Page 5 of The Startup (The Erotes Circle #2)
CHAPTER FIVE
“You’re fidgeting.” Emma said, looking down at my hands, which had just finished twisting a straw into a crumpled mess. “You never fidget. I’m the autistic one here, I do the fidgeting.”
“Well, Em, as much as I appreciate you getting this meeting with your CEO, I am goddamn nervous.”
“You being nervous is making me nervous, Vi, and don’t worry, there’s no reason to be nervous. Like I said, she’s not a psychopath.”
I closed my eyes and took a breath, trying to center myself and calm down. As if not being a psychopath was the one thing that made this all fine. I loved that Emma did this for me, but I was always beyond nervous when it came to any kind of job interviews, and even though this wasn’t a formal one, I still felt the familiar tension growing in my stomach.
And when I opened my eyes, all those butterflies dissolved when I saw the woman approaching our table.
“KIM?!?” I shouted a little too loudly for the trendy clientele around me, eliciting some side-eye that I probably deserved.
“Violet?” Kim approached our table, all six feet of her frame towering over us as she walked in on heels that made her even taller. The dim orange lighting of the restaurant did nothing to dull the shimmer of her dark brown skin, or the loose curls piled on top of her head. “Emma…this is the girlfriend that needs a job?” Kim pulled out a chair and sat down, her razor-sharp suit fitting her sturdy frame like a glove.
“Yeah…” Emma looked at Kim and then turned back to me, “what is…how do you know Kim?”
“I’m sorry Viol?—“
“—Really quick, Kim, it’s Vi now.”
“Vi, sorry,” Kim grinned, “I’m sorry, Vi, I should have put it together that when Emma said her girlfriend Vi needed a job, that name may have been short for something, maybe even the name of the best damn pitcher I ever caught for.”
“Guys I’m really fucking confused, please explain.” Emma said, actually irritated. Inside jokes always made her upset.
“Sorry, OK, Emma, I told you I played softball at Arizona, right?”
“Yes…” Emma still wasn’t piecing it together.
“Well, Kim here was my catcher.”
“Almost lead us to a championship.” She smiled.
“I just can’t believe we’ve been dating for six months and you haven’t talked about your wonderful, gorgeous CEO.”
“I, uh, didn’t think it was important.” Emma seemed to be getting upset by being out of the loop on everything. “You never really asked.”
“Em, it’s fine, baby, it’s amazing that your boss just so happens to be one of my best friends from college…a friend who told me she was going to the east coast after we graduated to get her MBA…” I side-eyed Kim as hard as the surprised diners did to me upon her arrival.
“I wasn’t meant for an MBA I guess. Couldn’t really play in the boy’s club like they w anted me to.” Kim checked her phone and quickly put it back in her purse.
“But, seems to have worked out, right? At the very least you look damn good in a suit.”
“Thirty million in VC funding later, I think so…but, fuck this, I definitely don’t want to talk about business right now. Vi, you have the job,” Kim clasped her hands and leaned in toward us. “I need to know all about how you two got together…”
Emma raised her eyebrows and pursed her lips, and I wasn’t sure if she was wondering how I would navigate out of this or if I would just spill it. It’s kind of hard to talk about your meet-cute with most people when you met your girlfriend at an orgy…
“Oh, you know, we were at a concert, and I was looking pretty adorable and feeling good, and I went to the bar to get a drink, and I noticed this really, really cute girl with curly hair and I was like…who is she?” I looked over at Emma and hoped she would play along for our sake, so we wouldn’t need to lay everything out for Kim right away.
“Yeah…I…I love concerts, and I really enjoy drinking, so, I was there at the bar, I guess waiting for Vi to continue my story, you might say…” Emma said.
Alright, maybe I wasn’t the best at thinking on my feet because it was true Emma would probably never willingly go to a concert, and if she was at one she wouldn’t be anywhere near alcohol since it messed with her ADHD medication, so I guess that was an unforced error on my part.
“You know, Emma, I was the one that orchestrated Vi’s first lesbian experience.”
Emma raised her eyebrows higher this time, a height I didn’t know was actually possible. I was just happy that Kim had deflected from wanting to know more about our origin story.
I shot my arm across the table and grabbed Kim’s wrist gently. It was nice to know we hadn’t missed a beat in the ten years since we last saw each other. “Of course, not between me and Kim…what Kim means is that she set me up on my first date with a woman.”
“Picture it now, it was 2009, everybody was watching The Hangover and we couldn’t get enough of the Black Eyed Peas…” Kim did jazz hands…like, maybe not even jokingly.
“Kim, please kindly shut the fuck up, this is my story to tell…”