Cafe Manager Fires Teen Over Hair Color, Unaware Her Dad Is Standing In Line – Story of the Day

Seventeen-year-old Lily is devastated when she gets fired on the first day of her Summer job at a café. The day only gets worse when her estranged father steps out of the line to stand up for her.

Lily grinned widely when she arrived for her first day working the counter at a local café. Summer holidays had started the previous week, and Lily was looking forward to spending the next few months producing new artwork.

The money she made from this job would allow her to buy an easel and a new set of paints, so she set to work with high spirits. The morning rush of businesspeople looking for a caffeine fix on their way to work was in full swing when Lily felt a hard tap on her shoulder.

Lily’s boss, Mr. Reynolds, was standing behind her with a furious look on his face.

“Congratulations, new girl,” Mr. Reynolds said. “You’ve just managed to get fired on your first day.”

“What? But why, Mr. Reynolds? Did I make a mistake?” Lily asked.

“Yeah, you came to work looking like a clown.” Mr. Reynolds gestured at Lily’s bright blue hair. “So get back into your clown car and get out of here.”

Lily ran her fingers through her hair, which she’d dyed that weekend. “But there’s nothing in the dress code about hair color…I checked, Mr. Reynolds.”

Mr. Reynolds sneered. “I should’ve known better than to hire some snotty teenager. You have no understanding of how to present a professional image. There’s no place for someone like you in my coffee shop, now get out!”

Lily stared at Mr. Reynolds in shock. All her dreams of buying a high-quality set of oil paints died as she faced being jobless once again.

“Hey! You can’t speak to my daughter like that!”

Anger and embarrassment coursed through Lily’s veins as she recognized the voice calling out to her. She spun and saw the person she hated most in the world stepping out of his place near the front of the queue: her father.

“I’ll talk to my employees, make that former employee, however I like!” Mr. Reynolds yelled back. “If you don’t like it then take her back to the circus and don’t come back.”

Lily’s father had walked out on Lily and her mother when she was thirteen. It was the worst day of her life, but this day was fast turning into the second-worst.

Lily threw her apron down on the counter and stormed out of the coffee shop’s back entrance. She was halfway down the street when her father caught up to her.

“Lily, wait!” he said. “I want to talk to you… There are details you need to know about the day I left.”

“Go away!” Lily yelled. “I don’t care about anything you have to say to me!”

“Please, Lily! I had to go, I didn’t have a choice, but I’m back now and I want to make it up to you.” He put a hand on her shoulder and looked sadly at her. “If you’ll just give me ten minutes to explain…”

Lily pulled away from her father and ran. She wove between smartly dressed businesspeople until she reached the subway station. Lily climbed onto the train, squeezed onto a seat, and burst into tears.

Lily returned to the tiny townhouse she lived in with her mother. They’d moved here recently so Lily could go to school in a better district, but the rent was so high that Mom had taken another job to help pay their expenses.

Lily went to her room and firmly put her father out of her mind to concentrate on something more important: her artwork. She propped a canvas up on her desk and took out her paints. The tubes were nearly empty.

She angrily took the fullest tubes—black, burnt orange, and turquoise—and squeezed some paint out onto the old dinner plate she used as a palette. She then started painting. A few hours later, she stepped back to stare at the result.

“God, it looks like Pollock and Frankenthaler got drunk together and had a blindfolded paint-off on the same canvas,” Lily sighed.

“Well, I think it’s beautiful,” Mom said from behind her. “The colors are a bit…interesting, but the texture and shapes are amazing.”

Lily set down her brushes and palette and went to hug her mom. All she wanted to do was vent about her father’s sudden reappearance, but when she saw how tired Mom was, she thought better of it. Just because he’d ruined her day, it didn’t mean Lily should let him ruin her mother’s day too.

Lily and her mom sat down to dinner, and Lily told her how she’d been fired for her hair color.

“Well, that’s just ridiculous!” Mom said. “The man is running a coffee shop, not an investment banking firm. What does it matter if your hair is blue?”

“That’s what I’d like to know,” Lily sighed. “I guess tomorrow I’ll go looking for a different job.”

“That’s the spirit, sweetheart.” Mom smiled. “I know it’s hard, but you can’t let life get you down, no matter how difficult it gets. Keep your eyes on the bright future ahead of you and you’ll always find a way through any hardships.”

Lily smiled. Mom’s optimism was infectious, but Lily soon found it was easier said than done to keep focused on the future when the present seemed so miserable. No matter how hard she tried to get a new job over the next two weeks, nobody wanted to hire her.

Lily soon ran out of paint and canvasses. In desperation, she posted an appeal on her social media accounts for help to buy more, but her followers only donated a couple of dollars.

The young artist couldn’t go long without a creative outlet for her emotions, and the more frustrated she became, the more she needed her art. She’d almost reached boiling point when a welcome gift appeared on her doorstep.

Lily was on her way out to search for work when she discovered the large gift-wrapped package on the doorstep. Her confusion only grew when she read the note:

For Lily, my favorite artist. I know you’ll put these to good use.

Lily unwrapped the package, and her jaw dropped. Inside was a set of the high-quality oil paints she’d wanted and two large canvases! Lily took out her phone and recorded a video to tell her followers the exciting news. She then took her supplies inside and started painting.

It wasn’t until much later that Lily saw one of her newest followers, artlover, had commented ‘Hope you like them!’ on her post. She didn’t think much of it until the next day when she discovered another surprise.

Lily was bringing in the mail when a plain envelope bearing her name caught her attention. Inside it was a pamphlet from a local art gallery advertising an open exhibition day for young artists. The gallery would also be running a competition with a cash amount and mentorship as the prize for the winning artist.

Lily’s fingers shook as she stared at the pamphlet. This was the opportunity of a lifetime! She had to enter, but dark thoughts lingered in the back of her mind as she wondered who might’ve put this in her mailbox.

Her reservations about her mysterious benefactor only grew when she saw artlover had commented on one of her latest posts with a link to the same competition and suggested she enter it. Worries that she may have picked up a creepy internet stalker swirled through her mind all afternoon.

When Mom arrived home that evening, Lily showed her the comments and told her about the package and the pamphlet. Mom clicked on artlover’s profile and studied it in silence for several minutes.

“Okay…this is definitely a bit creepy, but I don’t think we can report this to the police,” Mom said. “And, I know you’re going to think I’m crazy, but I think you should still put your name down for this open exhibition.”

“But what if artlover is there?” Lily asked. “What if they try to kidnap me or something?”

“I’ll be there too,” Mom assured her, “and I won’t let anything happen to you. I’m also certain the gallery has excellent security. You can’t miss this opportunity because of this random fan.”

Lily still had misgivings about entering the open exhibition, but Mom was right. This opportunity to showcase her art was too good to pass up. She’d just have to go there prepared for trouble and trust her mom and the gallery’s security to keep her safe.

Lily worked hard to complete some new paintings during the two weeks leading up to the exhibition. She was so focused and determined to produce a piece worthy of winning the competition that she hardly slept. She was a bundle of nerves when she and Mom carried her paintings into the gallery to set up.

“It’s going to be great, sweetheart,” Mom said as they approached the area assigned to Lily.

“Your art is going to be a hit, and that artlover person won’t dare to try anything while I’m around.”

Lily glanced sideways at her Mom and hoped she was right.

Soon, Lily’s paintings were arranged on easels in a corner of the main room. The gallery opened soon afterward, and gallerygoers poured through the doors. While Mom went to the restroom, Lily sat in a chair near her paintings and watched as a group approached her.

The group discussed her artwork in soft voices while Lily clenched her fingers together on her lap. She overheard enough of the conversation to know they liked her work but was nonetheless surprised when a woman stepped away from the others and made an offer to buy one of Lily’s paintings.

Lily’s eyes nearly popped out of her skull when the woman handed her a check for $350. She was still studying the check in disbelief when a familiar voice shocked her out of her reverie.

“I see you’ve put my gift to excellent use. I’m so glad you took my suggestion to enter the competition, Lily.”

Lily stared at her father as he smiled shyly at her. Fury set in as she realized the implications of his words.

“Oh my God, you’re artlover!” Lily hissed.

Her father nodded sheepishly. “I’m sorry for the deception, Lily, but I knew you wouldn’t accept anything if you knew I was the one giving it to you so I had no choice.”

“Are you serious right now?” Lily rose and pointed at him. “I thought you were some creepy stalker! Why are you doing this anyway? You left us…”

“I know, and I’m very sorry about that, but I had no choice, Lily.” Her father lowered his voice. “I wanted to tell you this in private but since you won’t give me the chance to do so, I’m just going to spit it out—”

“Don’t you say another word, Damian.” Mom stepped in front of Lily.

“She deserves to know, Susan.” Lily’s father frowned at her mom. “This thing upended her whole life, all our lives. Lily needs to know the reason I had to leave.”

“Hold up…” Lily stepped forward to stare at Mom.

“You know something. You’ve known it all along… Dad wasn’t lying when he said he didn’t have a choice about leaving, was he?”

Mom glanced at Lily and sighed. “No, he wasn’t, but I couldn’t tell you, Lily. He shouldn’t tell you either.” Mom looked at Dad then. “Have you lost your mind, Damian? This is really not the place to discuss this.”

“Then let’s go somewhere else so we can discuss it.” Dad gave Mom a pleading look. “I can’t bear the thought of my daughter hating me for this, Susan, not when there’s a good reason for what I did.”

Mom nodded and then looked at Lily. “Go with your father, sweetheart. I’ll stay here and keep an eye on your artworks.”

Lily was torn. The last few minutes had turned everything she thought she knew about her father’s abandonment inside out. If he truly had a good reason for leaving them, then Lily needed to know what it was. She nodded to her father and followed him outside.

Lily and her father sat on an ornate bench in the small formal garden attached to the art gallery.

“Shortly before your thirteenth birthday, I started working as an accountant for a chain of funeral parlors,” Dad said. “I soon noticed some strange discrepancies in their accounts and realized they were using the business to launder money. I went to the police and quickly realized I’d stirred up a hornet’s nest.”

“I was placed into Witness Protection,” Dad continued. “I wasn’t supposed to tell anyone I was leaving, but I couldn’t just disappear on you and your mom. I told her…and made her promise to never tell a soul.”

Lily was too stunned to say anything.

“I couldn’t return until the people behind this were sent to prison, but I’m back now and I hope, now you know why I had to leave, that you’ll give me a chance to repair our relationship. What do you say, Lily?”

“I say we’d better get back inside so I can sell more paintings, Dad.”

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