Guilliean reads the second half of her short story of the same name. Stream it and read along with the text!
“I wish I knew what that was. I mean, work is work, but I don’t feel fulfilled. What about you?” he asked.
“What about me?” I replied.
“What do you want to do with your life?”
I jerked my head back like I had been electrocuted. “I don’t know.”
He smiled at me. “Nah, girl, take your own advice. What are you supposed to be doing?”
I shrugged and looked away. “I’ve always wanted to be a writer.”
“Have you written anything?”
“Honestly? No. I just got my degree in English and History, and I figured I would try different things. When people find out what I studied, they’re always like, ‘are you gonna be a teacher?’ And I’m like, ‘no, because being the center of attention is so not my thing.”
“You’re definitely in the wrong business!” he teased me.
“Yeah, no shit,” I replied. “All the shit we deal with every day, from front of house to back, I could write twenty books easily.”
Photo by Nicolas Lobos on Unsplash
He nodded. “So why don’t you?”
I shook my head. “No one would want to read it.”
“How do you know? You won’t know unless you write it.”
“And you?” I replied, trying to change the conversation. “What do you want to do with your life?”
He shook his head. “No, we’re talking about you. But if we’re being honest, it’s not what I’m doing now.”
“I don’t know if I’ve ever told you, but I transferred here from XX; I was a supervisor at their business center before it got swallowed up by FedEx,” I offered.
“For real?” he asked. “Why didn’t you apply at our business center? I’m sure we would’ve found a place for you.”
I shrugged. “I didn’t see any positions available when I applied for this job. Besides, I took that job as far as I wanted professionally. There was nowhere else to go. A lot of the employees there didn’t care about their jobs. Dealing with that apathy soured me from going after it more.”
“Soured,” he repeated. “Good word. You should write a book about that.”
“Twenty books,” I reminded him, “twenty books!”
He glanced at his phone. “I gotta go back. My lunch is almost over. It was good talking to you. I hope I can read one of your books someday.”
I smiled. “Yeah, it was good talking to you too. I hope you can figure everything out. And hey, you might see one of my books someday.”
Reviews
Letting others know you like a tiny but mighty podcast is the kindest thing you can do. Leave me five stars on Podchaser or your favorite podcast player.
Tip Jar
I welcome donations to support the maintenance & growth of the podcast via Ko-Fi. I also accept boosts & boostagrams via PodcastIndex.
Advertise
I offer host-read ad packages that you can purchase to advertise your business. Check out your options!
Newsletter
Subscribe to the monthly Belles-lettres newsletter for updates about the podcast and Writeropolis Media’s other projects.