The coffee tasted better than usual. It usually was bitter and left a disquieting sensation in her stomach. Today it warmed her cold hands and helped her cling to the task at hand. The sugary donuts didn’t hurt either.

“Please, remind me again why we’re going through interviewing all of these college students instead of just grabbing a resume` of some professional off the Internet and calling it good?”

“Well, given my high turnaround rates, I’ve begun to develop a bit of a reputation-”

“Well deserved, I’m sure,” the man quipped.

“-among the professional crowd,” continued Serra, “Besides, college students happen to be a cheap, renewable resource.”

“Nah, you just like younger men.”

Eyes narrowed and shaking her fist, “One of these days Gabe…”

“As tempting as that sounds I’ll have to take a rain check on it today Serra, I’ve got a lunch meeting that I simply can’t miss,” Gabe, the Human resources director said.

“So I don’t get any help on the interviews?” pouted Serra.

“I’d love to, but this time you’re on your own,” Gabe said walking towards the door, “I’m sure even you can manage. Cradle robber.”

The door slammed shut as Serra’s donut impacted were his shoulder blades had been.

When he accepted Coach Robby’s offer to look into the internship Dane hadn’t realized a few things.

First off was the fact that he’d be needing a ride. Dane had his driver’s license but had chosen to leave his car with his parents so he wouldn’t have to deal with gas money and insurance while at college. Normally this wouldn’t be much of a problem, but this was the weekend after finals week. Parties were raging and most all of his friends wouldn’t have the time to give him a ride, let alone be able to.

The second thing was that he should have been hesitant when Coach Robby offered him a ride to the interview.

“Are you sure about giving me a ride to the interview?”

“Sure, I’m meeting a friend near-by anyway,” said the Coach, “Come to think of it, he’s the one who told me about it in the first place.”

“Cool. Could you put in a good word for me?”

“Okay, if it comes up I will.”

“Thanks.”

The Coach had hit his mid-life crisis a while back and still had
the prerequisite red sports car. After getting into the RX-8 Dane checked himself in the mirror. His gray suit was left-over from the welcoming dance that occurred every fall and it still looked rather sharp on him. He ran his fingers through his hair a few times trying to straighten it and settled back to enjoy the ride.

What should have taken three hours ended up taking slightly less than two as Coach Robby sped between cars and worked his way up the traffic column at rapid speeds. Aside from the stale trail mix in his back seat and a few screams the trip was uneventful.

Staring upward towards the tall, gray spire that was JESU Corporation building Dane couldn’t help but feel a little small. The imposing building’s face was dotted with stone busts of angels and demons and looked like a piece out of Greco-Roman Monthly.

“Looks like this is the place,” he commented to nobody in particular. Coach Robby dropped him off an hour or so early and told him that they’d meet up in a near-by park after the interview.

Dane sighed, checked himself over, then walked into the building. The lobby was pretty typical of big businesses. The walls and furniture were done in neutral colors, browns, tans and blacks everywhere, with the same two security personnel and the same receptionist with the overly-long nails and hair only slightly larger than her pet dog.

After taking in the room Dane made his way to the receptionist whose clothing in no way matched the neutral atmosphere of the lobby. Didn’t magenta blouses die off a few years ago?

“Hi, my name is Dane Bishop.”

“That’s nice sweety,” mumbled the receptionist as she checked her nails.

“I’m here for an interview.”

“Okay, with who?”

Drawing a blank, “Um…” yeah, that sounds intelligent, “for the internship?”

“Oh… That one. It’s on the fifteenth floor.”

“Thank you,” Dane said.

He was only slightly disappointed when she flashed him smile #27– you’re welcome, go away.

Figuring that he could try to get into his interview early Dane headed towards the elevators. Besides, the receptionist was giving him the creeps.

“I really think that I can do a good job here, I–”

“Thank you for your application, we’ll be contacting you.” It was barely noon and it looked as though today was going to be another long one.

After the latest applicant left, Steve Jones, 21, 3.87 GPA, Serra took out a blank piece of paper and scrawled “Busy” on it. She couldn’t help but sag her shoulders and hang her head a little as she grabbed her lunch and headed towards the door.

She had been over-joyed when she was granted the ability to choose her new assistant and she had been certain that she’d been right in bugging Mr. Christensen until he allowed her to set up this internship program. It had only taken a few hours for her to pick up the finer points of interviewing people from Gabe, the Human Resources Director, and she went into yesterday’s interviews feeling excited and hopeful.

After all, it wasn’t often when she’d be able to skip work for not one, or two, but three days.

This was all prior to yesterday’s bunch though. Her opinion of her plan had dropped considerably in the last 24 hours. Before this she had been used to dealing with professional people who had their act together and who actually knew their subject material.

Several of her candidates showed up to the interview unprepared. Others showed up haggard from parties. One even discovered that she was in the wrong building. Some didn’t even bother to show up. The ones who did show up ready to go often disappointed her with their stuffiness and… inexperience.

Despite all that, she couldn’t help but feel a little heartened by the thought of taking an extra-long lunch as she taped the sign on the door, locked it and walked towards the lunch room.

“Busy?” read Dane, I guess they’re still doing an interview. Dane was still a bit antsy from his ride into town and couldn’t bear the thought of waiting out in the hallway for almost an hour till his interview was scheduled.

Well, might as well have a look around the place.

Wondering through the halls caught Dane glimpses into a few offices and saw the usual, cramped spaces, family photo’s on people’s desks and plenty of filing cabinets. As he made his way down the hall Dane caught a whiff of something that made his stomach growl. Hmmm… So this is were the food is. A peak wouldn’t hurt.

The place was well-furnished for something you’d find inside an office building. There were two coffee machines, a half-finished box of donuts, a large refrigerator, a pair of vending machines and several microwaves as well as three small tables set off to the side complete with a woman.

Wait… Women aren’t office furniture…

“Umm… Hi,” Dane ventured.

The woman, who had been thoroughly engrossed in her sandwich, looked up for a moment then refocused her attention on the sandwich. So much for lively conversation…

Dane decided that the donuts were looking lonely.

Even though Rob arrived forty-five minutes ahead of schedule Gabe was there to meet him. He seemed to have a sixth sense about those kind of things.

They had chosen to meet at a small bar called The Alibi. During the hours they couldn’t serve copious amounts of alcohol to the under-age or football crowds the Alibi happened to serve pot stickers; as rumor would have it, the best pot stickers in town. This was apparently a well kept secret because almost no one chose to have lunch there.

Well, it was that or the rats.

Rob put in his order and joined Gabe at a booth near the back.

“What are you going by these days? Roger? Robert? Why not the old fashioned Ramie-”

“How long have you been waiting for me?”

“All week.”

After a long look at the man, Rob decided to believe him.

“So, what is it that you wanted to talk about?”

“Well, I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind coming back and helping us out for a bit.”

“I thought that I made it clear when I quit that I didn’t want to deal with your kind any more.”

“Clear as crystal, but it would hardly be like your old job. I’m getting sent off because of some whim that upper management is on and I’d like you to take over my position while I’m gone.”

“That’s generous of you, but like I said, I’m done with that.”

“Awww… Not even after all these weeks I’ve spent buttering you up?”

“I thought you had an ulterior motive for showing up at my games.”

“Well, there was that, but the girl’s didn’t hurt either.”

And from there the topic turned towards the team’s chances of winning, which of the players needed to get better and the girl’s measurements.

It started with the donut. Then he got bored and decided to see if the sandwich lady would react if he stared at her long enough. Finally it settled into comfortable conversation.

“It can’t be that bad.”

“But it is, I’ve been interviewing these people for the longest time and I haven’t found a single one worth talking to. They’re all boring, disorganized or drunk from partying.”

“All of them?”

“Yes, every single one.”

“Well, I might have a better chance then,” he said, extending his hand, “I’m Dane Bishop, pleased to meet you.”

Serra looked from her sandwich to his hand, then back again as she recalled her ranting about the applicants. Well, there are worse ways to introduce myself…

She eventually set down the sandwich.