Lillian heated up a couple of sweet potatoes that she had taken from the fridge and set them alongside the food she had split up between two plates from the takeout container on the counter. She grabbed a bottle of sparkling water from the fridge and stuffed it into her hoodie pocket, then picked up the two plates and headed upstairs.
Andrew Geldan was serious, deep in work, when Lillian brought their dinner into the office. She was unsure how to act around him, given the sudden change in their relationship. On the one hand, she felt like she was walking on eggshells, just as she had been when they were simply in an employee and CEO relationship. On the other, she thought she should try to tear down that barrier and work on building a friendly rapport with her unexpected roommate, so that living together would become easy. Lucky for her, she got along well with all of her roommates in university and even made lasting friendships with some of them, but she remembered how her best friend had an awful experience with one of her roommates. It got to the point where they were fighting over the smallest things and passive aggressively leaving notes to each other around the apartment. Lillian shivered at the thought of finding out her friend's roommate went as far as to use her toothbrush to clean the toilet out of spite for finding the toilet roll empty - a nightmare situation.
Lillian pulled up a chair to the side of Andrew's desk, placing their plates in front of them, resolved to build a good relationship with the stone-like CEO. Andrew muttered a word of thanks under his breath as he was reading through a thick file, and mindlessly took bites of food from the plate in front of him.
Meanwhile, Lillian's hungry stomach took over, and she finished her hearty meal quickly without leaving a single crumb on her plate. She was still a bit hungry after finishing her food, so she went back downstairs to heat up another sweet potato and took out the tupperware full of sweet potato cake from the fridge. She grabbed two clean forks and headed back to the office to continue their shared meal.
When she got back, she noticed that Andrew had finished everything on his plate except for the sweet potato that remained untouched.
Maybe he's saving his favorite food for last? Lillian thought to herself as she sat down started eating her second plate, thinking about how all he had was sweet potato in his fridge.
A few minutes passed though and Andrew still left his potato intact as he moved on from reading the thick file and began constructing an email on his laptop. Lillian peeked up from her cake to look at him then look at the potato then look back at him again. She debated whether or not she was hungry enough to eat another one as she considered he may not want to eat anymore, but after finishing the cake in front of her, she began to feel pretty full.
"Why aren't you eating your sweet potato? It seemed like the only food you ate considering the state of your fridge," she tried talking to him in a genial manner, engaging her plan to build a friendly roommate exchange.
Without looking up from his screen, Andrew plainly replied, "My sister dropped them off on behalf of my grandmother when she came to decorate your room yesterday." He glanced over at the uneaten potato on his plate then furrowed his brow, "I don't like the skin."
Lillian had to suppress a laugh after unexpectedly seeing her poker faced CEO act like a picky child over some potato skin.
Can he not just peel it off?
She observed the CEO typing fervently on his laptop, then came to the conclusion he must not want to get his fingers dirty while working. Lillian naturally picked up the potato from his plate and started peeling the skin clean, quietly humming to herself as she completed her mindless task, thinking about grocery shopping she wanted to do after getting off work tomorrow.
Andrew didn't pay much attention to the girl sitting next to him as he was busy typing up his feedback for a new building project he had just read through. Midway through writing his email he saw Lillian reach across his desk and place a freshly peeled sweet potato back on his plate. She just smiled at him and cleaned up her plates, saying she was going to retire for the night, then silently left the room.
After he sent his last email, he closed his laptop and looked back at the now cold potato in front of him. He stared at it for a moment, then picked it up and ate it as he cleaned up his desk for the night.
Meanwhile, Lillian had made it back to her bedroom and was eager to try out her new bathtub, but she wasn't sure if it'd be alright to soak right after eating a big meal. She rubbed her full belly, hoping it'd help her digest faster as she watched the TV in her room, flipping through the channels to see if anything interesting was on. As she was passing by the news station, she heard the Geldan name spoken by the news caster. She paused on that channel, curious about her new roommate's family and saw an elegant elderly woman dressed in a formal outfit speaking at a podium of some charity event as the news caster narrated the events of that day. They were commenting on her recent public appearance after having been hospitalized for unknown reasons earlier last week.
As Lillian watched this, she wondered if she would be meeting the elegant woman soon as part of the deal in the contract that she had signed, but before she could think about it further, she heard her phone ring. It was her mom and dad.
"Hello, sweetie!" Her mom sang into the phone. "How are you? Did you settle into your friend's place okay? Make sure to tell them thank you from us, we'll be sure to send over some fresh goods from the farm once the season starts."
"Did she find the present I hid?" Lillian could hear her dad shouting to her mom in the background of their call.
"Huh? Did dad hide something in my stuff?"
"Oh, I don't know. I think your dad might have slipped something in somewhere. Have you unpacked your stuff yet? Did you have dinner? Are you comfortable?" Her mom continued bombarding her with questions.
"Everything is fine, mom. I even had dinner with my roommate not too long ago, her grandma dropped off some sweet potatoes for us." Lillian felt a little bad telling her parents this white lie that she was living with a female friend, but she didn't want them to worry about her and beg her to move out to the countryside.
"That's great sweetie! H-" A loud noise came from the background and she could hear her dad curse. "Honey, I have to go, it sounds like your dad needs help. I'm happy you're settling in to your new place. Take care. We love you! Muah."
"I love you too, mom." She replied then they hung up the phone.
A present? I don't remember finding anything when unpacking my stuff earlier.
Lillian went around her room, checking the cabinets and drawers for anything she might have missed. She looked in the empty moving boxes and searched around the pockets of her backpack. Eventually, she went to her enormous closet and checked her drawers there. She was about to close the drawer full of underwear and socks when she noticed a couple of her sock balls had an unusual shape. The first one she searched had a piece of wrapped hard candy inside. This made her smile as her dad had often given her sour fruit candies as a kid whenever he came home from work. The second was quite a bit lumpier, and to her surprise, she found a wad of cash hidden inside her sock bundled up with a small note.
It read: Dear Lil-Lil, I know we don't have much to offer, but I hope you can enjoy a nice meal here and there. Or you can save it for a rainy day. Love, Dad.
Lillian teared up a bit as she read her dad's note. She hadn't realized she was going to miss them so soon. She knew that even though her parents suddenly left her behind, they were still looking out for her. She wiped away her tears and put the money in a safe place before heading off to bed.