Page 65 of Derivation

“The blueberry bagel caper? Pretty lame prank.”

“So, it is a prank?”

“No, Enya wouldn’t know how to prank people. Blueberry bagels are my favorite,” Sarai replied.

“And this is your coffee.”

Sarai took the cup that Gabi held out and said, “Thank you. I was about to come in. I just needed a moment to myself first.”

“Is everything okay?” she asked and sat down next to Sarai, leaving some space for the plate, which she set down between them.

“I’m getting a little burned out. We work all day Monday through Friday and not just during business hours. Then, there are these Saturday meetings or office visits. I thought I’d at least have today to relax and, I don’t know, maybe even read one of those books in my closet that I haven’t had time for in years, but now, Violet is here with Stella, and I swear, they’re using this as foreplay.”

“What?”

Gabi laughed before she sipped her coffee.

“They have this whole argue-until-they-have-sex thing going on with them. It’s how they started dating in the first place. So, don’t be surprised if they say that they have to go unexpectedly. They’re going home to fuck each other.”

“You think that’s the only reason Violet wanted to meet this morning?”

“Not the only. Violet also works twenty-four-seven and rarely seems to get tired.”

“Which makes you feel like you can’t get tired?”

“She bankrolled us for years, Gabi. She had most of the pressure on her to get us to where we are now and would lose way more than the rest of us if it didn’t work out, and she just never gets tired. I do sometimes, though. I’ve felt it for a while, and none of us ever take vacations. I’m sure Violet will now because she’s in a relationship and Stella will insist on it at some point, but we hardly ever get days off, so we can’t exactly go away for a week. It’s been like this for more than ten years now, and I think it’s getting to me. I think it might be why I haven’t come up with a good idea in a while.”

“Sarai, you’re only human. You need breaks.”

“So, Vi is part robot?”

Gabi chuckled and said, “No, but she might be built differently or something. She might also be burning out and not saying something, just like you. It could be that all of you need to take a damn break.”

“Not Enya. She lives for this stuff.”

“She’s also a person, though. I’m sure she could use a break. Why don’t you say something to Violet about at least having a weekend off for once?”

“I can’t,” Sarai said and took a sip of her coffee. “We’re finally making progress. Plus, we have you now, and you’re going to help us with the wearable. We shouldn’t be losing momentum.”

“For someone who told me that she reads a ton of business and marketing books, you really surprise me. There’s no way that you haven’t read about how, if you take breaks to recharge, you’ll actually do your job better. It has to at least be one chapter in some brilliant marketing book you’ve read.”

“It’s easier said than done,” Sarai replied. “But it’s too late for today. Vi is here, you’re here, and I really do want to make progress on this. The more we know about what you can design, the better we can be when it comes to the partnership possibilities.”

“What do you mean?”

“It’ll take years for something to be created, tested, and manufactured. We’re going to try to get the software onto other wearables for now, and then, when ours is ready, we can decide to either keep it there or make it exclusive to our wearables. Kind of like Kindle. When it first came out, you could only read on a Kindle device, but then, they made the app, and as long as whatever app store you use has it, you can read on it. We need to figure out which road to take. If you can design something that is so much better than anything anyone else would make and it could stand on its own, we could make it exclusive to our hardware, which is a plus in one way, but a minus in another because we’d risk losing a bulk of our users. Anyway, my point is the more we know now, the better.”

“God, now I’m a little nervous. I only have a few notes on my phone. I don’t have a mock-up or anything yet.”

“Gabs, you signed the paperwork on Thursday. Violet doesn’t expect you to have a working prototype already. She just wants to get the ball rolling.” Sarai went to take a drink of her coffee but stopped and added, “Shit. Sorry. I called you Gabs again. Accident. I wasn’t trying to annoy you.”

Gabi smiled softly and said, “It’s fine. It doesn’t actually bother me when you call me that for some reason.”

“You said it was annoying when we met.”

“I was trying to be more grown-up around you, remember? That was my childhood nickname, and I didn’t want to be a child anymore. I didn’t want you to see me that way.” She cleared her throat. “Or, you know, your friends. You were all four years older than me and so much cooler than I felt.”

“We were not cool. We were all just big nerds.” Sarai laughed.