Page 14 of Come in with the Rain
“Of course you don’t.” I maneuver onto Brown and scan the sidewalk for a place to park. Are office jobs downtown really worth it if you have to hunt and scavenge for parking every day? Maybe there’s a parking garage somewhere nearby. “I would have a complete stranger in my home every single day, and when it’s all over, I would feel indebted to him. I can guarantee you he’s doing this whole thing out of pity because he essentially broke Mickey and me up.”
I try to parallel park in front of the building where my interview is supposed to start in fifteen minutes, but then I realize it’s a handicap space and pull back onto the street to a litany of angry honking.
“Maybe you shouldn’t be talking and driving at the same time. But anyway, you wouldn’t be indebted to him. It was his idea, and you’re doing him a favor.”
“This favor feels extremely lopsided.”
I finally find a free space and pull into it, taking a deep breath. I can hear Abby crunching on the other end of the line. She’s on her lunch break, I guess. “Okay, so maybe he also wants to clean your pipes, if you know what I mean. Would that be so bad? From what you tell me, it wouldn’t be much of a sacrifice on your end.”
I glare out the windshield until she says, “Okay. Sorry. Kidding.”
“I have to get inside.”
“Good luck! And call that hottie and tell him yes!” She disconnects the call, and I sigh.
I fix my skirt and rush into the building, now only minutes from the start of my interview. Reception jobs in downtown Baltimore can be hard to find when you’re the least qualified on the roster. These positions almost never want someone like me, but I applied for this seasonal position last week, and here I am with an interview.
“Ms. Hart?” A woman hovering in the hallway asks as soon as I’ve stepped out of the elevator, and I see, like I always do, my identity register on her face.Mickey Kline’s girlfriend.That’s all I’ll ever be.
“Ms. Richards?” I ask with my smile plastered on and my hand out, ready to deliver my most professional handshake.
She shakes my hand and leads me into a meeting room with a conference table that stretches from one end of the room to the other and a large watercolor of a pack of horses on the wall. “Have a seat, please.”
I make sure to tuck my feet under the table when I sit down so she can’t see that my heels are scuffed.
“Okay, Ms. Hart. Tell me a little about yourself.”
I hate this question.Tell me about yourselffeels like what you ask someone who has war stories. Someone who’s interesting. Someone like Mickey.
“Well, I lived in Detroit until I was eighteen and then I moved here, to Baltimore. I got my GED when I was seventeen, and then I went straight into the workforce. I’ve had every job in the book: waitressing, telemarketing, cashiering, food delivery, house cleaning—”
“And then you became famous.”
My teeth smack together. “Oh.” I laugh nervously, even though it doesn’t feel like a joke. She’s smiling like it was one. “Yes, I guess so. Unintentionally.”
Ms. Richards waves a hand, a casual brush-off. “I’ve been following Mickey Kline’s career for years. It’s so cool that you’re dating him.”
Just when my nerves have started to settle, they rocket back up. “Not that it matters, but we’re not together anymore.” Haven’t been for a whole week. It’s still strange to even think about. But I don’t want to talk about that. Not here in an interview. I smile my biggest smile. “But as I was saying, I have a lot of varied work experience to bring to the table.”
Ms. Richards nods, clearly taking the hint, and looks down at my resume. I watch her scan the page. She flips the page over, like she might have missed something, and then looks up at me slowly. “So, when you say you got your GED, was that your most recent schooling?”
I feel heat travel up to my cheeks, not because I’m ashamed that my GED is as far as I ever made it in my education, but because I can already tell that her question is leading somewhere I’m not going to like. I already feel the train going off the tracks, but I try to stop it anyway.
“Yes, but I have enough experience answering phones and organizing schedules that I thought…” My voice trails off when I see the way her mouth twists, the tight grimace on her face.
“I’m sorry, Ms. Hart, but this is an executive assistant position. I need someone with a degree and a minimum of two years of experience on an executive level.”
The flush on my face travels down until I can feel the heat of it spread across my chest. This blush is purely from anger. “I don’t understand. Why was I called for an interview if you feel I’m not qualified? You got my resume when I applied.”
Her mouth does that twisting thing again, and she glances over my shoulder with fire in her eyes. I twist my neck to look, and the three girls who are peering in through the window in the door don’t move fast enough. I see their smiles and then their shocked expressions before they duck out of view.
Ms. Richards doesn’t have to answer. I already know. I got a call because someone who works here saw my name and thought it would be fun to have Mickey Kline’s girlfriend in the building.
I scoop up my purse, even as Ms. Richards is trying to apologize. “Have a great day,” I tell her before walking out.
CHAPTER16
ADAM
