Whispering Wishes (8 page)

“Thanks, but I better not.”

He smiles and heads to the bar. I watch him walk away and yeah I admit it, I totally check out his ass. Man, it is one fine ass and I did not get my fill the other day. Then I blink repeatedly and try to focus once again on the paper in front of me. With a sigh, I take out my pen and start circling ads that look promising. It’s looking pretty bleak until an ad says they are looking for someone to help with marketing their business. They have a phone number to call, why the hell not give them a ring?

“Hello.
Thank you for calling American Inc., this is Mick, how can I help you?”

“Hi, Mick, my name is Aspen Edwards and I’m calling about the marketing job that you have listed in the paper.”

“Of course, thank you for calling. Would you like to set up an interview?”

“Oh!
Well, yes, that would be great, but first can you tell me a little more about the position?”

“Well it’s just like we state in the ad.
We are looking for a highly motivated, energetic individual that is willing to help us get new business. Most of the business we receive comes from marketing and word
of mouth, so it’s a position of high importance, extreme visibility, and one we take very seriously. Do you have any marketing experience?”

“Yes, I helped with marketing events at the bank I worked at, and did a lot of cross selling to existing clients of new products and services.
My contributions always resulted in tangible outcomes.”

“That’s great.
We would love to meet with you. When can you come in, Aspen?”

I hang up the phone excited about the interview I have the next morning.
Finally! Maybe things are looking up!

I’m sitting in
my car outside American Inc. feeling really nervous about my interview despite everything I did to prepare. I've dressed in a great black suit that always makes me feel professional and confident, and applied just the right amount of make-up. My hair has behaved and looks attractive. No toilet paper is sticking to the heels of shoes, or hanging out the back of my skirt. And no lipstick is present on my well-polished teeth – according to yet another look in the rearview mirror. I've been sitting here nearly half an hour going over possible questions and answers in my mind. I arrived super early, almost an hour before my appointment. I was so worried I would be late or that something would go amiss that I overcompensated and left ridiculously early. Maybe I should go get a caramel macchiato or something, but with my luck, I would end up waiting in line forever, get in an accident on the way, or spill it over the front of me. With the way things have been going lately, I really don’t want to chance it.

My phone rings
, distracting me from my thoughts. Glancing at the screen, the name makes me hesitate answering for just a second, but I’m being ridiculous. “Hello?”

“Hey, Aspen.
It’s Meg.”

“Hey there.”
My hesitation was silly; hearing her voice automatically makes me smile. It’s mid-morning, so I know she’s at work. “Is everything okay?”

“Everything is fine.
I was just thinking about you and your grand exit yesterday and thought I would give you a call. I wanted to call you last night, but I thought maybe you might need some time to decompress after everything.”

“Yeah, I pretty much collapsed once I got home to tell ya the truth.
My emotions were running pretty high after everything that happened, and I was exhausted.”

“I’m sure.
Are you doing okay?”

“Yeah, you know what?
I am. I mean, I had a moment of complete freak out, I’m not going to lie, but I don’t regret walking out. I know some of the things I said were mean and not necessary, but I was really caught up in the emotions of all of it.”

“Oh my god, some of the stuff you said was epic,” she is whispering.
Knowing her desk sits out in the center of the workspace like an island cubicle, I know she doesn’t want to be heard. “Steve was red faced all day long and Lisa looked like she may have shed a few tears even.”

“Oh, that makes me feel kind of bad.”

“Well you shouldn’t.
I know you, and for you to react the way you did, she must have really ticked you off. What exactly happened anyway?”

“She assumed I was late on purpose again because I didn’t get the promotion.
When she sent me home two days ago, she told me to take time and think about my job and blah, blah. She actually thought my lateness was a display of how I felt about my job. Well, she could not have been more incorrect. My alarm didn’t go off. She spoke to Steve before I got there, and they worked out that they were going to let me go.”

“She didn’t even give you a chance to explain?”

“No. She said she wasn't interested in my explanations. So, I lost my shit. I told her off, got loud and then… well you know the rest.”

“Yes, we all do,” she says with a laugh.

“Don’t laugh at me!”
I tell her, giggling myself when I picture the faces of everyone when I left there yesterday.

“I’m sorry, it’s just really hard to not laugh about it.
It was the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen. You actually did what some people only dream of doing when they get pissed or fired. You are my hero.”

“Oh
Lord, don’t say that. I don’t want the honor. I was mean. I didn’t need to say anything to Brandi or Edith or Francisco, oh poor Francisco! He never did anything wrong to me other than make shitty coffee.”

Meg starts laughing
. “Yeah, well it was about time someone told him! And let me tell you it worked because he didn’t make shitty coffee this morning.”

“Well
, you’re welcome for that at least, I suppose.”

“So, aside from hearing from the source what set you off yesterday, I also want to invite you to a party I’m having.”

“A party?”

“Yeah.
It will be low key, just a women get together kind of party. We will have wine, hors d’oeuvres, and great conversation. One of my friends is going to come and show some things that she sells so we can shop too if we want, but mostly it’s just to relax and have fun. You in?”

“It sounds fun, sure, I’m in!
What kind of stuff does your friend sell? Should I bring cash or a check book or something?”

“It’s just some romance stuff, and she has one of those credit card thingy’s if you just want to bring that, but cash or check will work too.”

“Okay, sounds great.”

“Yay!
It’s this Friday night, be there at seven o’clock. Oh, and you should definitely bring your friend Mischa, too!”

“Okay, I will.
I’m sure she would love to come.”

“Great.
I have to run, but I can’t wait to see you on Friday.”

“Me too!
See you then!”

I hang up the phone with a smile.
Girl time and wine sounds fun. Looking at the clock, I see I have plenty of time to make a phone call.

“Well
, hello there my newly unemployed best friend!”

“Ha, ha, very funny, but in all seriousness, thanks for coming over last night.”
I think about the call I placed to Mischa and her quickly coming over to my house. She hugged me while I told her everything I did and we laughed and then I cried just a bit when I had another major freak out moment. She was there holding my hand and telling me it would be okay like always. Thank goodness for her.

“Sorry, I couldn’t resist.”

“I forgive you. What are you up to?”

“Not much.
Enjoying some new healing tea I had yet to try and doing some dusting. What are you up to?”

“Oh, just sitting in my car outside of some business called American Inc., waiting for the time I’m supposed to go in for an interview.”

“Oh, that’s right. I set an alarm on my phone to remember to call you later to ask about it. Are you ready? Nervous?”

“Yeah, a little, but I’m excited
, too. A marketing job would be cool.”

“Well you’ll do great.
Just be yourself.”

“Thanks, I will let you know how it goes.
The reason I’m calling is because Meg just called me and invited both of us to her place Friday night. She’s having a get together with a bunch of women and wine and asked us to come.”

“Sounds fun, count me in.”

“Cool. I will shoot her a text and let her know. She’ll be excited.”

“Did she say anything about how everyone is after your memorable exit yesterday?”

“A little bit. She wanted to know what happened and made me laugh about it.”

“That’s good.
I’m glad.”

“She giggled a lot on the phone
, too.”

“I’m sure she did,” Mischa replies laughing.
There’s no doubt it is going to take me a really long time to live that whole thing down.

“Alright
, well I’m going to go. It’s time for me to head in now. Wish me luck!”

“Good luck!”

“Thanks, talk to you later.”

Taking a deep breath, I get out of my car and quickly straighten my black skirt and jacket and put my purse on my arm.
I lock my rental car, and head inside.

A woman greets me with a smile
. “Hi, can I help you?”

“Hi, my name is Aspen.
I have an appointment with Mick.”

She smiles at me and I swear her smile seems almost a little clownish like something is funny.
She looks me up and down and says, “I will tell him you’ve arrived. Go ahead and have a seat. Can I get you some water or coffee while you wait?”

Trying to keep my face blank and not display the uncertainty her look makes me feel, I casually reply, “No, thank you.”

I’m not waiting long before a tall gentleman with blonde hair and glasses wearing jeans and a sports coat comes up to the front. “Hi Aspen, I’m Mick. It’s very nice to meet you.”

“Thank you.
It’s nice to meet you as well.”

He leads me through a maze of cubicles into a back office.
“Have a seat.” I sit at one of the chairs he points to and he walks around to his desk.

“So tell me a little bit about yourself, Aspen.”

“Okay, sure. I am a hard worker and a team player-“

“No, I don’t want to know about that.
I mean about you, personally.”

“Uh, okay?
My name is Aspen Edwards; I have lived here for eight years. I came here from California to go to college and never left. I like to play tennis sometimes even though I’m awful at it and read trashy celebrity gossip magazines. I’m addicted to romantic comedies and chocolate.” Is this a freaking dating profile? What the hell?

“Great.
I have a few questions for you. My first question is do you believe in Bigfoot?”

I stare at him for a minute
. “Is this a joke? You want to know what I think about Bigfoot?” I find myself glancing around the office. Am I on camera or something? Let’s ask the world’s dumbest interview questions and tape people’s responses? “What does that have to do with marketing?”

He just smiles at me
. “Do you believe in Bigfoot or not?”

“No, I don’t.”

“Okay, well if I told you that your job in marketing was to get people to buy passes to go on a hunt for Bigfoot, how would you sell that to me?”

“Ummm, well… I would do some research and find some stories that reveal people's thoughts and any experiences about Bigfoot sightings and pursuit and work from those perspectives to develop a magnetic way to attract them and convince them to purchase the tickets.”

“Okay, interesting. Next question, how lucky are you and why?”

I want to laugh hysterically.
I’ve been anything but lucky lately, but I can’t tell him that. “I’m very lucky. I’ve won a lot of random contests. I’m also lucky to have some really great people in my life.” What the hell else am I supposed to say?

He nods and makes some notes on a piece of paper.
What I wouldn’t give to see what he is writing. “What do you think came first? The chicken or the egg?”

I can’t believe this is for real.
“Umm, I’m going to go with the chicken.”

“Why’s that?”

“Well because God made the animals, right? So maybe he put a male and female chicken on earth...well, I guess it would have been a rooster...for the male... like he did with Adam and Eve and then they reproduced and the rest is history.”

“Interesting theory.”

“Thank you, I think.”

“How soon can you start work?”

“I can start immediately. I don’t have any other commitments right now, so I’m looking for a place where I can start right away.”

“That’s great!
I would love for you to start immediately. We’ve been without a marketing professional for a while, and we are really anxious to get you started. We need people that are go getters and willing to do anything to sell our services and based on the answers to the questions I asked, you seem to fit the bill.”

I have no freaking clue how he got that out of those dumb questions, but I need a job.
Period. “How much does the job pay?”

“You will get fifteen dollars an hour.
You can dress comfortably and even bring your iPod and headphones to listen to while you work. You can take a break every hour and you’ll get an hour for lunch.”

Whoa
. This sounds great. I can’t think past the fifteen dollars an hour. That’s more than I made at the bank and all I can see are dollar signs at his words. “I’ll take it.”

“Fantastic.”
He walks over to a closet in his office and pulls something out. When he turns to face me, all I see is bright yellow.