AMIL's ANECDOTE

AA20

This morning, Amil's phone was ringing off the hook with a call from Carla. Assumingely doing what she believed was begging for them to switch shifts. Amil had no interest in answering, mostly because she had no interest in returning as an employee. Her grandmother always stressed the importance of giving jobs two week notices, but Amil wasn't doing all of that and she didn't feel bad about it. God forbid if something happened to her today, they'd have someone in her spot tomorrow. So no, she didn't feel like she owed them a notice of her absence. She knew they'd notice when she wasn't there.

Amil fell into a chuckle as her eyebrows furrowed together, once she noticed Mei walking toward her with the company's iPhone camera pointed in a manner that announced that she was recording. "Yes?" Amil questioned while dragging her Apple Pencil across the screen of her iPad. At present, she was editing one of the videos she made at the store today.

"We think the audience should see the very stylish, Miss Amiliyon's outfit." Mei announced. "You mind giving us a quick outfit of the day?" She quizzed. Amil's smile remained painted on her face as she came from behind the counter.

"My top is a vintage Ralph Lauren rugby shirt, sourced from New York, and purchased from this store, so make sure y'all come check us out!" Amil spoke while showcasing the details of her long sleeve top. "My skirt is from Zara and my boots are Le Silla." She added, modeling both her black pleated mini skirt and pointed toe heel boots.

"Oh, and my jewelry is from—everywhere." Amil spoke, moving in closer to Mei's phone so it could pick up the details of her jewelry, that was truly collected from everywhere as she aged. "Exactly, the people need to see these outfits." Mei announced. She ended the video and began to watch the clip back.

"I just realized you haven't been wearing your hair straight." Mei announced, making a smile stretch across Amil's as she thought about Zion, being that he was the sole reason. Her straight hair was no match for the way he'd make her sweat in the heat of passion. The same passion that lead to the shower a few times. Instead of straightening it more frequently, she just decided to give it a break while she figured out a solution. "I can't seem to keep it straight these days." Amil replied with a lingering smirk.

"It's pretty—my mama fried my natural curls, I couldn't even try to wear mine curly if I wanted to." Mei replied, causing them to laugh in unison. Amil was very well acquainted with her coworkers, but Mei was definitely her work bestie. A few years of only speaking to each other on a cordial level turned into an entry level friendship in a matter of a few weeks, considering that they spent so much of their shift talking to each other.

"How she fry yo' curls?" Amil questioned. Mei sighed while shaking her head. "Straightening my hair since the first time she noticed that it curled—I guess she didn't know how to manage it, so she kept it straight." She explained. From what Mei told her, her mother was Korean and her father was black, which made the story make a lot of sense.

"It's never too late to start a healthy curl journey." Amil replied, focusing her attention back on her iPad.

"New inventory in—y'all wanna come see?" Faith, their coworker announced as she walked over to the side of the store that they were in Like most stores, the staff got first dibs on all the new product that came in. Amil immediately stopped what she was doing and got up. Honestly, this was her favorite part of the job. Both Mei and Amil trailed behind Faith onto the show floor. Everything was still veiled, as the merchandise was in the boxes that they were shipped in.

"What brands?" Amil quizzed as she sat up the camera, figuring this would make great montage content. "I'm not sure of everything, but I know there's some Bathing Ape, because it always comes from Japan and they usually ship with DHL, so it comes to us faster." Faith explained as she used a box cutter to cut the mass amount of tape that kept the box tightly closed through transit.