Page 35 of Derivation

“Nothing,” Gabi said, shaking her head. “Never mind. I’m going to go grab my phone from my room. It’s charging. Feel free to check with them and let me know before I run out. If not, just text me. I’m down for whatever, I guess.”

Gabi stood up then and walked out of the kitchen, leaving Sarai alone with her thoughts.

CHAPTER 10

“So,” she said to Sarai.

“Yeah, so,” Sarai replied.

They were sitting in a booth at the bar. Sarai had asked both Enya and Arlowe to come with them, and when they’d turned her down, she’d texted Violet to see if she and Stella wanted to come out instead, but they’d still been busy with Haley and Jen, so they’d declined as well.

Gabi hadn’t expected Sarai to attempt to invite literally all of her friends with them when she’d intended it to be just them, so for a moment there, she’d thought about canceling the whole thing. She’d been exhausted anyway and felt like moving made a pretty good excuse to tell Sarai that they’d have to do it another night, but when she’d gotten back from the grocery store, Sarai had helped her put things away in the kitchen, and they’d talked and laughed a little. It had been so nice until Arlowe and Enya had interrupted them, checking in on dinner plans, and Gabi hadn’t wanted to stick around and have dinner with all of them then. Another night? Sure. But she’d wanted to spend some time alone with Sarai, and having the two of them sitting at the table with Arlowe and Enya wouldn’t have given her that.

The previous night, she’d had so much fun, despite the fact that she’d just been unpacking stuff and hanging clothes. Sarai made her laugh. She made her think. They could talk for hours, and Gabi still wanted to talk to her. Unfortunately, she’d been exhausted last night, too, and she’d needed to get back to the hotel to pack up what she had there in order to check out today.

Handing her room key over to the guy at the front desk had felt like something to celebrate after living there for two weeks, but moving hadn’t gone as planned, and she was tired of lugging her stuff from place to place. Chase and Mark had taken some of the furniture out of the storage unit, but there had still been a table that she’d had to decide what to do with, so she’d taken a chance and asked the man working in the storage office if he wanted it. He’d said he’d take it off her hands for twenty bucks. She’d planned on just giving it to him anyway, but she’d taken the twenty and hadn’t felt bad about it because that table was only a year old, had no damage, and had cost over a hundred.

“So, how’s the moving progress?” Sarai asked.

“Same as it was when you asked me as we were leaving.”

“Right. We should order. Are you hungry?” Sarai asked and nodded to the bartender, who smiled back at her.

“You know her?” Gabi asked, scowling a bit.

“Yeah, she works here. We didn’t use to come here that much, but once Violet and Stella started dating, we ended up here, like, once a week. That’s Jo.”

“Jo?”

“As in Josephine, I imagine,” Sarai said.

“But she goes by Jo?”

“That’s what she told us to call her,” Sarai replied. “Why do you care about her name?”

“Just asking,” she said, thinking about how Jo was wearing a short-sleeved button-up flannel shirt, had short hair that was a little like Stella’s, and likely, also had some pretty short fingernails.

“Hey, Sarai,” Jo greeted.

“Hey. Have you met Gabi?”

“No, I don’t think I have,” Jo replied and looked down at Gabi.

“Nice to meet you,” Gabi said to be polite, even though it hadn’t felt nice at all.

“You too. So, are the rest of your friends joining you? I assumed they would be. That’s why I didn’t come over here right away.”

Gabi didn’t like how Jo had just assumed that she and Sarai were friends and nothing more. Yes, that was technically true, but Jo hadn’t known that when she’d made a comment about the rest of Sarai’s friends.

“No, just Gabi and me tonight. We’re going to order food, though, so can we get some menus? There aren’t any stuck behind the napkin holder like usual. I know what I’ll get, but Gabi has only been here once.”

“Sure. I’ll bring them over. What do you want to drink in the meantime?”

“Can I get a sparkling water? I’m driving,” Sarai said.

“Yeah. And you?” Jo asked Gabi.

“You can have a beer or something, Sarai.”