This Isn't Working Out

Exercise and Surprise

The weekend passed in a blur of working on the memoir and trying to find time to write her own novel. When Lily had originally graduated with her MFA in writing, she had had such a clear vision of where things for her would go. She had been working on a series of books about a girl detective (inspired by her childhood obsession with Nancy Drew) who moved to a haunted town and tried to solve the murder of her mom and other local cases. She had been working on the books since undergrad and completed three of them. She always thought that after she graduated, she would find an agent and be an internationally best-selling author.

But that hadn't happened. She had found an agent and even gotten her series published. But they hadn't been as popular as she had hoped, and the publishing house wasn't interested in doing much promoting for them. And the confident part of her just got smaller and smaller.

She had been working on a new series, this one about a librarian who got transported into the books she loved, when a friend reached out to offer her a ghostwriting job. A mildly famous drummer who could barely string two words together wanted to write a book about his life. Lily found she didn't mind listening to his long drug-laden stories and that she had a talent for writing things out in a way people wanted to read but still sounded like the person the stories belonged to. After that, she became a reasonably sought-after ghostwriter and had little time to work on anything of her own.

This current book was a particular case because the person wasn't anyone famous; it was a woman named Maribelle Witherspoon. She was in her late eighties and had decided her life story needed to be written down for future generations. It wasn't a job Lily would usually take, but Maribelle had offered her such a significant advance that Lily couldn't say no.

It wasn't that Maribelle's stories weren't interesting; it was just that she insisted on telling them in such great detail. They had already been working together for two months and were still in her early childhood. At this rate, Lily was legitimately worried they both might die before the book was finished.

Lily was on another marathon Facetime with Maribelle. Today was the story of Maribelle and her family moving two blocks from one house to another. "And then," Maribelle continued, "we started packing all of our things in boxes. I had to pack for myself and my sister Hazel. First, I got out all of our clothes and folded them up. At that point, girls mainly wore dresses, but we also had some shorts for around the house. I remember my favorite shorts were blue, while Hazel preferred ones that were yellow with flowers on them. After I packed our clothes...."

"Maribelle..." Lily usually never interrupted her subjects but was having to break that rule constantly to try and move the story alone. "I love all of this, of course, but can we maybe move on to the next really significant thing that happened around that time? Otherwise, this book is going to be a thousand pages long."

"Well, the book will be as long as it needs to be. It's important for these stories to be recorded for the younger generation. Speaking on, have I told you about my great-nephew Charlie?"

This is what happened every time Lily interrupted her. It never seemed to move the story along, but Maribelle would pause to try and set Lily up with one of her relatives.

Lately, Lily found when she wasn't working on writing, she had been fending off blind date invitations from everyone she knew. There was something about being in your early 30s and telling people you were taking a break from dating that seemed to inflame people. All her married or dating friends wanted to tell her that "her soulmate was out there" and that "it wasn't too late." As far as the first part went, she didn't believe in soulmates. That was way too much pressure to put on the universe in general and dating in particular. One person in the whole world she was meant to be with? Those were not great odds.

As for the second, not too late for what? Just like the guy she had met in the bar after that disastrous blind date, no one ever seemed to believe her when she said she was happy alone. She enjoyed her own company enough that someone would have to be pretty great to compete with it. And she hadn't met anyone who had in a while. So, for now, it seemed easier to take a break from dating altogether.

Her only long relationship had been in grad school with Marcus, a poet who was also getting his master's. She loved his passion and how much they had in common. They would read the same books and go to plays and readings together. What she hadn't loved was the way he seemed threatened by any success she had. Or his penchant for cheating on her with undergrads. They had been on and off for two years and had even gotten together a couple of times since then, but she swore that they were just friends at this point.

By Wednesday, Lily was actually looking forward to the break from her current project, even if it might involve exercise. Lily was glad to get outside and away from the latest conversation with Maribelle, detailing a fairly unremarkable day in the second grade. She headed to the park where she was supposed to meet the trainer, already ready to argue against running, lunges, or anything similar.

She headed towards the fountain where they had planned to meet ten minutes early. She sat on the fountain's edge, turning her face to the sun and enjoying the gorgeous day. Her mind was already protesting the outing. Hadn't she almost exercised already? She was outside, not sitting at her computer, and she had walked all the way to the park. It was only five blocks, but still. She wondered if she had time to head back to her apartment when her phone beeped. It was a text from Elizabeth:

Don't bail on the trainer. You said you wanted to exercise. And it's free. And Chris says he's cute.

Lily texted back:

I can't believe you would think I would do that. I'm here, and I'm early. Also, Chris is banned from ever setting me up with anyone ever again.

She looked up from her phone, trying to pick out someone who might be a trainer, when she suddenly heard someone calling her name. She turned towards the sound and saw the cute guy from the bar walking towards her.