around the back of Arlowe’s neck. “But in a minute.”
“Yeah?”
She smirked against Eline’s neck before she nipped at it.
“Yes, but this… now.”
“This always,” she replied and stroked Eline to a very quick orgasm.
After coming down, Eline turned in her arms and kissed her hard before she said, “Get it.”
“Come with me,” she said.
“No. Out here,” Eline replied and pointed to the sofa.
“Oh…” Arlowe said with a smile.
They’d gone to the same store that Eline had taken her to when they’d been in school as sort of a joke, really, but they’d ended up buying a dildo and harness set and getting some free lube for their trouble.
Arlowe hadn’t brought any of her stuff with her because she didn’t like the idea of people at the airport going through her stuff and finding her sex toys, but also because she wanted something that belonged just to them.
When she came out of the bedroom naked, save the harness and the dildo between her legs, she found Eline closing the curtains, which Arlowe hadn’t even thought about. Eline was standing there in only her jeans, though, and when Arlowe approached her, she turned and began to push them down her legs.
“Sofa,” Eline commanded.
Arlowe sat down and watched as her girlfriend removed her jeans and underwear.
Then, she watched as Eline straddled her lap but didn’t put the dildo inside herself yet.
She kissed Arlowe hard as she cupped Arlowe’s breasts.
Arlowe moved her lips to Eline’s neck and then her breasts, sucking and licking one after the other, getting Eline ready for her, and when she was, Eline lifted herself.
Arlowe held the dildo in place while Eline settled slowly back down on top of it, and she could not believe how lucky she was.