Amber thought about the question.
“No, baby.”
She pulled Lily into her arms.
“I think we finally got a chance.”
Several weeks later, Amber returned to the pizzeria after her first paycheck.
Lily walked beside her wearing the same crooked ponytail and carrying herself a little taller.
The young cashier recognized them immediately.
His expression tightened with embarrassment.
Amber placed enough money on the counter for a whole pepperoni pizza.
He started to apologize again.
She stopped him.
“You already did.”
He nodded.
Then Amber added, “Can I ask you something?”
“Sure.”
“If somebody ever comes in short again, and you’re not allowed to change the price, just tell them quietly.
Don’t make them explain themselves in front of a room.”
The cashier looked down.
“I can do that.”
Amber smiled.
“That matters more than you think.”
She and Lily took their pizza to the same table near the window where Elliot had been sitting.
He wasn’t there.
Amber had not expected him to be.
She had never received another message from him.
No cameras appeared.
No article used Lily’s face.
Nobody from his company treated Amber as a billionaire’s project.
As far as the hiring team knew, she was simply an applicant who had earned the position.
That was exactly what she had wanted.
Lily lifted a slice.
“Remember when we had to share that man’s pizza?”
Amber smiled.
“I remember.”
“Do you think he’s eating alone again?”
“Probably.”
Lily considered this with great seriousness.
“That’s sad.”
Amber laughed.
Then she looked at the pizza, the receipt, and the small pile of change beside her purse.
The difference between that afternoon and the first one was not that she had become wealthy.
It was that the coins no longer represented the edge of the world.
She thought about Elliot’s restraint more than his money.
He could have turned her worst afternoon into a performance of generosity.
Instead, he bought dinner, listened when she said no, and opened a door without carrying her through it.
Amber had walked through on her own.
When Lily reached for another slice, Amber slid the plate closer.
“Go ahead.”
Lily’s eyes widened.
“Really?”
“Really.”
There was enough.
For tonight.
For tomorrow.
And, for the first time in a long time, Amber believed there might be enough room in their lives for something beyond surviving until Friday.
