Page 76 of Semantics
“Why are you carrying your bag around?” Enya asked.
“I was going to head out, but I thought I should find her to say goodbye first.”
Enya nodded but didn’t say anything else, so Stella took that as her cue and walked into the kitchen, where she found two open pizza boxes. She remembered which one Violet had eaten the night before and, hoping Violet liked it cold, she added a couple of slices to a paper plate she’d brought from the restaurant and carried it into the garage, where she found Violet staring at her computer screen, deep in thought.
“Hey, Vi?”
Violet looked up at her and said, “Oh, hey. You’re up?”
“Yeah. You left the bedroom.”
“Sorry, I had to work on this, and I didn’t want to wake you by working in my room,” Violet replied. “What’s that?” she asked, looking at the plate in Stella’s hand.
“Breakfast. Do you like cold pizza?”
“No,” Violet said.
Stella laughed and replied, “Of course, you don’t. Can I heat it up for you?”
“You eat pizza for breakfast?”
“Sometimes. But Arlowe and Enya had it sitting out, and they said you hadn’t eaten yet, so I thought I’d try to get you to at least have some breakfast.”
“I can’t. I’m in the middle of something.”
Stella sat down in Arlowe’s fancy chair and said, “Let me guess… Slide thirteen.”
Violet looked surprised.
“How did you–”
“You vehemently disagreed with me on it last night. You don’t need it, Vi. It’s only going to confuse them. Stick to the numbers. It’s all they care about. Revenue potential and when they can expect to get their investment back. That’s it.”
“But they also need to see how we’re going to get their money back.”
“Sure, but not in this much detail. I could barely read the words on the slide when we had it on the big screen last night. You don’t need it, but if you think you do, expand it to three or four slides and add them to the appendix.”
“That’s what I told her,” Sarai said when she walked in, carrying her own plate. “Are you eating pizza for breakfast?” she asked Violet.
“No, Stella is.”
“I’m going to heat it up for her, and she’s going to eat it then,” Stella said, setting her bag down on the floor of the garage.
“No, I’m not. I’ll eat it for lunch or something.”
“Is there something you will eat for breakfast?”
“Stella, I’m fine,” Violet replied.
“She eats those granola bars or protein bars. Whatever they are,” Sarai said.
“Not helping, Sarai,” Violet said, glaring at her friend.
Stella leaned in and softly asked, “Hey, do you want me to go? I will. I just wanted to make sure you ate something.”
Violet looked at her then, and her expression softened.
“And we’re going to go over it again, aren’t we?” Arlowe asked when she walked in.
