“What are your plans for the weekend?” he asks.
“Mostly working—” Her phone starts buzzing. Lili sighs, leaning out of his arms to grab it from her tote slumped on the ground: a deluge of texts in their undergrad friend group chat, a few missed calls from Jackie and Amina.
“Jesus Christ,” she mutters. Scanning the chat—(9:45 p.m.) bring more mezcal, we ran out!!!!—she feels unwarranted irritation rising. She still has work to do tonight.
“Alright?” Aleksandr asks.
“Just my friends,” she says, stepping away, pulling her tote over her shoulder. “They’re pregaming at my place, it’s turning into a party.”
“You look ecstatic.”
She sighs. “It’s fine, I just—I need to work. I got thesis edits back from my adviser today, and a huge deadline in a couple weeks, and a ton of farm shifts I need to find someone to cover.”
He frowns. “Farm?”
“Yeah, my job.”
“You work on a farm?” he repeats.
“An urban farm,” she explains. “We revitalize underused urban spaces—empty lots, rooftops. There’re elements of vertical farming, aquaponics, education, local economic empowerment. I help manage our ops, fundraising, and expansion strategy.”
“Aren’t you in grad school?”
“Capitalism demands we must labor in order to survive,” she quips. “I do it part time, and I’m a teaching assistant during the school year when the growing season subsides, it all evens out.”
“So, you—farm?” He sounds more confused than disapproving, but Lili feels a familiar defensiveness rise on her part.
“Food insecurity is actually a major issue,” she asserts. “It’s going to be one of the foremost issues of our time. It’s all about future-proofing agriculture for, like, the inevitable collapse of global supply chains due to the climate crisis—local food can’t just be yuppie fodder, all expensive artisanal boxed salad mixes at Whole Foods. There needs to be real resilience, grounded in stronger local food systems, in our communities.That’seconomic security. There’s a huge amount of potential, at this intersection of commercial viability, partnership with the city, and the right type of investment, if you can scale the model right. We actually have some incredibly exciting work coming down the pipeline on this.”
He stares at her. “You do all that while working on a master’s degree?”
“I like it. An econ master’s opens a lot of doors, I just have to graduate first. This holds me over until then.” Her phone buzzes again. She exhales with frustration, scanning the new texts: more friends coming over,(9:49 p.m.) and ice, bring ice, too!!
“Do you get any work done at home?” Aleksandr asks. He sounds skeptical.
Lili shrugs. “It’s fine. I usually go up to campus.”
“Why don’t you live uptown?”
“Uptown?”
“You’d be closer to school.”
“Oh. I’d rather be near my friends.”
I don’t do well alone.
Aleksandr glances at his watch. “You can work here tonight, if you’d like. I’m here for a few more hours, before I head to the airport.”
Lili blinks, taken aback. “Where are you going?”
“Hong Kong, Frankfurt, Rome, then London. Work. Maybe Washington, we’ll see.”
She snorts a laugh; when he merely looks at her, she pales. “Oh, Jesus—you’re serious,” she realizes. “For how long?”
“Two weeks.”
“Oh. Right, okay... I mean—”
