First Day on a Brand New Planet

I rushed around my apartment looking for my nude colored pumps. Almost everything was still in boxes from moving in the apartment my best friend and I were renting.

Letting out a frustrated sigh, I was going to be late if I didn’t find my shoes soon. Today was my job interview and I couldn’t afford not to have a good first impression. Digging through a pile of clothes that had yet to be hung up in the closet, I finally found what I was looking for. I quickly slipped my shoes on.

“ALLIE!”, I yelled down the hallway so my roommate would hear me.

“What,” she replied still sounding half asleep.

“Why don’t you unpack some of these boxes today while I’m gone? I’m headed out, I’ll be back later.” I replied as I checked my appearance out in our full length mirror.

The only reply I got was a mumbled response that I didn’t really comprehend. Chuckling to myself, I grabbed my keys and tote off the counter and headed out the door.

The distance between my apartment and the location I was headed to was long enough for 3 songs to play on my iPod. As I creeped through this neighborhood in the Hollywood Hills, I stopped in front of this house, as I strained my eyes to see the address number on the front gate. Looking back and forth from my napkin I had quickly written the number on and the front gate, I let out a sigh of relief that I found it rather quickly. I still had 10 minutes to spare.

Parking my car across the street, I quickly reapplied my lipstick, ran a brush threw my hair, and took in one last deep breath. I had wanted to move to LA for some time now, but it never seemed to work out until I got a call from this new company based in LA. I had sent my resume to this company through twitter of all places and I had no idea they’d actually call me to set up an interview.

I hope I wasn’t too overdressed, Allie had decided to dress me in a navy pencil dress. It had a high neck and was paired with a thin nude waist belt. Thank goodness she had excellent fashion sense because I was a walking fashion nightmare.

Standing outside of the gate to this average looking house, I immediately became nervous as a short, brunette girl walked up to the gate to let me in.

“You must be Taylor” she said. Nodding in agreement, she instructed me to follow her into the house. As I stepped into the front door, I quickly realized that the outside did not do this house any justice, the ceiling was so high and it was huge on the inside.

I followed her downstairs into an open room, she asked me did I want anything to drink and I politely turned her offer down. She left the room after telling me that someone would be with me shortly.

For this to be a business, it wasn’t formal at all, and I did feel extremely overdressed. I seen people in a room adjacent to where I was sitting running back and forth and talking to one another. I looked up to see a young guy coming out of the door, when he noticed I was in the room, and he quickly shut the door back and ran off somewhere.

There was a pool outside and music equipment strewn everywhere. I just focused my attention on the water moving back and forth in the pool. I had sat there for almost 30 minutes before anyone acknowledged I was there for an interview and the only reason anyone noticed then was because the brunette girl that let me in the house was heading out for a swim and she went and found someone.

“After you’re finished, come join me outside.” the girl said before closing the door behind her. If this didn’t go smoothly, I might take her up on that offer and try to drown myself. I had moved here just for this job, Allie and I had only paid 3 months rent in case this didn’t work out, so everything was riding on this interview.

Shortly after the girl left, the young guy that had came through earlier, sat down across from me on the couch. He seemed as nervous as I was, which seemingly made me less nervous, as weird as that may sound. He shyly repeated the information on my resume back to me to make sure everything was correct.

“You seem like you don’t want to be doing this.” I said as he looked over my information. Looking up at me, he mouthed, “You’re right.” We both broke into a fit of laughter after he admitted that to me.

“I was the only one free to do this, and just to be honest, my people skills suck.” he said leaning back trying to relax. I told him I understood and we carried on a light conversation about what the company was about and what they were trying to do with it. They just needed someone extra to help out with the loose ends, basically a floater, whoever needed something or some help I was the one who did it. I found out I was the only one interviewed, so there was no competition, which was great news for me.

I never caught the guys name, but he assured me that I got the job. I wanted to jump up and down, but I held my excitement in until I was alone and then I’d let it out. He told me to make myself at home and he’d be back soon to give me a tour of my “workplace”.

Standing up I slowly made my way out to the pool. “Hey!” the girl called out to me when I made my way through the doorway. She was sitting at the far end of the pool with 2 other girls, all blonde model types. I immediately felt self-conscious about myself.

“Hey you guys, this is Taylor. She’s here for the position.” she said sitting up in her lawn chair. I said hi to the blondes sitting in front of me, I expected them to shun me, but unexpectedly they were actually nice and outgoing.

“Oh, I’m Marisa.” the brunette girl said, finally introducing herself to me. “This is Kelli and Chloe.” After we all introduced ourselves, things relaxed a bit for me. As I listened to the girls talk they reminded me of my friends back home. We talked about my move here, how the interview went, how much they loved my outfit, normal “girl” conversations.

The 4 of us were outside having a good time, when all of the girls collectively cut off what they were saying. I looked at them confused when I heard a man’s voice behind me.

“Are you Taylor?” he said, making me spin around quickly in my chair. I stood up and looked at the man standing in front of me and I wanted to throw myself into the deep end of the pool. I knew who he was, but I didn’t want him to know that. I was crushed out on him years ago. I don’t think my crush for him ever went away, it just died down, and resurfaced every once in awhile. I could not believe he was standing in front of me, much less saying my name.

“Well…” he said, like I was wasting his time.

“Yea…. Yeah… Yes. I am Taylor.” I said, stuttering.

“I’m Jared. Jamie is busy right now, so I’m going to give you a brief tour of the house and what you’ll be doing.” he said short and to the point.

I looked back at the girls and waved to them goodbye as they broke out into laughter. I didn’t think anything was funny, he was rather rude, and I didn’t care who he was he wasn’t going to treat me like some lap dog.

Holding the door open for me, I stepped through the threshold, as he followed me and placed his hand on my lower back to guide me beside him as we started the tour of my new workplace.

The tour was very brief and his attitude never faltered. He was all business and nothing else. I took in as much as I could. He showed me where I would be working most of the time, unless someone needed something, or an assistant to someone when they went out of town. He said there might be a lot of travel and long hours.

“Are you cut out for this Taylor?” he asked as he walked me towards to front door. He still had his hand on my lower back, he never removed it the entire walk through of the house.

“Yes. I am. Thank you for this opportunity. It means a lot.” I said in response to his question.

“Great. Go home and get some rest. Tomorrow is a long day. Be here at 6 am sharp, no later.” he demanded.

I nodded in his direction as he seen me out of the house. Letting out a deep breath, I got into my car and headed home. I had a smile on my face the entire way.