SEPTEMBER 24th, 1979

Lily groaned and rolled over, the strips of sunlight sneaking through the blinds waking her. She always felt a little guilty for sleeping in late, especially seeing that James had to leave at six this morning to go on some ridiculous order duty for mad eye. Lily was free from order nonsense today. She was not, however, free from her muggle job.

Even though James had enough money to single handedly rent out probably this entire complex and not worry about going broke, Lily still felt the need to pull her weight. It was only fair. So she had gone out and gotten a job at a coffee shop that was walking distance from the apartment. That was the nice thing about living on what was a decently busy street, you never had to go very far for groceries or a nice cup of hot chocolate.

Lily rubbed her eyes and glanced over at the clock on the bedroom wall.

Noon.

Good grief. She never slept this late. She was up until almost two reading, which was a bit later than she was used to. But still. Good news is she didn't have to be at work until one. That gave her a good hour to get ready. And by get ready she meant take a quick shower, pull on some jeans, and make some toast. She'd be surprised if it took her much more than thirty.

So, reluctantly, lily slipped out from beneath the fluffy white comforter and padded over to the dresser. She had let james have the closet because honestly, she couldn't care less where her T-shirts sat.

She pulled out faded blue jeans and a striped top that showed just a little more of her midriff than she liked. But she was trying to become more confident in her body, so she was going to wear this shirt today dammit.

Lily stepped into the cold shower water and immediately hated everything. She had been trying to take colder showers lately because she had read somewhere they improved hair and skin. But, merlin's tit, was this worth it?

It was not.

Lily wrenched the shower nozzle as far to the left as it would go- and immediately regretted that decision too. Lucifer himself may as well have decided to pay her a visit for how hot it became. She could have sworn just a few layers of skin got burned off just then.

She hurried and moved the nozzle about an inch to the right.

Better, but too cold again.

...Hotter…

Perfect.

Lily took her time in the shower, washing her hair thoroughly and actually shaving her legs for once. She had blonde leg hair so she never really saw the point, but the water was too nice to leave right now and she would feel a bit silly just standing there doing nothing.

After she had finished getting every hair off her legs she could see and stalling to stay in that hot water as long as she could, Lily stepped out onto the mat in front of the mirror and began drying her hair with her wand. All in all, it only took about thirty seconds to look as if it had never been wet. Lily had seen people do it faster, but she had never been particularly good at the charm herself.

After getting dressed and glaring a little bit at her crop top, Lily walked through the bedroom out to the kitchen, checking the clock as she went. It had only been twenty minutes since she'd woken up. And lily knew what that meant.

That's right. Pancakes.

She new the recipe by heart at this point. She and her father had made them every sunday when she was growing up. She still felt a little pain when she thought of her father, but time was healing her as only time could.

She poured in the milk and the flower and began to whisk it all together, almost not even paying attention. This was the perfect skill she had chosen to have in life? The ability to make perfect pancakes? Oh well. They were pretty damn good.

In order to attain maximum fluff in a pancake, the batter has to sit for at least ten minutes in the fridge before being cooked. And lily had thirty before she had to be at work.

Those ten minutes were spent on the couch reading. Lily was currently in the middle of four different books. She just got bored of a certain plot after a while and rather than just taking a little break from reading just picked up an entirely different genre of book. This one was a thriller. Lily was so captured by the book that by the time she remembered to look up fifteen minutes had passed. Oops. she would really have to hurry up and eat now.

Ten minutes later Lily bustled out the door, stuffing her apartment key in her jacket pocket and holding two pancakes in her hand. She hadn't wanted to be late for work and she liked pancakes better without syrup anyway, so she just ate them on the way.

She was just stuffing the last piece in her mouth as she walked through the doors of Everyone's Cup of Joe coffee shop. Three minutes early for her shift and cutting it a bit closer than she liked.

She stamped in and threw the horrendous-looking maroon apron around her waist.

"Hello, what can i get for you today?" she asked, taking a girl named Elanore's spot behind the register.

"A red velvet capaccino, and… your phone number." the guy in front of her winked. Really?

"The red velvet will be two seventy-three." she answered

"And how much for your number?" he asked sliding a few bills across the counter in what he thought must have been a suave way.

"Mate, more than you've got." was her only reply as she pushed his change back to him a bit rudely and turned to make his coffee. She made sure to fuck it up just a little bit, but not so much he could genuinely complain and get another for free.

She handed it to him without looking at him, feeling a bit awkward. This was a great first customer of the day. Woo-hoo.

As she turned to go back to work he just seemed determined to make things worse.

"Damn, what you got an attitude for?"

Lily simply sighed and turned back towards him, forcing herself to make eye contact no matter how humiliated she felt.

"I don't know. Maybe you should ask my fiance, he seems to know me pretty well."

She continued staring.

"See, i 'idn't know it was like that."

Lily was beginning to turn red of awkwardness, so she walked back to the register and pretended not to see him when he tried to get her attention again. Ugh. lovely day, wasn't it?