Page 18 of Semantics

“The weird one?”

“Arlowe, shut up for a sec,” Sarai said. “What does this email say?”

“Violet, I am so sorry,” Violet began reading the email out loud. “I cannot believe I sent that email, let alone typed it. I know once you put something out there, you can’t take it back, but in case you didn’t know by now, this is Stella Ross from our semester abroad program. I noticed that it was you on the intake form, so I thought I’d be your sales rep since we already knew each other. Then, last night, I, very unfortunately, had a little too much wine at dinner, and some old, very immature feelings from back then rose to the surface. I let some of them out via email, which was entirely inappropriate and unprofessional. I remembered this morning when I woke up that I’d actually sent it instead of keeping it in my drafts to delete later, and I am mortified. I know there’s no excuse, and I apologize. I’d understand if you don’t want to go with Cerebral because of my unprofessional behavior, but if you are still interested in a demo, you don’t have to have it with me. I’ll happily have my best rep work with you. Again, I am very sorry. Feel free to ghost me because you’d have every right, but if you do want a demo, just let me know. I’ll move anything around to make that happen for you. Stella Ross, SVP of–”

“We know the rest,” Arlowe cut her off. “So, she’s saving big-time face, huh?”

“I guess so,” Violet replied. “Was I really a bitch to her back then?” she asked them both.

“I don’t know. I was in a different program. I know you talked about her a lot, but I don’t know how you were with her,” Arlowe said.

“Not nice but, like, competitive, I thought,” Sarai answered. “Maybe a little too competitive, but she was that way with you, too, so it went both ways, from what I saw.”

“What do I do?” Violet asked. “I don’t think we can get hardware going right now, even if we hire someone tomorrow. We would still need to work out the whole plan of attack there, and we need to start making real money. None of us has made an actual paycheck yet. We’re being funded by–”

“The bank of Vi?” Arlowe asked.

“I was going to say investors. A good tool could help us move a lot faster.”

“You’re right,” Arlowe stated.

“Well, is Cerebral really the best option you’ve seen, like you said?” Sarai asked.

“I think so, but I’ll know more after a demo or two. I have one set up with a different company tomorrow, and the other one I looked into is set up for next week.”

“I think you should at least do the demo with them,” Arlowe suggested. “Might be uncomfortable for the two of you, yeah, but she’s the one who messed up, so at least there’s that. Now, can I get to work, or are we going to keep talking about this?”

Then, not waiting for a reply, Arlowe turned her chair toward her computer and put on her noise-canceling headphones.

“She went to manners school with Stella, I guess,” Sarai said.

“I think I have to reply.”

“Do you want to be a bitch to her first? I can help with that. I’m a great copywriter. Tell me what you want to say, and I’ll type it out for you,” Sarai offered as she sat down in her own chair in front of her computer.

“No. I was already a bitch to her back then, apparently. I’d like to have the upper hand now, if possible. Might get us a sizeable discount later if I hold on to her email and don’t use it against her just yet.”

“Dirty.” Sarai pointed at her and winked. “I like it.”

Violet then typed her response to the second email, deliberately not addressing the first one, and read it to Sarai, who nodded but told Violet that she wished she’d be at least a little bitchy. Violet held strong, though, and a few minutes later, she hit send and got back to work just as Enya walked in with her headphones on, saying words in some language over and over again, which was a normal occurrence for their genius friend, roommate, and co-worker.

Fifteen minutes later, Violet had Stella’s response. She looked around and noticed that Arlowe was deep into whatever she was coding, Enya was typing something, too, and Sarai was up at the dry-erase board she used as a blank canvas to work out marketing strategies before typing them up, so she decided to read the email to herself and share it with them later.

Violet,

Thank you for giving Cerebral, and me, another chance. I really cannot believe I sent that email. I apologize again, and if you’re free sometime today, I’d be happy to show you how Cerebral works or introduce you to my top rep, as I mentioned. Her name is Monique, and she used to be a sales engineer before moving into direct sales. She’s a genius with our tool, and I think she can explain it better than I can, if I’m being honest, but I can at least do the initial demo for you anytime today or this week. Just let me know.

Thanks again,

Stella

Violet decided to take a chance. She was more curious about Stella Ross than she was about Cerebral, and given the fact that Stella was trying to make things up to her after that initial email, she also thought it would be interesting to watch the woman grovel over a Zoom meeting. If that made her a bitch, so be it. She clicked the blue icon that Stella had directed her to so passive-aggressively earlier, booked a slot for later that day, and chose not to reply to Stella’s actual email and just get back to work, letting Stella stew for a while.

When two o’clock rolled around, Violet found herself nervous and went for a walk around the block, which wasn’t something she did all that often. By two-thirty, she was back at her computer, but she’d moved it to her bedroom, where she had a small desk in the corner that she used whenever she wanted to work on her own and not in the communal spaces. She didn’t want Stella to know that they were working from their house, though, so she used the blur effect on Zoom to block her room from view and waited for Stella to join the meeting. She couldn’t believe that she would be seeing Stella Ross for the first time in a decade and that, for the first time, she felt like she really had the upper hand.

“Hi,” Stella said when her face appeared on the screen.

“Hi,” Violet greeted, but her brain had short-circuited for a second initially because Stella was still just as beautiful, if not more so, than she had been back then, and that picture she’d had online hadn’t done her justice at all.