Lily leans forward. “Now I really want to know.”
She’s gonna walk up out of here if I tell her what I was just thinking. I shake my head. “No, really. It was an inside thought, and I’m keeping it there.”
She scrunches her face up and opens her mouth to say something.
“Lily! Javonte! Your order is ready!”
I jump up and go to the counter, running new conversation starters around in my head for when I get back to the table. I grab the smoothies, two terrible paper straws, and walk back to the table.
I hand her a straw. “I hate these.”
“They’re better for the environment,” she tells me as she unwraps hers and puts it in her drink.
“I know. But I don’t want to wrap my lips around paper.”
She tilts her head forwards and presses her lips together.
“Walked right into that. You’re childish.”
She laughs, and all the tension in my body melts away.
“How’s work?”
“Work work?”
“Yeah, your job with benefits.”
She rolls her eyes. “Awful. At this point, I’m only there for the benefits. I hate it so much.”
I study her face. She’s not the type of person to stick with something that makes her miserable.
“I never wanted to be in HR. I always wanted to be an artist and help others.”
“What got you into HR?”
She sighs. “My parents. They kept reminding me that ‘starving artist’ was a term for a reason. I landed in HR almost accidentally, but I ended up being really good at it.”
She waves her hand in front of her face. “Let’s talk about something else.”
“Tell me how Lit with Lily is going?”
She sits up straight and smiles wide. This is her true love.
“It’s hard work. I won’t lie and say any part of it is easy.”
I nod. “You’re like a moving company.”
She laughs. “Yeah, that’s physical labor. There’s a lot of mental labor too. I’m running a small business. I do the scheduling, the finances, buy supplies, find and pay for venues. And, I have to create the actual art. I try to change up what I do for almost every event, but it’s easy to get burnt out. I scour the internet for inspiration, and I'm always thinking about what else I can create.”
She holds the cup up. “I just got an idea for a smoothie cup.”
I take out my phone and take a picture of her cup and send it to her. “There you go.”
She opens the text and smiles. “Thanks!”
Moving all the chairs and tables already felt like too much for her. The business side never factored in. Lily’s working her ass off at two jobs.
“Ok, what about you? When’s preseason and all that jazz start?”
