34. Ashley Joins the Team
(Continued from our last post…)
Spyder and Ashley walked into Wing Tails Sticker Studio after their morning debacle with Perrie Hauteur. Having witnessed the whole show, Lima spoke in an attempt to control her nervous energy. “Wow, that was a lot of excitement, and it’s not even 9 a.m. I think we were discussing something over bagels and Spyder was laying out his big vision for the meet-and-greet and…”
Lima continued to ramble without any clear reasoning when Spyder interrupted. “Calisto, Lima, this is Ashley. Ashley, this is my team. Ladies, I think we may have a position for Ashley if she is interested.”
“Nice to meet y’all. Are you actually offering me a job, or are we still role-playing from outside?” Ashley inquired.
“Well, before we saw you with that mad dragon, I was explaining to Calisto and Lima my vision for our lobby space. We need an artist to do a mural installation there, and we’re also going to need a dragon to work as a receptionist once we are officially open. And we are going to recruit dragons to teach creative classes. Does any of that sound interesting to you?”
Ashley burst into tears.
“I’m sorry, did I overwhelm you? I didn’t mean to load you up with too much or imply I was looking for one person to do all of that. I just meant if even a little bit sounded like something you might…” And Spyder realized he was now the dragon rambling to sort out his anxious thoughts.
“No, no, no,” Ashley said, holding her face in her hands with her voice cracking. “I can’t believe this is happening. You have no idea what this means to me.”
For once, even Calisto didn’t have the right words to say. “Um, clearly, there’s something going on. So we just met you, and not to be weird, but do you want to tell us what you’re crying over? Because if this was a job interview, it’s definitely taken a sharp turn. Not that this is a job interview. I mean… are you OK?”
Ashley composed herself and began to tell her story. “The last few weeks—months, maybe, I don’t know how long—my dad has been terribly sick. He can’t work, and I can’t work because I have to take care of him. I think he’s dying, but I can’t bring myself to accept it. I was outside painting because I just can’t be in that apartment all the time, and I haven’t talked to anyone in so long. I just needed to do something different. Our money is running out, and we’re going to lose the home if we can’t pay rent. It’s a shoddy apartment, but it’s all we have. When my dad’s gone, I’ll be alone there. I really didn’t think there was any good that would come out of any of this—until right now. It’s like I can see again. I’m sorry to be dramatic, but I can’t believe the words you just said. You want to offer me a job? Heck, I think you want to offer me three jobs. Mr. Spyder, you don’t realize the blessing of your words. To be able to actually work and be close to my dad—I think it’s possible. But please understand that I have to be with him when he needs me.”
“Of course,” said Spyder. “Let’s start with the mural commission. We’d like to have it done by our meet-and-greet event in two weeks. You, Calisto, and Lima can discuss the design, and you can work on it on your own schedule. Once that’s done, we can revisit how everything is going with your dad and talk about more permanent work. How does that sound?”
“It sounds like a dream come true.”
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To be continued… New posts each Friday. Subscribe below to follow the dragons. Read the beginning of it all at Blog 1: New Adventure Awaits.
