Chapter 14
ASH
The interview was a joke. I should have guessed it was going to be a waste when they scheduled it for the mother fucking Fourth of July, but I am starting to get desperate.
Unemployment is a pain in the ass to fill out each week, and the proof of job seeking requirements are getting harder and harder to fill in.
After applying to over one hundred jobs, I got a handful of phone interviews and then this single interview in person.
The first red flag was obviously that it was being held on a holiday
. The second red flag was it was not a one-on-one interview. It was a group interview… Still, not a complete deal breaker because some data entry jobs will have larger hiring groups for certain projects.
The third and largest glaring red flag – after having to sit through the whole corporate backstory spiel – was when they said those fucking words: “earnings are only limited by your own ambition”…
also known as “this is a purely commission based position where you are responsible for selling off the inventory that I already purchased and you will get ten percent of the profit while I keep the rest” pyramid scheme.
The ads for these used to be a whole lot easier to spot on the sites that require wage and income to be listed. Now, companies aren’t posting those things, so scams that take advantage of the truly desperate like this are more difficult to avoid.
I am not selling fucking water vacuums!
The final straw was watching the owner of the business crack a joke disparaging women, saying the only reason they can sell the product is because they are the target users of the product.
It was overt enough that the younger people – and oh God they were young – didn’t quite catch it.
Myself and two older men caught it. Only one of them laughed.
I’ve never driven home so fast, nor so enraged, in my life. Thankfully, Jace was the first person I saw. He always seems to understand exactly what I am feeling even when I barely understand myself.
After putting on some ass hugging shorts and a cropped tank top, I add my pronoun pin and snag a ball cap from the hook in my closet. I really fucking wish I could just torch the Bible salesman suit, but I know I will need it for more interviews later… I hope.
When I step outside, Gerry practically tackles me in a hug.
“I don’t wanna be rude, but that suit you wore today was fugly, Ash.”
Jace tries to hide his laugh with a cough, but the person behind me doesn’t bother. Turning around, I notice Jackson coming around the back of my home with a toolbox in hand.
“Baby Bear said your window broke. Figure I should take a look as the resident mechanic up in this shizzouse.”
Steve and a few of the other guys from Good Boy Tinkering and Towing start shouting things from the party, but Jackson just sticks his tongue out at them.
“Go have some fun while I get this jiffed up,” he says with a pat to my arm. “Even if I can’t fully fix it today, I can at least get the window up to keep the bugs, rain, and critters out.”
Apparently, that is enough of a cue for Gerry to drag me over to the field where Spencer is chasing a half-naked Lucky to get some sunscreen on him and an almost fully naked Toby is playing frisbee with his Owner.
I’m surprised that he isn’t trying to catch it in his teeth considering he’s wearing his club shorts and is obviously halfway into pup-space.
After three hot dogs and the best damn macaroni salad I have ever had, I start to feel like I can leave the earlier events of the day behind me…
mostly. Inside, I am still panicking over how I am going to continue to live on my own with bills piling up.
Rent and utilities aren’t bad. Those can be covered from what I make at the bar and club.
What kills me is my student loans, car insurance, and internet needing to come out every month.
Still, I can’t help but smile at the sight of my friends having fun today.
Money problems will still be there tomorrow, so I should take this time to enjoy myself.
Planting myself on one of the benches spaced around the field, it doesn’t take long for Eric to approach with a brightly colored drink held out for me.
It even has a paper umbrella made out of the American flag.
He fucking did that on purpose. The bitch knows how I feel about the consumerism around the misuse of the flag, and he made the conscious decision to add that stupid little umbrella to my drink.
After removing the offensive item and pitching into the nearby firepit – the only proper way to dispose of a desecrated flag – I let myself indulge in the sugary bliss of the mocktail.
While I indulge in alcohol occasionally, I never do when I’m around Eric.
It’s not like he is a recovering alcoholic or anything.
It’s just that he is on medication that doesn’t mix well with alcohol, so I like to remove any chance of an accidental slip up.
“Spencer owes me fifty bucks,” he says before nudging my shoulder with his. “He bet that you would grumble about the umbrella and lecture me. I said you’d torch it within thirty seconds.”
With fake indignation, I raise my middle finger in the idiot’s direction, only to set off his boy and Gerry into a bought of giggles.
“Get me some of that Korean style cheesecake again and I won’t be pissed at you for buying the fucking disrespectful things.”
His boisterous laughter triggers happiness from most of the people hanging around waiting for the sun to start disappearing.
We’re lucky that our little community is far enough away from anything that we are allowed to do a full fireworks show.
Eric almost always splurges for professionals to come set up a show to go off automatically at ten o’clock.
People who live all over Wrenshaw are treated to the show he funds every year, being set off in the gravel lot next to Mac’s at the bottom of the hill.
Throughout the evening, Gerry pulls me to meet someone I already know to tell me something he just learned about them.
Instead of annoying me, I find myself relaxing and feeling happy because he is fitting right in with all of us.
At times, I feel wrong that the kid is showing so much attention to me, but then I glance at Jace to see the dopiest grin ever on his face.
Fuck, he looks good like that.