Lilly slid into the passenger seat of my car fluidly, and I reached to cup the back of her head and pull her into a kiss before she’d even shut the door. Her lips were soft, inviting, and warm, and I lingered to taste the fresh mint of toothpaste. Smiling when I pulled back, I released her neck to rest my palm on the gear stick while she shut herself in the vehicle with me. Pink tinged her cheeks, and she swiped back her long waves before I jerked into drive and pulled off the curb.

“Did you have a tough time last night?” Posing my question as we sped towards downtown, I glanced across the center console to watch Lilly shake her head. Relief flooded my chest, and I tightened my grip on the wheel before the soft click of her seat belt bounced around the interior.

“No- my dad wasn’t home, and my mom went to sleep early. I’m fine.” Her voice was steady, and I rolled my jaw absently. Last night had just, downright, sucked after she left, and, all of a sudden, fooling around with the neighbor church girl didn’t seem like such a good idea.

Lilly deserved better even if she’d never know that notion had popped into my head. I wasn’t the most serious 43-year-old, but I could acknowledge that the idea was juvenile even at 30.

“Good.” The park disappeared completely from my rearview mirror, and out of the corner of my eye, I scanned Lilly’s placid form. She wore a form-fitting, black blazer over a white, collared shirt, and a pair of low heels peeked out from under her dress pants. If I didn’t know better, I’d say she was going to an interview. “You look very pretty… professional.”

Of course, I wasn’t one to talk in my full suit, and Lilly smiled under a fierce blush. Smirking slightly, I turned my full attention on the road once again as we came up on the on-ramp to the highway that’d carry us deep into downtown. My skin tingled under my clothes where her gaze ran over me, and she cleared her throat delicately before speaking up.

“Thank you. You’re very handsome as well, Richard. I’m going shopping with Kayla on Friday next week, so hopefully this is the last time I combine church and regular clothes.” The confession pulled a chuckle from me, and affection bloomed in my chest as I reached to pat Lilly’s knee. Speeding up, I couldn’t keep the contact while I attempted to merge into the left lane, and I craned my neck to look in my mirrors before she spoke again. “So, do you ever visit your manufacturing companies or anything? Do you have one here in town?”

“Not unless I have to, and no. It’s more profitable to have them down south and in California, so says the OM that runs all of that for me. Then again, he’s told me several times that outsourcing would be a good idea, too… I’d rather not move everything to China just to save a few bucks, though. In fact, I think my sales do well because the products are made in the States.” My answer only produced a hum from Lilly, and I eased on the gas to cruise down the causeway as the heart of the city came closer and closer.

“You have so much going on- it’s kind of hard to comprehend. I mean, with the clubs and the artists and… just everything…” Lilly sounded exhausted just thinking of it, and I glanced over to grin at the slight frown on her face. Most people couldn’t fathom the amount of work that it took to be on the verge of being a billionaire; no one did it overnight. That kind of success took years, decades- lifetimes, even- and even after all of this time, I still had a hard time acknowledging that what I’ve accomplished was extraordinary.

“You know, it honestly got easier as my companies grew. The more people I employed, the less I had to do. It helps that I’m doing something I love. To be frank, if you told me 30 years ago that I’d be a billionaire when I died, I would’ve probably pissed myself with fear. One day, after you become a doctor, I imagine you’ll experience much the same thing, Lilly. The little things just compound over the years, and you probably won’t realize how many people you save until you find yourself in a situation similar to this.” Talking aimlessly as we sped past an exit sign, I flicked on my blinker to merge into the right lane and took a breath before continuing. “Not to mention that I like going to my own bars and clubs. A lot of the time, the employees don’t know who I am. They’re hired under a low-level manager, so they don’t prep for my visit. Sometimes I like to act like an ass just to mess with them and see how they react. This one bartender woman got so mad that I came in at 5:30 in the evening once that she threw the drink she made me in my face. She went on a tirade about how I made her life difficult because I couldn’t ‘control my alcoholism’ and forced her to actually do her job. I got a few great laughs out of that visit.”

“What happened? What did you do?” Curious humor laced Lilly’s voice, and I pressed down on the brakes and flicked on my blinker to swerve onto the off-ramp. My smirk widened in the growing, light silence, and she watched me patiently until I opened my mouth.

“I didn’t do anything, actually. I was getting together with a few of my higher up employees to discuss breaking into the gospel genre, so I just waited and taunted her some more. Asking her if her necklace was too tight and restricting blood flow to her brain and stuff like that. Really just being nasty because I wanted to see how far I could push her before she really snapped. I’m not gonna lie- it’s a fun past time when I’m in the mood. But- anyway, she managed to hold it in until the female manager in the group showed up. Her name’s Alexa, by the way- you might meet her today. The bartender saw us together and turned a complete 180. I guess she knew that Alexa was a manager. She comes waltzing over, ignores me, and asks about the status of her apprenticeship.” Coming up on a green light, I shook my head hard as mirth tightened my throat, and Lilly giggled like she knew where this story was going. It was obvious, though. Taking a hard right, I slowed down even further to sit behind a long line of traffic, and I let my head fall back and to the side to grin at her.

“In my company, artists get an apprenticeship before I actually make the decision to sign them. Sometimes they can be great, but they’re terrible to work with. So, I just got finished giving Alexa the rundown of the past ten minutes, and she’s not one to just sit back about that kind of stuff. I could see the evil in her eyes before she casually leaned on her arm to tell the bartender that she’d have to talk to her boss first- which, of course, is me. Alexa plays it up, telling the woman that they’re actually going to have a meeting now, and she’d bring her up when they were done. Clearly this woman thought she was in. For the entire two hours we were there, she served us like she hadn’t forced me to change my shirt in my car. And when we were done, she hovered.” Rolling forward, I glanced over the center console to find Lilly totally enraptured in my story. Flexing my fingers against the wheel, a sharp jolt of satisfaction pierced my chest as the bartender’s expression floated into my mind’s eye. Even after ten years, this was the funniest story of karma I could summon.

“So, Alexa tells the bartender in no uncertain terms that we were not going to apprentice her. The bartender is shocked, sputtering and on the verge of tears because she knew that Alexa had liked her voice and her image. Alexa shrugged and said she didn’t have the final say- that her boss did. And slowly, the bartender’s eyes bounce from head to head. When she meets my gaze, she realizes that I’m the boss. You could see it all over her face that she wanted to apologize and beg for a second chance. It was mean of me, but I let her make her case even though I’d pretty much made up my mind. I listened to her sob story of how badly she wanted to break into music, how hard she worked, how she was just stressed over the application- blah, blah, blah. When she was done, she was crying. But I still said ‘no’. She was even more shocked, and the bastard in me was glad to give her a taste of harsh reality. I didn’t start it, and I didn’t feel bad for being such an ass to her, but my managers were really unhappy with my behavior. I still struggle a lot with acting like a mature adult- ever since I made it big and had more time on my hands, I end up making… ill-advised decisions.”

After all, Lilly can’t be the only one in the relationship that has issues. That’s just not fair. The thought smoothened out my smile, and I reached to rake my hand through my hair as my car crawled to a stop once again. Lilly had her problems, sure, but I wasn’t anywhere near perfect either; sometimes it was hard to remember that. Even so, there was no shame clawing at the back of my throat at the story I’d told, and Lilly sighed heavily.

“It’s not a bad thing to not be a statue, Richard… but, I mean- she did throw a drink in your face just for showing up where she worked. You can’t treat people like that and expect it not to be thrown back in your face. You learned from it, didn’t you?” Nodding automatically, I felt rather than saw Lilly’s smile as I waited for the light to turn green six or so cars in front of me. “Then that’s all that matters. To be honest… I can’t deny for certain that I wouldn’t do something spiteful in a situation like that, either. Sometimes people need a kick to set them straight.”

Sitting there, stuck only a few blocks from my office building, I realized for the first time how backwards my relationship with Lilly was. She was giving such sagely advice, such important opinion, on things that didn’t involve family. If I asked her about her mother, she’d go on a bitter rant- but she almost sounded proud that I’d learned from that experience. What’s more, she agreed with me; maybe not how I went about that incident, but the intent behind it.

“… Well, I’m getting better. Progress is lifelong, after all- or something.” Muttering more to myself than anything, I let out a shallow exhale when the light finally turned green. Accelerating a safe speed through the intersection, my foot threatened to bounce against the gas pedal as Lilly and I lapsed into a comfortable silence.

Everyone gave me shit about that story even a decade later, but not Lilly. She didn’t know what she’d do in a situation like that, and she acknowledged that the possibility for spite was large. She’s getting more and more irresistibly attractive by the hour.