Page 132 of Derivation

“Another reason?” Gabi asked.

“Oh, I’m doing that myself. I’m not letting the movers touch my babies.” Arlowe said as she walked over to them, and when Gabi chuckled, she asked, “Gabi, do you want to help? I’ve got everything over by my office.”

“In a bit. I’ll join you in there. I want to check on her first.”

She pointed to Sarai, who was now standing and looking contemplative, which concerned her.

“You should go on in there,” Violet suggested. “Also, we’re all grabbing lunch in about an hour, so don’t eat all the snacks we brought in to stock the kitchen. Those are for us to start with next week.”

“Yes, Ma’am,” Gabi said with a little laugh and walked into Sarai’s office, where she found her girlfriend standing in front of her desk, leaning back against it and smiling at her. “Excuse me? I was hoping to speak with the head of marketing. I was told this was her office and that she’s the genius who launched the campaign that basically made this all possible.”

Sarai rolled her eyes and said, “Not a genius. Campaign went well. That’s all.” She held out her hands. “Come here.”

Gabi walked toward her and took Sarai’s hands in her own.

“Violet said not to eat the snacks because they’re not supposed to be your lunch. I happen to agree with her. You are terrible at lunch.”

“I get busy. It happens,” Sarai said.

“What can I help you with? Your stuff is still in the car, right? Want me to start bringing things up? You only have a desk so far.”

“I want to talk to you about something first.”

“What?” she asked, concerned, until she saw Sarai smile.

“So, the campaign did really well for us, and well, we’ve gotten a few schools reaching out. Violet is working on those agreements, but investors are very happy, and you were a big part of it.”

“Small part, but go on,” she replied and smiled softly, wondering where Sarai was going with this.

“Vi had an idea. We talked about it as a leadership team and chatted with the board and everyone else you have to talk to about these things, but we all agreed. It was unanimous.”

“Agreed on what, babe?”

“Before I tell you, I want to let you know that I also disclosed our relationship, so everyone who didn’t know about it, does now. I needed to ensure that they would all still agree, but since it was a pre-existing relationship, and we’re not employee and boss, they said it was fine.”

“Sarai, I’m lost. What–”

“I want to offer you a job. Well, we do.” Sarai shrugged a shoulder. “You’d be head of hardware, a peer to Arlowe, Enya, and me.”

“Head of hardware?”

“Or whatever you want to call yourself. We found the money in the budget right around the time the investors saw my deck for the hardware plan along with your specs. They loved it, the whole thing, and they’re giving us more money. The next round will be coming in soon.”

“That’s amazing, Sarai.”

“It is. And we want to use part of that money to actually pay you to work here.”

“But I have a job.”

“I know. We’re matching your salary there. Benefits and everything else might not be as good yet, and we don’t have bonuses right now, but you’d have equity in the business.”

“You’re serious?”

“I am. The main reason I wanted this office was that I thought we could potentially share it. If that sounds a little crazy for you, though, since I took a conference room, there’s an extra office that would be all yours.”

“You really– You’re serious?”

“I love you,” Sarai told her with a smile and shook her head. “I love you, Gabs. I want to be with you, and I want to work with you here, too. I know it’s scary because we already live together, but it’s what I want, and I want to take that risk because I know what this is. I know what we have. It’s real, and I love you.”