Page 97 of Paradigm

“I thought I did, but what’s your news? You go first.”

“My dad found me an apartment. It’s an onderverhuur situation.”

“A what?” Arlowe laughed.

“Sorry, I just got home. I’m mixing my English and my Dutch a little more than usual. Now that I live here again, my parents are back to Dutch full-time. I’ll be subleasing it.”

“Oh, a sublet?” Arlowe asked.

“Yes. It’s a one-bedroom. The woman who rents it now is going away for a year. She’s a professor like my father, and she’s going to do a year at Cambridge, so she was looking for someone to rent, and I needed a place. She’s even giving me a small discount on the rent just to take it off her hands because she’s leaving in less than a week. I guess the job opportunity just came up, and she’s had no time to focus on the apartment because a place like that in this city would be gone in an instant if she put it on the market.”

“That’s great. When can you move in?” Arlowe asked.

“In about four days,” she said. “Which is great because I start work then, so I should be in my new place, which is furnished, the night before my first day.”

“That’s great,” Arlowe replied.

“Yeah, I’m pretty excited. It’s in a good neighborhood, and it’s very nice. I think she’s happy to have someone like me taking care of it for her instead of having to rent it out to some university student since it’s near the campus.”

Arlowe smiled at her but said nothing.

“Arlowe?”

“Yeah, sorry,” Arlowe said.

“What’s your news?”

“Oh, nothing major. I’ve just been working on planning my visit since I got home.”

Eline smiled widely at that. She’d been worried that Arlowe had been putting off any plans to visit her in Holland because things had been pretty awkward between them for some time, but hearing Arlowe say that she was going to visit her after all made her feel like maybe things could actually be all right between them.

“When?” she asked.

“Well, I wasn’t sure of that part because you were living at home. I could’ve gotten us a hotel room, but your parents would have wondered why you were staying at a hotel, and I wasn’t sure that you’d want to tell them about us just yet. So, how would you feel if I visited in about four days? Is that too soon?”

“What? Really?”

“I don’t want to get in your way with the new place and new job. We can find better timing if–”

“You won’t be,” she said, shifting on her bed. “Arlowe, you’re really coming that soon? Are you sure? You don’t want to wait and come later so that it’s in the middle of my time here or closer to it? And what about your work? You were worried about leaving at all.”

Arlowe smirked and said, “I worked things out so that I can be there next week and stay as long as the Dutch government would allow without a visa, which is a few months. I might have to come back earlier if I’m needed in person, though, and we should also keep in mind that if something happens with your visa, I might not be able to get back over there this year because I’d need a visa of my own then, but if I don’t stay the whole time and save up some days for later, maybe I won’t have to get a visa after all.”

“Wait. You can stay that long?”

“I talked to Violet, Sarai, and Enya. It’ll be tight, but if I can work from there for at least some or most of the time, keeping my eyes on things from afar, I can do it. They practically shoved me out the door.” Arlowe laughed. “I wanted to talk to you first, though. We’d basically be living together because I can’t really afford a multi-month hotel stay. Maybe I could get a rental somewhere outside of Amsterdam proper, somewhere closer to wherever your apartment is now, for that long, but–”

“You’ll stay with me,” Eline stated.

“Even though you didn’t want to stay with me at the house here?”

“This is different,” she said. “This isn’t you offering because a clock is ticking down. We’re in a clock-ticking-up situation now. We’re going to get the visa application filed and hope for the best.”

“And you’re okay with me staying for a while, working from there, while we’re living together? It’s not exactly what you wanted… You said you wanted us to do things the right way, but if I’m there, I don’t want to sleep somewhere else, if I’m being honest. I’d want to be next to you every night, so I’d just be wasting my money renting something else.”

“Yes, Arlowe. I am more than sure.” She smiled wider. “I was worried you didn’t even want to come here. You told me you were going to plan a visit, but while I was right there with you and we could’ve done that together, you didn’t. I left wondering if you even would.”

“I was always going to come for a visit, babe,” Arlowe told her. “I want to see you as soon as possible. I was worried about work and the fact that you were living at home. Your parents don’t know we’re back together, but even if you told them, that would still be really awkward, and I didn’t want to put more pressure on us.”