Chapter Nine
2010 - The Interview
Erica
I looked up at the small cement building in front of me, checking the address a second time on my phone. Did I have the wrong place?
I’d moved back to Atlanta two months ago and had been running around trying to find a job, even though my mom said not to worry and I could stay with her and Dad until I found where I wanted to live. Not that I didn’t love them, but being twenty-two and living with my parents wasn’t what I wanted in life. I needed a job and I needed my own place, and fast. I had been hunting online for businesses that were looking for accountants or truthfully anything to do with math. I wanted to put my major to good use, but I had taken a few different financing classes and loved the structure of it all.
I had been looking for weeks, but everyone wanted experience, so the other day when I saw a place that popped up in my search engine that was a new business looking for quick hires, I clicked immediately. The Ink Well had messaged me back almost minutes after I’d put in my application to set up an interview today and had sent me the address, but I had no idea it was in some rundown small warehouse in a not so great part of town. I turned around, pressing the lock button once again on my car, just to make sure.
What I had read about the business was that it was new, only open a few months, a publishing company run by Max Wellington. I had no idea who he was, but if he was willing to give me a job, then I wanted it.
I knocked on the steel door in front of me and it opened immediately with a young girl standing there with a bright white smile on her face.
“You must be Erica!” The girl greeted me with a hug and ushered me into the building. What looked rundown on the outside was not the same on the inside. There were four offices off to the side wall and six cubicles in the middle of the floor. All but two were filled and then a receptionist desk in front, where the girl went to sit behind. The name plate read Delilah on it.
“Max, your three o’clock is here.” She paged into the phone and then turned her attention back to me.
“Take a seat and he’ll be with you in a moment.”
She pointed to the line of three chairs by the front door and I took a seat before running my gaze around the building a little more. The employees were typing away, a few on the phone, most likely talking to clients, and two of the office doors were open, while two were still closed.
I read each name on the door, the first one being Greg, then Jack, and Chase.
Chase.
That name. It made my heart skip a beat at the hope that Chase would be a part of this business, but I doubted it. I wouldn’t get so lucky to be in the same building and work for the same company as him. I moved to the last door where I saw Max written out and as I stared, the door opened and walking out was who I assumed to be Max, but behind him was what caught my attention the most.
Chase.
It was him. Standing there, walking over to his office and opening the door, leaving it ajar as I watched him take a seat behind the desk and start working on his computer. I didn’t even realize that Max had walked up to me until he said my name.
“Erica?” he asked and I looked up at him, trying to get my bearings back.
“Yes, hello.” I stood and shook his hand. His grip was not too firm nor too loose. You could tell he was a pretty laid back guy, but still liked to look like he was in charge. Even with his three-piece suit on, his hair was kind of a mess and the bags under his eyes showed just how much he had been working lately.
“I’m glad we could get you in here so fast. Follow me.” I followed behind him as he led me to the office that had his name on it. We were going to walk right past Chase’s door and when we did, I held my breath. I didn’t turn my head to see if he saw me, I just kept walking right into Max’s office.
I took a seat in front of his desk as he sat down into a leather chair behind it.
“So, Erica, you have accounting experience?” Max looked at the paper in front of him, most likely the résumé I sent over the other day after he reached out to me.
“Not real life experience, but I’m a math major, took accounting classes, and can learn fast.”
He reviewed the paper again and then looked up at me. There was a hope in his eyes and it made me hopeful too. Hopeful that I would get this job and be able to work beside Chase.
“You’re lucky I need someone immediately.” Max pulled out a paper from his desk. “I know this seems quick, but I mean it when I say we need someone now. The only person we have working in our finance department is my finance manager, Greg. We’ve hired to fill editors and illustrators, but it’s been complicated to fill this one.”
“I promise you won’t be disappointed. When I talk math, it’s because I know it, not because I’m trying to impress anyone.”
“Fill this out for me.” Max slid the paper he had in his hands toward me and handed me a pen. I started filling out any information Max needed from me while we still talked. “Would you be good to start tomorrow?”
“Absolutely.”
“We’ll start you out at fifteen an hour until after your first thirty days. Then we’ll bump you up to eighteen.”
I straightened myself up, unprepared for the amount he was offering. I knew the first offer was far more than minimum wage, but to bump me up that much with little to no experience had me wondering if this was some kind of scheme.
