...Of course, Lily could say no, and go home, to her apartment on top of an overgrown, barely managed twenty store building, where she'd paint. She'd paint all alone on the roof, and think about what might have been.

But spending an evening with Dale, that is a picture that she'd much rather paint instead.

...

Life advice, thought Lily, sleep. A lot. In fact, sleep whenever you can.

Lily loved giving life bits of advice- even though she may not be in a position to judge anyone, she liked to believe that she was marginally better at understanding life than most people. Or to quote her robotic clock supervisor, that didn't really do anything but crawl on walls, show time, and harass its underlings:

"I may be a clock and don't even count as a person, but by god, that won't stop me from believing that I am absolutely wise and awesome."

Lily had a nap as sweet and soft as a marshmallow. She could get in trouble potentially, hypothetically and probably, for sleeping at work, but she didn't want to go on her date sleep deprived. When she woke up, it was 5:21 PM, and she was practically covered in papers. Motivated enough, she practically breezed through the papers, sorting them as if she were a robot herself. She organized about thirty documents, and shoved the rest into a metal cabinet, happy to hear the Clock, their robotic supervisor in the hallway, yelling at the top of its metaphorical lungs:

"LADY AND GENTLEMEN, IT IS FIVE THIRTY, AND I WOULD LIKE TO ASK YOU ALL TO PACK UP AND LEAVE, YOUR DAY IS OVER, THANKING FOR WORKING FOR ZIEGFELD INC, AND GOD BLESS AMERICA. "

This warehouse Lily worked in didn't have many ladies. In fact, most places Lily spent her life at didn't have many women, and that always bothered her. Perhaps it glorified her as this office rarity, for all men to court and woo, but no woman genuinely enjoyed that privilege. Maybe today, she could use her exclusivity at this date would prove otherwise.

She added an additional layer of lipstick on top of the chipping pink coat that was in her mouth and exited her 'office' after she was certain everyone cleared out the building.

Lily excitedly scaled several staircases and long empty hallways, some lazily blocked off with a sign that said "CEILING PRONE TO COLLAPSE, DO NOT ENTER", running by actual rootspenetrating cardboard walls of the factory.

Dale worked in the storage room, an enormous open room which was probably used to house machinery back in the days when this was a factory. There were messy rows of containers with bolts, metal limbs, old circuits, and other automaton parts.

Through the thicket of dark blue clouds against a golden sky peeped rays of the sun, which quite literally illuminated Lily- it was nice to be near fresh air coming from twelve open towering windows. Her shadow stretched for many yards reaching the end of the wall, Lily felt so big all of the sudden.

She said hello to Dale, formally interested in why he has summoned her here. He wasn't wearing his uniform, but instead his street clothes.

Informally, she was bubbling with excitement.

As spontaneously as he asked her out, Dale-

ran up to Lily, pat her on the shoulder, and ran.

"You're it!"

Now wasn't the time to overthink. Now wasn't the time to overreact. Now was the time to play the game.

Lily, cursing wearing heeled shoes, dashed across the empty warehouse, trying to catch giggling Dale. Her suitor hid behind several metal beams holding up the cavernous space, his breath echoing across, and Lily found herself cornering Dale, who as a last resort jumped a top of a crate. Lily cursed the company's outdated dress code. If she had anything but a pencil skirt, she would have caught up and climbed that crate right now. Dale, having caught up to his breath, jumped down, and Lily managed to tag him.

"You're it!" she gleefully cheered, running away.

Dale didn't run back. He took a moment, and then called her back.

Lily thought it was a trick, a way to deceive her to come closer, but then realized the fun was done briefly after it started.

"Okay, Lily. That was fun. Can't tell you in how long I haven't played chase. But here's the thing I wanted you to help me with- I figured you'd get some exercise before doing it since you were stuck in that tiny room all day long- can you please do this paperwork for me, please? I'm not very good at it."

Lily inspected a stack of papers on the desk. There were two folders worth of forms, with a paper stating the instructions on how to fill out the forms. It was clerk work- fill out the reports, copy the addresses, and et cetera.

Dale has asked her to help him do what she's hired here to do! Was it how it felt to be appreciated? And, Dale was quite a gentleman, having given Lily a seat. He stayed for exactly two papers and seemed to listen attentively to Lily's explanation of the regional codes and data. Then, he told her to keep on working and excused himself to the restroom.

...

It was seven o'clock at night. The Ziegfeld Inc. warehouse has been cleared of all people except for Lily and a few service robots. Exhausted, she finished the last form, filed it into the appropriate cabinet, and looked around.

The clock has crawled onto one of the walls of the storage room and quietly made an L with its hands.

Dale never did come back from his bathroom break, his stuff has been gone since his visit to the bathroom. He got her to do his overtime work.

Life advice, she thought, don't ever chase someone who won't chase you back when tagged.

That is how this day of Lily's ended. And yet, somehow, she thought, in this overheated, dusty concrete building, she'll still end up falling for Dale's antics over and over. Not because she needs to want him, but because some times, people just need beauty in a concrete factory world. A bit of color on white paper. A bit of imagination.

That is still a dream needed believing.

Good night.