Talks about work.

The email with the details and documentation needed for the part-time job at the coffee shop arrived just as I was having dinner with mom and Isabelle. Getting emails on my phone was one of the few uses I had for it since long before I started using it for its intended purpose: calls and messages.

Taking it as an opportunity, I showed it to my mom.

“Oh my,” she exclaimed with a smile. “You finally found one. I was starting to think you were rethinking it.”

Isabelle blinked. “Found what?”

“A job,” I told her, thoroughly enjoying the shock on her face.

“What? A job!?” For all that my sister was a superior social creature compared to me, she still had never worked a day of her life outside of house chores. Call me petty, but this was one thing in which I got ahead of her. “Where?”

“Maria’s Coffee Shop,” mom answered, reading the email on my phone.

“What!? I love that place!” I didn’t know if that was an exclamation of joy or frustration. I don’t think even Isabelle knew.

Mom frowned. “Will you be okay, dear? You’ll be dealing with a lot of people.”

“I… I know. I’ll have to wait on tables and clean up. Maybe it’ll be good for me? You know, to push myself?” I wasn’t entirely sure.

“Maybe.” Mom chuckled. “The pay is on the low end for a job like this, but considering you have no experience, you can’t really ask for more. You can also earn tips, so there’s that.”

I didn’t know how much they paid for the job I was supposed to do, but what mattered was that, even if I only worked, say, 15 hours a week, my monthly income would still be about five times more than my allowance, not counting tips, as mom said. Not a crazy amount compared to what the girls had, but for me? It would open so many doors.

“Flexible schedule, but you have to work every Saturday, if possible…” Mom read.

“Yes. Would it be possible to go to the gym earlier?” I asked her.

“Yes, that’s not an issue. An hour earlier won’t hurt us.”

“...” Isabelle stared at me like she wanted to say something, but kept quiet. The past two weeks had been like that. She had completely stopped pestering me about the girls, but now she always seemed like she was holding something back. For my own sanity, I decided to pay it no mind. If Isabelle wanted to tell me something, she would. That was always the case.

Anyway, mom approved of the job I found, especially since Isabelle had said she had been to it before and I told her that the lady who ran it seemed nice enough.

I went back to my room after dinner. I dropped on my bed, got my phone and started typing. I would prefer to do a video call, like the girls suggested, but with my sister in the next room and the walls being so thin, she would hear everything I said. It’d give us away even if I used headphones to keep what they said only to myself.

I told them I finally found a job, and after congratulating me, their first question, even before asking what it was that I’d do, was ask about my schedule. I had to answer that it wasn’t set in stone, but that I’d probably be busy most Saturdays until evening.

-Mila: That means we can’t go out on Saturdays now…

-Grace: And we’ll have even less days to hang out after school.

-Sarah: Oh, get over it. That’s how jobs are. Just adjust your schedules. Neither of you work, so you have all afternoons and weekends free.

Right. Sarah worked part-time at her parent’s store, so she was used to this.

-Oliver: I’ll try to be free as much as I can.

-Grace: Sorry. We’re being selfish.

-Oliver: I want to spend time with you, too, but I need to have my own income. I can’t have you paying for me all the time, and I want to treat you every once in a while as well.

-Mila: I don’t mind paying for you, you know?

-Oliver: But I do.

-Mila: …Okay. I’m sorry.

-Grace: So where are you working?

-Oliver: Maria’s Coffee Shop.

-Mila: What!? No way! akhaskjdkhd!!!!

I burst out laughing. What were those random letters?

-Sarah: Does that mean we get a discount from now on?

-Oliver: It might come out of my pay, so as much as I love you, no.

-Grace: Our boyfriend is a cheapskate!

-Oliver: Yes.

-Grace: Then I’m not gonna send you the picture I took just a while ago.

-Oliver: Not fair!

-Grace: Sorry, love. You’ll have to wait until tomorrow.

-Oliver: Then I’m going to bed now. I’ll see you tomorrow. Sleep well.

You have no idea how good it felt to be able to joke freely like that. To know that the humor in the exchange was conveyed even through text was reassuring and fun. I didn’t have to read my messages 10 times over just to see if anything sounded wrong.

…

Okay. I still did every once in a while.

We said our goodnights, but it was still relatively early. I knew by then that Grace studied for about 40 minutes before bed, even if she didn’t have homework. Sarah went to bed early because she had to be at the store by 6:30 am and she had a long road from living far away. And Mila… Well, she didn’t have much to do, so she either stayed on her phone until she went to bed or did her homework for the next day if she forgot to do it before, which was the case that day.

Thankfully, I had nothing to do that night. Homework and chores were done, so I could spend an hour or two doing whatever I wanted. I spent that time playing games on my computer, since lately I had less and less time for it and was missing it.

Then I went to bed, when I had another vivid, uncomfortable dream.

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