Chapter 2

“There you are!”, Erin exclaimed, waving frantically. Melanie rolled her eyes with a smile as she drove her battered car over to the curb where she stood.

“I still have some minutes till it’s nine so I’m early”, Melanie told her friend as she got in and slammed the door.

“Not exactly. It’s a right ten minute drive to our destination so we should hurry, we don’t want you to be late”, Erin said. She had bee the one to convince her best friend to apply for a job there because she had a friend who currently worked there who could at least lend Melanie a helping hand when she needed one and even give her a better opinion on her colleagues and superiors.

“I can’t believe I woke up so late. It’s so unlike me”.

“You were probably too excited to go to bed last night. You look nice though”, Erin told her, giving her a once-over.

Her lips lifted into a small smile. “You look great too”, She told her, admiring her short raven hair and lavender dress.

“Thanks. It’s too bad I can’t go in with you”, Erin said with a small pout. “I’ve only had the job of mine for half a month now. It’s too early for me to start being tardy”.

Melanie’s brows creased slightly as she teased, “Who says tardy these days?”.

Erin pureed her lips but she continued like she hadn’t heard anything. “Once you get there, ask to speak to Leila Hudgens. She’s a plump beauty who works in sales. She’ll be easy to recognize”.

By now they had gotten to the large porticoed building where Melanie was going to be interviewed for the position of personal assistant.

Erin opened her cute beige purse, took out her compact and began dabbing the powder puff on her friend’s face.

“Oh, what is this?”, Melanie complained and spat out in disgust when the powder got into her mouth.

“Hush, love! I’m making you look prettier”, She said, applying red lipstick to Melanie’s slightly chapped lips. “There”, Erin added when she was done. “Perfect. And don’t you dare rub it off”.

“Is this really necessary though? They know that I’m here for a job so I doubt the would care so much about how good I looked”, Melanie told her, looking at the cracked rear view mirror to check out her appearance.

Erin rolled her eyes and pretended not to hear her complaints as she got down from the car. “I’ll stop by at Richies' during my lunch break so you can tell me all about everything”.

Melanie watched her leave, smiling before picking up her bag and getting out of the vehicle and pushing open the glass doors. The lobby was huge and Melanie had to stop her self from looking around like an idiot. She walked up to the desk for check-ins and customer service and she could feel some passing workers throwing furtive glances at her while others didn’t even bother to be discreet.

Hello. Good afternoon”, She greeted, politely watching the blonde receptionist who was working on her computer.

“Good afternoon. Do you have a previous appointment?”, She asked with a small formal smile.

“I’m here for an interview”, Melanie said, trying her best to seem as calm as possible.

The receptionist gave her a weird glance and motioned towards the small row of elevators on her far right. “Take an available one to the 3rd floor. There’ll be someone to receive and attend to you there”.

Melanie nodded her thanks and went her way, her heart beating harshly against her chest. She had been sending e-mails, regular mails with copies of her curriculum vitae and other important documents and she had even on many occasions gone to different places to submit job applications and most of them just ignored and never got back to her and only a couple sent her indifferent emails about how the couldn’t employ her or how she didn’t meet the requirements they needed.

Stepping out of the elevator, her phone began to ring in her purse and as she fumbled to take it out, she accidentally bumped heavily into someone attempting to get into the elevator behind her and her bag slipped from her shoulder and fell, scattering her things all over the floor.

“I’m so sorry, I should have watched where I was going”, She mumbled, squatting to pick up her bag. The stranger bent and assisted her in gathering her things and she felt really grateful.

“Thank you so much. You don’t have to help me with this if you’re in a hurry”, She told him.

“Linda?”, The stranger asked and Melanie looked up and found herself staring into the most good looking face she had ever seen, not that she had seen a lot of guys anyway. The man in question was gorgeous with bright aquamarine eyes, sculpted features and dark brown hair and with a nice athletic build. Melanie couldn’t stop herself from swallowing and staring.

“Linda, what are you doing here? And dressed like that too. Is there something I should know about?”, The man asked with a raised eyebrow giving her a disdainful once-over.

Melanie immediately felt insulted and self conscious and she tried to adjust her outfit and Pat down her bag as she put everything back together inside.

“What are you talking about? Who’s Linda? I’m Melanie and I’m her for an interview. I think you’ve mistaken me for someone else”, She replied, pursing her lips and glaring at him.

The man gave her a scrutinizing look before his expression cleared and he said, “Oh, I 'm sorry about that. You look a bit like a friend of mine”. With that, he gave a court nod and strode past her to the elevator.

What the hell?, Melanie thought, Was he trying to hit on me? What kind of pick-up line is that?. She shook her head, after all, if he wanted to talk to her, he probably wouldn’t have left do quickly. She shrugged and turned to see if he had left and their eyes locked as the elevator doors were closing and see turned back as heat rushed up her neck to her cheeks as she spun in embarrassment and walked away hurriedly.