Page 121 of Derivation

“Vi, come on. Don’t contribute to this, please. We just started dating. Besides, we have a lot of work to do. This commercial is due to the network first thing tomorrow. We’ve got a lot riding on this.”

“So, yes.” Violet nodded. “Yes, is the answer.”

Sarai could only smile. She and Gabi had had an amazing weekend. Yes, they’d gotten made fun of for leaving their clothes, including their underwear, outside overnight, but it had definitely been worth it, and after their somewhat awkward breakfast on Sunday, they’d spent much of the rest of the day in bed. They’d made love without caring about their roommates in the house. They’d talked. They’d held one another. Then, they’d emerged and sat on the sofa snuggled up while watching a movie with Enya and Arlowe. They’d slept in Gabi’s room, and Sarai had been instructed to bring some clothes to keep there, which she’d thought a little silly since they lived in the same house, but she’d done it anyway. She’d also told Gabi that she could keep whatever she wanted in her room.

“It’s new, Violet,” she said.

“I know, but you seem really happy. I honestly feel like I’m missing so much, not living here. I love living with my girlfriend, but I hate missing things here.”

“If you hadn’t moved out, Gabi couldn’t have moved in,” Sarai suggested.

“True. But you ran into her at the bar, so you could’ve seen her again and still be dating her.”

“Yes, but then, you wouldn’t be living with Stella, and you love Stella.”

“I do love her. She’s the most frustrating woman on the planet, but she’s my most frustrating woman on the planet.”

“Okay. Shut up. Everybody, shut up,” Arlowe instructed as she jogged into the garage.

“Where have you been?” Violet asked.

“I was working in my room, and I figured it out.”

“Figured what out?” Enya asked.

“Did I just hear someone run down the hall?”

Sarai turned to see Gabi standing in the doorway now.

“Hey, babe.”

“Hey. Is everything okay?” Gabi asked, walking into the garage.

“Arlowe is freaking out about something,” Violet said.

“I can finish the gamification.”

“Finish it?” Sarai checked.

“The code; I can write it. I can do it right now. I’ll text Mitchell and Clay so that they work on it with me. It’s almost done already, but there’s a shortcut that I just read about on some Discord server I’m on. I can use it to create the feature we wanted to have out before the commercial.”

“The commercial?” Sarai asked.

“Yes. It’ll allow them to chat with their friends, create personalized challenges, send invitations for people to join the app and those challenges, and they’ll get referral points in the game, like we’ve talked about. I wasn’t going to be able to get it done by the time the commercial aired, but now, I can.”

“Because of a shortcut?” Sarai asked.

“A coding shortcut, yeah,” Arlowe said. “There’s more to it than that, and I can do it, but if we can push the commercial for just a few days, that would give me the time to do that and the time to QA everything, too.”

“Do you need any help?” Gabi asked, moving behind Sarai and putting her hands on Sarai’s shoulders.

“If you’re offering, I won’t say no,” Arlowe replied.

“I can help at night when I’m done with work.”

“Um… Your girlfriend would like to see you at some point this week, Gabi,” Sarai chimed in.

“You literally live with her. Act like you won’t see her for days,” Arlowe retorted.