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“N-no. Not at all,” Cory answered. “Please sit.”
I walked over to the only empty seat on the table. I could feel how intensely everyone was looking at me, and I did my best not to fidget under their stares. I wanted them to look at me as an equal, as someone to be respected, so I needed to be able to sit before them as such.
I watched them mind-linking each other and waited patiently. I knew this was a curve ball, so I waited for them to get their bearings.
I walked out of there with a smile on my face two hours later. I conceded a few points but mostly got everything I wanted from them. I had to hand it to them, they put up a good fight, and I was very grateful for it. I would have felt bad if I thought they let me have everything because of who I was.
What’s so wrong with that? People get jobs based on connections all the time. It’s called networking, Tozi argued.
I wanted this on my own merit.
Fine, can we at least celebrate with Dad and our friends? she pleaded.
They didn’t ask us to?
‘Munchkin, can we grab lunch?’ Dad’s mind-link came through before we got to Mom’s car, and Tozi sneezed. Her way of telling me “I told you so.”
‘Sure, Dad. I’m downstairs.’
‘Great! We’ll be right there!’
‘Wait, ‘we’?’
‘Well, yeah. The boys want to celebrate,’ he said.
They took me to a fancy restaurant in town I hadn’t been to before. In fact, I didn’t think this place existed while I was still living here, but the waitress seemed to know all of them. I couldn’t help but feel annoyed at the attention she was showing them, and the familiarity with which they were treated. When everyone ordered, and the waitress finally left, I finally began to relax.
“Evie, I can’t believe you tricked us like that,” James said.
“I didn’t trick anyone, James. I simply went through the process, just like everyone else,” I told him.
“Yeah, but, like, you could have just told us, and we would have given you the job,” he said, making me bristle.
“James...” Cory warned with a low growl, eyeing me carefully as if he could already see my internal struggle starting.
“What? It’s true. You said yourself that you offered her a job,” he defended.
“No. I told her she could apply, which she did,” Cory rebutted.
“But—”
“I’m the best person for the job, and I got it because of that,” I said, standing up and grabbing my purse. “Excuse me. I need to use the restroom.”
“Wait, Evie,” Cory reached for me, but I moved out of his reach. I saw the hurt flash in his eyes, and Tozi whimpered in my head.
“I’ll be back in a moment,” I told him. I walked to the bathroom and sat on the toilet, taking deep breaths. I took out my stress ball and gripped it so tightly that the sponge broke in two.
You can’t let James get to you. You know he didn’t mean it the way he did, Tozi said, trying to calm me.
I did everything I could to get this job on my own, and even the people who were present think I only got it because of who I am. I will never be rid of the shadows, I replied.
‘Evie, James is a clown. You know you got this position with your own credentials. You should have seen how excited these guys were even before they knew it was you. Please come back,’ Dad mind-linked me, and I sighed.
‘I’m just using the washroom, Dad. I’ll be right there.’
‘Yeah, and I graduated with a 2.0 GPA. I know my girl. Come on. Cory looks like he’ll kill James, Jo looks like they canceled Christmas, and James looks like they took away his cookies. You know how much that man loves cookies.’ I chuckled. Dad always knew how to cheer me up. I got up, washed my hands and walked back to the table. I looked at my friends, and they looked just like Dad described them, which made me chuckle and confused them all.
“James, you look like someone took away all your cookies. Relax. I really did just need to use the restroom. You guys didn’t give me a pee break in the middle of the interview, and I had two espressos this morning,” I lied.
