Chapter 22
Liza
The complaint was in with HR now. Toby had filed it first thing Monday morning. I just hoped they’d had time to deal with Abby before today. Toby had apologized for letting it go so far and getting to the point that I might not get my job thanks to her crush on him.
And now I had my interviews, without having any idea if they’d dealt with her or not.
I’d never been more nervous for anything in my whole damn life.
Toby was at work, but I didn’t have to stay with him all the time anymore. Although, we hadn’t left one another’s sides except for him to go to work. But now we traded between staying in my apartment or his.
I hadn’t told him yet, but I was going to ask him to move in with me. Bianca was only keeping stuff at my place as an excuse to help me with rent. If Toby and I split the rent, we’d be fine.
I’d been reading sample interview questions all week, and now that the day had come, I was ready. I was going to kick ass. The girls and I had gone out to buy a kick-ass pantsuit for me to wear. My makeup was simple and understated, and my hair pulled back in a simple bun.
They shouldn’t remember my clothes, makeup, or hair. They should remember me.
When I got to the hospital, I waited outside a conference room, but I didn’t have to wait long. Dr. Abby opened the door and let another of the girls in my program walk out. What the hell was she doing here? I thought I was here for the interview for the heart ward.
Abby took her arm and leaned close. “Great job,” she stage-whispered as she glanced at me. “I’m sure you’ll be hired.”
My competition walked away with a big grin on her face while Abby turned toward me and curled her lip. “Liza, you’re next.”
Suddenly nervous, I walked past her with my head held high.
Three doctors waited, including Abby and Anthony, as well as Doc Baker from podiatry, another department I’d applied to, but only because they had an opening.
I really didn’t want to work with feet. A woman I recognized as working in the HR department sat at the end of the long table.
A single chair was set across from them, waiting for me to plant my butt.
First, I handed them each a copy of what I called my brag book. “In that you’ll find a copy of my resume, my transcript showing my 3.9 GPA. It would’ve been a 4.0, but I took musical theory as my elective freshman year, and that was a really big mistake.”
Everyone laughed except for Abby. Of course.
“You’ll also find awards and commendations I’ve accumulated through school and the part-time jobs I’ve held over the years. And finally, you’ll find recommendations from professors and former employers.”
Anthony raised his eyebrows at me. “Impressive, Ms. Castro. You’re certainly well prepared.”
Beaming, I sat in the chair and crossed my ankles to wait for the questions.
They went through all the usual questions. I had to tell them about a time I’d overcome a challenge in school or the workplace. My eyes cut to Abby, but instead I told them of a group project where I’d had to pull pretty much all the weight.
We went over my strengths and weaknesses, and why I wanted to work for the hospital.
“Great,” Anthony said when I finished telling them why I wanted to work here. “Now, on to your test scores and performance while working with us here.”
They had papers in front of them now. “Your test scores are admirable,” the lady from HR said.
“You’ll find in the packet I brought, letters of recommendation from doctors and senior nurses I’ve worked with here at this hospital.”
I beamed at them as they shuffled through the papers and skimmed the letters. “This doesn’t make sense,” Abby said in a voice so cold I nearly shivered. “These say you were a model nurse, but I found you to be insolent and argumentative.”
And here it was. She wasn’t going to make this easy. “I’m sorry,” I said respectfully as Anthony looked at Abby as if she’d grown another head. “I was neither of those things.”
“See?” Abby said. “She’s arguing about it right now.”
Anthony cleared his throat. “I agree with Liza,” he said. “I never heard the first argument out of her mouth. If it were up to me, I’d hire her on the spot.”
“You only want to hire her because she’s sleeping with one of your friends,” Abby hissed.
“This woman is not fit to work at this hospital.” She said the second sentence much louder than the first. And her voice kept rising.
“She won’t work on my floor, that’s for sure.
All she wants to do is flout authority, and no doubt she’ll be inappropriate with the fathers in the maternity ward. ”
Just then, the phone at the end of the conference table rang. The HR lady, who’d been watching the exchange with a startled look on her face, answered it on speaker. “Yes?”
“Is Dr. Abby there?” a female voice said. “She’s needed in a meeting with the hospital administration.”
“We’re in the middle of interviews,” Abby called out.
The voice on the phone paused for a second before speaking again. “Now, if you please.”
A click told us the woman had hung up the line.
Abby turned dark red as she sputtered. “I’m being set up,” she said in a high-pitched voice.
“They’re trying to get me in trouble.” She turned her glare toward me.
“You won’t get away with this, you little b—” She cut off and looked around her. “Troublemaker.”
I sat there quietly as she stormed out. “I’m sorry,” I whispered. “I don’t really have the right to tell you what that’s about, but I can promise you this isn’t the sort of thing you can expect around me. I’m not… drama, so to speak.”
The rest of the interview went as well as the first part, before Abby blew up. And by the time I left, Anthony opened the door for me, giving me a wink as I passed by.
I made a beeline straight for Toby’s office. I couldn’t wait to tell him how it had gone.
Without knocking, I threw open his office door, just as he’d been taking a drink from his water bottle. He choked and sputtered as he rose to his feet.
I beamed at him and pulled a few tissues out of the box on his desk to help him blot his shirt. “I’m sorry,” I said, holding back my laughter. “But I couldn’t wait to come tell you how my interview went!”
He pulled me over to the sofa that filled up half of his small office. He really should’ve gone with a couple of small armchairs, but what was done was done. “Tell me,” he said. “You look triumphant.”
“It’s been four days since you complained, right?” I asked.
He nodded. “Yeah, why?”
“Well, Abby was in the interview. And just as she was trying to ruin everything for me, HR called and pulled her from the meeting to go talk to administration. And she had to have known why because she freaked out. And then the rest of the interview went so well, I could cry!” I lurched forward and wrapped my arms around his neck.
“She totally embarrassed herself,” I said.
“And Anthony was in there and he defended me when she tried to say I was insolent and flouted authority.”
Toby growled into my neck. “She deserves worse than a dressing down by HR.”
I shrugged. “She does, but we’ll make do with this. We can’t ask Sammy to magic everyone in our lives.”
“I’m so proud of you,” he said. “And I have a confession. I knew what time your interview was, so I walked by a few times, you know, innocently, and listened. I heard you defending yourself, and I wanted to say I’m in awe of you.
You stood your ground, and even if she hadn’t been called out, you were amazing. ”
Pulling back, I looked him in the eyes. “You did that?”
He ducked his eyes down. “Yeah. I only made it back to my office a few seconds before you burst in. You did startle me though, I figured you’d knock.”
Laughing, I pressed a kiss to his lips. “No more knocking, mister.” Then I stuck out my tongue. “Well, maybe in the bathroom.”
When we finished laughing, he got up and locked his office door. “So, does this mean we’re made up?”
I furrowed my brow at him. “I didn’t think we were fighting?”
He pretended to look stumped. “I think we were. And now we’re made up. So, we need some make-up sex.”
Oh, I knew what he was up to. And I was all for it.