CHAPTER 33
“I regret asking you to wear that,” Violet stated.
“What?” Stella asked, looking down at the ensemble she had worn the previous night on their first date.
“You look too good for us to be in a public place,” she replied with a smirk.
“Well, if that’s your problem, you can’t smirk at me like that, either.”
“Huh?” she asked.
“That sexy smirk thing you do – you can’t do that when we’re in public because it makes me want to take you home.”
“You think–” Violet stopped. “Your smirk is sexy. Mine is an attempt at cool, at best.”
“What? No way. You looked up from between my legs one night with that smirk, and I about came again just–”
A throat cleared from beside them then. Violet looked up to see two women standing next to their table, and when Stella looked up, too, she shook her head.
“Jen, what are you doing here?”
“Jen?” Violet asked.
“This is Jen, yes. And I have no idea what she’s doing here.”
“Apparently, hearing about your plans for later back at your place,” Jen replied before she turned to Violet. “I really hope you’re Violet, because if you’re not, she has some explaining to do.”
“I am.” Violet chuckled and held out her hand for Jen to shake. “It’s nice to meet you.”
“You too.” Jen shook her hand before she motioned to the woman standing next to her. “This is Haley. We’re on a date. I didn’t know you two were also coming here tonight.”
“Violet made the reservation, so I didn’t know we were coming here, either. It’s nice to meet you, Haley.”
“Maybe I can have them just put us with you two,” Jen said. “You have the extra chairs. We can have a double date.”
“No,” Stella replied quickly.
“Stella, it’s fine,” Violet said.
“No, it’s not. It’s only our second date. I want it to be just ours. No offense, Haley.”
“None taken. I wanted her all to myself tonight anyway,” Haley replied as she wrapped an arm around Jen’s waist.
“But, babe, I want to grill Stella’s date.” Jen placed her hand between Haley’s breasts over her shirt. “I haven’t told you their whole story yet, but it’s a good one.”
“Jen!” Stella exclaimed, and Violet smiled at her from across the table, liking the little flush on her cheeks.
“Why are you dressed like you’re about to go to a 1920s-themed party after this?” Jen asked.
“It’s a thing,” Stella said. “Let it go.”
“I put in a request,” Violet explained. “She’s wearing it for me.”
“Is this a sex thing?” Jen asked Stella as their waiter approached.
“You know what? We’ve already eaten, and we just have dessert coming, so I think you two should follow that hostess over there, who is waiting for you over at your very own table, and I will text you later, Jen.”
Jen laughed and said, “Fine. We’ll double date another time. You ready, babe?”
“Yeah. It was nice meeting both of you,” Haley said.
“You too,” they both said at the same time.
Jen and Haley walked off, but the waiter stood there expectantly.
“What can I get for you tonight?” he asked.
“Stella, we haven’t even ordered, but you just told them that we were on dessert.”
“Can we have a dessert menu?” Stella asked the waiter.
“You want drinks and dessert?” he asked.
“Yes. Thanks,” Stella said and looked at Violet as the waiter walked off to get them menus. “We can grab something else back at my place if you want. Maybe… after?”
“You don’t want dinner now?”
“I just… Violet, I know we’re supposed to go on dates because we’re dating and that we shouldn’t just have sex, but we don’t have to go to restaurants or just have sex at my place. We can actually have a date there, like we did last night, and we can get naked whenever we want there.”
“That is an advantage,” Violet agreed as the waiter returned with their menus. “Can you bring us the tiramisu and the cheesecake to-go?” she asked without even looking at hers.
Stella laughed.
◆◆◆
When they pulled up to Stella’s house, Stella’s hand was already under Violet’s dress, sliding higher and higher up her thigh by the second.
“Eager?”
“Yes. It’s been too long.”
Stella moved her hand all the way up to cup her.
“Babe!” Violet laughed and put her car in park in the driveway. “Inside.”
“Yeah?” Stella asked, shifting her hand.
“What? No! Inside the house.” Violet laughed again.
“So, no car sex?”
“Not tonight anyway,” Violet said.
“Does that mean it can happen another time?”
“Stella, you have a whole house that we can have sex in. You really want to keep talking about this?”
“Nope. Let’s go.”
They got out of the car, and just as Violet locked it with her key fob, her phone rang in her purse. She pulled it out and saw that it was Enya calling.
“Hey, one second.”
“What? Just let it go to voicemail, Violet.”
Stella unlocked the front door of the house.
“It’s Enya. I just need a second.” She answered the call. “Hey. Everything okay?”
“Have you checked your work email?”
“While I’m on a date? No. Why?”
“Asset Capital emailed.”
“What did they say?”
“They’re going to have the money in our account in eight to twelve weeks.”
“Really?” she asked, following Stella into the house.
“Yeah. You said we were good for five to six months. We’re going to be okay waiting for two to three, right?”
“As long as they don’t take any longer than that, yes, we should be more than fine.”
“It’s happening, Vi. It’s finally happening for us. I just thought you should know. Sorry for interrupting your date.”
“It’s okay. This is good news, so thank you. Stella and I just got to her place, though, so I’m going to hang up now. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Violet hung up the phone and slipped it back into her purse as Stella closed and locked the door behind her.
“What’s going on?” Stella asked.
“The money will be there in eight to twelve weeks,” she said and placed her purse on the floor next to Stella’s couch.
“Why do you not sound happy about that? That’s good news.”
Violet sat on the couch and said, “Because there could still be delays, and I can’t count on that money until the lawyer approves the agreement that we haven’t yet signed.
I asked them for a timeline post signature, so that’s what Enya just told me they said.
It’s still great, obviously, but lawyers aren’t cheap, and there’s a chance that we’ll be coming up against me having to use my savings or ask my parents for a short-term loan if it gets that far. ”
“You’re still worried about that?” Stella asked and sat down next to her.
“Yeah. I mean, I’m always going to worry about money, aren’t I? I’m the CEO. It’s always going to fall on me. I suppose if we actually had any money, I’d be less worried about it, but I’ll figure it out. It’s fine. I don’t want to ruin our night with yet another freak-out about work.”
Stella cleared her throat and said, “Hey, I wanted to celebrate your good news and, well, us tonight, so I didn’t say anything before, but we signed that major client today at work.”
Violet turned to her and replied, “You did? Stella, that’s amazing. They’re the biggest client for Cerebral yet, right?”
“Yeah, it’s a pretty big deal.”
“You should’ve said something. Babe, we can celebrate all of it tonight. Let’s have our–” She stopped. “Shit. We left the desserts in the car.”
“I don’t care about the desserts right now. I wanted to talk to you about something.”
“Yeah, your massive success. I think now I’m going to reward you a few more times than I’d already planned to.”
“Violet, can I talk to you about something?”
“You still want to talk?” she asked and spread her legs.
Stella looked down, eyes wide, as Violet lifted her dress slowly, inch by inch, and said, “Not fair.”
“You know, I think you’re the only woman who’s ever found me sexy.”
“No, I’m not. I might be the only woman who’s ever told you that, but there’s no way women haven’t found you sexy.”
“Should I stop doing what I’m doing?” she asked, moving her dress up higher and higher.
“No, but… yes.” Stella placed her hand on Violet’s now-bare thigh, so Violet ceased and left the dress where it was. “With that big client, I get a pretty big bonus.”
“That’s great. What are you going to do with it?”
“Well, I was thinking about being an investor.”
“Your bonus is that big? Who is this customer? The US military?”
Stella laughed and said, “Act like they could afford us. And it’s not enough to invest millions of dollars or anything. I would be a very small investor somewhere.”
“Okay. Where?”
“Babe?”
“What?”
“Violet, I’m talking about your company. I want to invest in your company.”
“My–” Violet hadn’t expected that. “My company?”
“It’s only two hundred thousand dollars. That’s what I can afford to invest right now anyway. It’s my bonus with a little of my savings mixed in. I know it’s not much and that we’d have to work out terms to make it official.”
“You’re trying to give me money?”
“No, it’s an investment. And it’s not for you; it’s for the company. I want to be an official investor, and I want to talk about–”
“Stella, no.”
“Just no?”
“I want to date you.”
“I want to date you, too.”
“I wouldn’t be able to guarantee that you would get that money back, Stella. That’s not okay.”
“It’s an investment. That’s what an investment is. I’m aware of the risks.”
“I can’t do that. Not with you. I don’t want money to come between us, kind of like it did back then.”
“Can I at least tell you why I want to invest before you turn me down?”
“Can you tell me why you had to bring this up tonight, when I was about to get naked on this couch?”
“I have never had money in my life. I could only afford to buy this house because it was in foreclosure. I have spent some money fixing it up since, but I only had enough for the down payment. That was it. I had to save and save just to get this place. I love it, yes, but let’s be honest: it’s a one-bedroom and isn’t anything fancy. ”
“Your house is nice, and it’s yours, Stella. I’m renting.”
“When I bought it, that depleted my savings, so I had to start over again. I worked my way up. Now, I make really good money, and since the house was very cheap when I got it, it’s already paid off.
My car is new, but I’ll pay it off ahead of schedule, and I have no other debt because I paid off my credit cards before I bought the house.
My point is that I don’t need another house; at least, not right now.
I don’t know how to handle the stock market, and I’d hate to just hire a financial planner because I’ve heard some people have bad experiences with them, and…
I want to invest in something. I learned a lot about what you all do, and I like it.
I’ve done my research. I’m interested in investing.
I believe in what you all are working on.
It’s not much money; I know that. If I get in now with what I can invest, I might be able to invest more later, but it’s more than that for me, Vi.
I liked being in that garage with you and Arlowe, Sarai, and Enya.
I know I can’t work with you guys, but if I invest, maybe I can join a meeting every so often and help out. ”
“You can do that now. You don’t have to invest.”
“It should be official, though, Vi.”
“Stella, for real… Your idea about the partnerships and how you suggested that we change up the deck is probably the main reason Asset invested in us. If you want to help us out on the side, you can do that whenever. I can’t guarantee we’ll take all of your advice, but I’ve learned my lesson now. I’ll at least listen to it.”
“Will you still argue with me?” Stella asked her with that smirk Violet loved.
“Oh, definitely. Then, we’ll go to my room for a break.” Violet winked. “You really want to sit in my work meetings sometimes?”
“I miss being part of things from the beginning. Cerebral is so big now. I still love it, I do, and it’s why I have my position and have a chance to be CRO soon, but I was thinking about how I liked it when we were small.
I was thinking that if I invested, we could work out an arrangement that allowed me to participate and, I don’t know, help make some decisions or just be part of the process or something. ”
“You can just do that if you want,” Violet said, smiling at her. “Invest your money in some other way.”
“What, my IRA? Boring.”
Violet laughed and replied, “Boring, but practical. You could also just save it.”
“Sure. But for what? An emergency? A trip? A bigger house that I don’t need?”
Violet moved into Stella’s lap, straddling her, and said, “Oh, I don’t know.
I hope there aren’t any emergencies, but a trip sounds nice.
I’m thinking about a beach, a chair in the sand, a cold drink that’s mostly sugar, and maybe a very nice hotel room close by where we could be naked and together. ”
“Speaking of naked…”
Stella ran her hands up Violet’s thighs.
“You really wanted to invest in me? In our company?” Violet asked as she wrapped her arms around Stella’s neck.
“Yes, of course. I know you all haven’t made as much progress as you wanted to, but I’ve seen what you’ve got so far.
With more money and a few more people, you’re going to be able to build even better and faster.
I believe in it, Violet. I believe in you.
I mean, you are the winner of the officially engraved plaque that I also left in the car. ”
Violet smiled down at her and said, “How about this? If, for some reason, the money from Asset takes longer to drop into our account, I’ll talk to you about maybe investing enough to get us through the gap.”
“Okay. I can accept that.”
“And maybe you can save that money for a house that has at least two bedrooms.”
“Two?”
“Or three.”
“Why do I need a three-bedroom house, Violet?”
“You might not need one today, but you never know what you’ll need in the future.
” Violet reached down for the zipper on her left side and lowered it.
“You might find yourself with someone who actually wants to live with you. I mean, I can’t imagine that will ever be me, but maybe someone who would need an office.
Maybe you’d want an office for yourself, too.
I don’t know. It would have to be someone who’s willing to put up with you. ”
She smiled down at Stella before she dropped it, trying to keep up the act.
“As if I could ever put up with you,” Stella teased her back. “You’re unbelievably annoying, like when you correct things like formulas that were actually just typos and do not at all indicate that I don’t understand how to make them to begin with.”
“If you don’t want me to correct your typos, don’t make them,” Violet challenged.
Stella’s hand slipped between her legs then, making Violet gasp.
“And if you don’t want me to touch you here, don’t get so damn wet.”
“Not possible around you,” she replied.