...

I was thinking... are you free tonight?

Could it be? Was Dale... asking her out?

Lily didn't believe her ears. She must have gone crazy after sitting in that graveyard of a cubicle for the last 8 hours.

Dale... Dale was something of Lily's fantasy. Objectively, he wasn't handsome. Subjectively, he probably wasn't either. But, when all of your male co-workers are as ugly as a patch of mold behind a toilet or in their sunset (or twilight) years, the bolts holding your standards get unwound.

Is it even a crush if you have no options?

Either way, Lily wasn't certain if she heard him right.

"I'm sorry?"

Inside she was burning with hope (something she hasn't felt in a long time since she was kicked out of art school), and a part of her was uncertain of what to say.

"I wanted to do something with you. You free tonight?"

Dale has never started a conversation with Lily. All these years (or four months actually) she was the one who forced herself into his working station, making conversation out of literal paper clips. She fantasized about them being a couple and every one of her annoying friends being jealous of her, imagined how great he must be of a kisser, spent some time drawing him, BUT she never considered actually being asked out in a candid fashion.

Unlike many of her "friends" Lily wasn't a dork. She wouldn't freak out with glee and blush as red as brick, muttering nonsense as if she was an anime character. Instead, she would choose to play her cards right-

"Um, hi, Earth to Lily?"

Lily has been thinking about how cool she would play this situation off and completely forgot to answer to Dale.

"Oh, yes. I certainly am free. Where would you like to take me out?"

Lily had also an incredible sense of almost royal dignity about herself, with which she held up all 6 feet of herself.

"What- oh no, I'm not asking you out I was wondering if you could help me with some work tonight. It'll be just me at six, as Hank made me stay overtime to sort out these documents for delivery- I just thought it might be fun, you know? Maybe we could play a game of tag or something- it's quite boring up there"

... ... ...

Nothing about working over time is fun or romantic. Lily thought about making an advance on him. Maybe she could say, "I'll help you out, but you owe me a date!". Maybe the overtime work bit was just an excuse for him to spend time with her. She completely ignored the tag part, unless that was some kind of an... innuendo, which it certainly wasn't, for Dale was a proper boy for a proper girl such as Lily.

Lily agreed, firmly and seriously. Even if this was a (~)handsome boy inviting her for a potential date, she wouldn't let herself appear flimsy. She would never let anyone see them get to her- she learned that the first day on this job when an oversized calculator robot yelled at her and made her cry for not understanding something about accounting or whatever.

"Great, you will catch me later then!" said Dale with a toothy smile (probably the best of his features), giving her a pat and walking off.

Lily returned to her cubicle-room, saying goodbye to fresh air.

On her desk was a note that said

"Ms. Tiger,

Have you ever seen a person die from a paper cut?

Because if you keep on taking these breaks I will personally see a guillotine made of paper just for you.

JK, LOL!

~Hank"

Lily's boss, Hank, was a tool, who ironically couldn't fix anything about this work place, and had violent outbursts which he played off as jokes. He was friends with the calculator robot, apparently and depressingly.

This was why she was so enamored with Dale probably. After all, even a tiniest source of light, as a candle, shines the brightest in a completely blacked out room.

She was so going to get with Dale.

He so was into her. It was obvious now that she thought about it- the way he remembered her name, and how he'd let her talk to him, and-

No. Back to work. I must finish my work. Lily ended up doodling a little cartoon of herself on the back of an old document. Long ago, she wanted to draw cartoons, not these ugly random ones in the newspapers, but instead the ones like Disney used to draw about 90 years ago.

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. She'd exaggerate the landscape, using all the colors she had.

Now that she thought about it- she met Dale because she left her pack of colored pencils in the break room once, and he decided to return them.

Spending an evening with Dale, that is a picture that would be bursting with colors.

--- END OF PART 2

Will Lily get Dale? Find out on the next and final episode of Dragon Ball- I mean A Dream Needed Believing