Chapter 6
Ella was just finishing transcribing a podcast for a client when her phone rang. The caller ID showed a number she didn’t recognise, but she answered tentatively, hoping it might be an enquiry about her virtual assistant services. She could do with some new business.
‘Hello, Ella?’
‘Yes?’
‘Hi! This is Dylan from Citizens of the Wild. How are you doing?’
‘Oh, hi! I’m fine, thanks.’ She was surprised to hear from him. It was almost a month since her disastrous interview, and she certainly wasn’t expecting them to call to tell her they weren’t hiring her.
‘So, the thing is, we were wondering if you’re still looking for a job. You’ve probably found something by now, but just on the off-chance—’
‘No, I’m still looking,’ she said quickly, intrigued.
‘Okay, great! So are we. We did take someone else on, but they didn’t work out.’
So maybe asking people what they’d do if they got stuck in a blender hadn’t been such a great way of assessing interviewees after all. Who knew?
‘So, if you’d be interested, we’d love for you to join the team.’
‘Oh! You mean…’
‘We’re offering you the job – if you’d consider us, that is,’ he added with a little laugh. ‘So, would it… interest you at all?’ he asked after a pause when she was too stunned to speak.
‘Yes! It does. I’m very interested. Thanks. I’d love to join the team.’ Gah! She was babbling.
‘Great! That’s brilliant. Do you have any questions?’
‘I don’t think so.’ She knew she should have questions, but it eluded her what they were.
‘Okay, well—’
‘Oh! What’s the salary? And the hours? And when would you want me to start?’
Dylan chuckled. ‘If you’d stayed to the end of the interview, we’d have gone into all that.’
‘Right. Sorry.’
‘Look, why don’t you come in for a chat and we’ll go over everything.’
‘When you say a chat…’
‘Don’t worry. There’ll be no more wacky hypotheticals. We were impressed with you.’
‘You were?’
‘Well, up to the point where you told us to shove it and walked into the stationery cupboard.’
‘Ha, ha.’ She didn’t suppose they’d ever let her forget that.
Still it would be a small price to pay if it meant she could start earning decent money and get some proper work experience.
Her mind was already whirring with the possible implications.
She could start paying her mum back, save up for a deposit on a flat, think about moving out…
Maybe she could even persuade her mum and Nora to go on their big trip.
She’d have colleagues, she could make new friends, so they wouldn’t have to worry about her being lonely…
‘You rejected us, remember, not the other way around,’ Dylan was saying.
‘You would have hired me?’
‘Yeah, we would. We’re not as daft as we seem, you know.’
‘Well, that’s a relief.’
‘Plus Nicola – the girl we hired – didn’t have a note in her head, and insisted on being Elton. So that wasn’t going to work.’
Ella laughed and wondered what she was letting herself in for.
* * *
‘It’s nice to see you back,’ Jake said to her the following afternoon, when she returned to Citizens of the Wild. Jake and Dylan were waiting for her in the reception area, hovering by Kerry’s desk when she arrived.
‘We thought you’d given us the thumbs-down,’ Dylan said.
‘Sorry. I just thought I wasn’t going to fit in here.’ She looked around as a young guy with a messenger bag slung across his body skate-boarded through the door, waving to them as he whizzed past. ‘I mean, I’m still not sure…’
‘Don’t mind him,’ Dylan said.
‘Besides, no one has to “fit in”,’ Jake said. ‘There are no moulds. Just be yourself.’
‘Right.’ Ella nodded. Kerry caught her eye and gave her a little conspiratorial smile.
‘I’m guessing there’s no dress code, then,’ Ella said, nodding after skater-boy.
‘No, it’s very casual. Well, apart from Kerry.’ Dylan nodded to her, smiling. ‘But she’s a fashion graduate. Casual isn’t in her wheelhouse.’
‘Just wear whatever makes you comfortable.’ Jake’s eyes flicked over Ella’s dated M&S suit, which she’d dug out again.
‘This isn’t it, by the way,’ she said. She was relieved she wouldn’t have to waste money buying clothes she didn’t like, and could fall back on her beloved jeans and sweatshirt combo.
‘That’s cool.’ Dylan shrugged. ‘Just wear whatever you normally would – apart from dress-up Fridays.’
‘Oh?’ Her heart sank. It looked like she’d have to hang onto this bloody suit after all. Still, at least it was the reverse of most companies, where formal business wear was the order of the day and dressing down was a weekly novelty.
‘Don’t look so worried,’ Dylan said. ‘It’s only once a month. It’s fun.’
Even better! Not her idea of fun, but once a month would be bearable. ‘What on earth do you do for dress-up Fridays?’ she said to Kerry. ‘I mean… where have you got left to go?’
Kerry grinned at her, looking pleased.
‘Yeah, she puts us all to shame,’ Dylan said. ‘One month she came as Wanda Maximoff – you know, the Scarlet Witch? Suddenly everyone decided they needed to work down here for the day. There were fights over the beanbags.’ He shook his head. ‘It was chaos.’
‘We had to have a word with her, didn’t we?’ Jake was looking at Dylan, but side-eyeing Kerry, his lips twitching in a smile.
Dylan nodded solemnly. ‘I don’t want to have to go through that again.’
‘So try not to look too spectacular, is what we’re saying.’
‘Oh, I’m sure I can manage that.’
‘They just don’t want you stealing their thunder,’ Kerry said to her.
‘Oh, they don’t need to worry about that.’ She turned to Dylan. ‘So when you say dress-up, you mean… fancy dress?’
‘Yeah, fancy dress, cosplay… whatever you want to call it. You’ll get the hang of it.’
Yikes! Would she?
‘But it’s not compulsory. There’s no pressure to join in if you’re not comfortable with it,’ Jake told her hastily, perhaps worried that she was getting ready to bolt again.
‘Well, come up and we’ll show you around and introduce you to everyone.’
Ella followed them upstairs to the main open-plan workspace, on the opposite side of the landing to the room where she’d been interviewed.
It was a small team – a couple of designers, Sarah and Mark, huddled together on a bright-green sofa, engineers –Catherine and Dan – hunched over a laptop on a coffee table, and the ‘back office’ guys, Philip and Gordon, who took care of tech, marketing and everything else.
‘Where would I sit?’ Ella asked, looking around. There were a few unoccupied desks dotted around, but everyone seemed to be sitting on the sofas or bean bags. Maybe they were on a coffee break?
‘Wherever you like.’ Dylan waved an arm around to encompass the whole area.
‘We don’t have designated work spaces,’ Jake explained. ‘It’s very informal. You just work wherever you feel comfortable.’
‘Go with the flow.’
‘So… people move around?’
‘Yeah. Wherever the mood takes you on the day.’
Ella had been kind of looking forward to having a desk of her own – a place where she could head straight for every morning. She’d already visualised herself personalising it with some photos and stuff, filling the drawers with her own bits and pieces.
Maybe her disappointment showed, because Jake said, ‘But you can sit in the same place every day, if you like.’
‘Okay. I might do that.’
‘We just want you to be happy here,’ Dylan said.
‘Happy staff, happy gaff.’
Ella smiled. They seemed so eager to please.
As well as the ubiquitous bean bags, there were a couple of pods – great for focusing if you wanted to work on your own, according to Jake – some low sofas grouped around coffee tables for informal meetings or getting together with colleagues to thrash out ideas, and a few regular desks dotted around the floor.
Ella’s eyes were drawn to one tucked into a corner in front of a window.
She decided she’d make for that on her first day.
It would be nice to know where she was going.
There were regular tea and coffee stations set up around the space – ‘Just help yourself whenever you want,’ Jake said – but there was also a dedicated break room.
It was clearly Jake and Dylan’s pride and joy, and they beamed with delight as they led her inside, like excited kids showing off their project.
‘Oh!’ Ella gasped as she stepped inside.
She was aware of Jake and Dylan watching her reaction closely.
‘Wow, this is… really nice,’ she said, looking around, taking it all in.
There were some gaming tables with consoles, shelves lined with books and comics, and some cosy-looking armchairs.
But the main focus was a climbing wall that covered one side of the room.
There was a guy halfway up in a complicated-looking harness, wearing a helmet and kneepads. He turned and waved as they came in, and Ella recognised skater-boy. She wondered if he ever did any work. He’d only just come in – surely it was taking the piss to be on a break already?
‘Good job, Dara!’ Jake called to him. Dara gave him a thumbs-up in response. ‘This is Ella – she’s going to be joining us.’
‘Hi, Ella!’ Dara gave her a friendly wave, and she waved back.
‘Dara’s our intern,’ Dylan told her.
‘We don’t have any formal breaks,’ Jake said.
‘You can come in here any time you want and play a game, have a go on the wall or whatever, or just chill.’ Ella wandered over to have a closer look at the shelves, and was pleased to see that as well as video games there was a substantial collection of board games.
‘Have you ever done any climbing?’ Dylan asked her.
She gave him a sceptical look. ‘No. I mean, until recently I was barely even doing any walking.’
‘Right. Sorry.’
‘It’s fine.’
‘Well, if you’d like to have a go, feel free to use the wall any time. You’ll always find someone around to help you if you need it, show you the equipment and so on.’
‘I doubt that’ll be happening. I’ve never been the sporty type.’
‘Well, it’s there if you ever change your mind,’ Dylan said casually, but she could see he was deflated.
Dylan’s default expression was less ‘resting bitch’ and more ‘excitable puppy’, and it didn’t hide disappointment well.
He was always on the verge of a grin, as if he was constantly poised on the brink of a rollercoaster or about to hear some juicy gossip.
Right now he looked like a very dejected puppy who’d failed to please with the wonderful offering he’d dropped at her feet.
Even Jake, who exuded an air of profound gnomish calm, looked a bit hurt. Ella felt bad.
‘But I love board games!’ she said, pointing to the shelves.
‘Really?’ Dylan cheered up immediately, and she was rewarded with a toothy grin. ‘We’ve got loads.’
‘So I see.’ She inspected the boxes, genuinely pleased there was such a wide variety of games – all the old favourites, plus some more obscure ones. Maybe she wouldn’t be such a total misfit here after all.
‘All the classics, and a lot more besides,’ Jake said proudly. ‘Whatever your pleasure, you’ll always find someone to geek out with.’
‘Kerry is our resident Scrabble champion.’
‘And there’s a Dungeons and Dragons club if that’s your thing.’
Beside the shelves there was a notice board with a sign-up sheet for a hike up to the Hell Fire Club on Saturday.
‘You’re welcome to come along, if you like,’ Jake said, nodding to the board. ‘You can just go at your own pace – no pressure.’
‘Thanks, but I don’t think I’d be up for that just yet.’ It wasn’t just the hiking. The thought of doing group activities with a bunch of people she didn’t know was daunting. She was so out of practice.
‘We do something most weekends,’ Dylan said, ‘a hike or canoeing, sometimes a swim in the summer or a game of rounders. Feel free to suggest anything.’
‘And there’s karaoke on Fridays, of course,’ Jake said.
‘Kiki Dee, don’t forget,’ Dylan said with a grin. ‘Don’t let me down.’
Oh God, karaoke! How could she forget?
‘Before you go, let me give you one of our jackets,’ Jake said as they led her back to the main space. He opened a cupboard and pulled out a big cellophane-wrapped packet.
‘It might be a bit big,’ he said as he handed it to her, ‘but try it out anyway, and see what you think.’
‘We don’t have many left because we’re working on the Heatsmart Neo at the moment, and we’re expecting to get the prototypes in any day now.’
‘But give that one a wear and let us know if you have any feedback.’
‘Thanks. I will.’ Ella was surprised how light the jacket was as she took it from him. But then she remembered from her research that that was one of its big advantages over previous state-of-the-art heated jackets.
They walked her back to reception, making the inevitable jokes about wanting to avoid her ending up in a cupboard.
‘Right. We’ll see you Monday then,’ Jake said at the door. ‘Any other questions?’
‘Um… just one.’
‘Shoot.’
‘A penguin walks through that door wearing a sombrero. What does he say and why is he here?’
Dylan threw his head back with a shout of laughter.
‘Touché,’ Jake said, smiling. ‘Welcome to the team, Ella. I think you’ll fit in here just fine.’