Chapter 3: Your Interview Is Cancelled
The staff member's name badge read DENISE.
She was younger than the woman in the navy suit, maybe twenty-five, with a clipboard pressed against her chest and an expression that carried no pleasure in what she was about to say.
"Your interview is cancelled."
The applicant — her name was Courtney, it was printed at the top of the resume now lying face-down on the chair — looked up slowly.
"I'm sorry?"
"Mr.
Ellison has reviewed your application.
The position has been filled." Denise glanced once at the clipboard, then back.
"You're free to go."
Courtney stood.
Her handbag slipped from her knees and she caught it by the strap.
"That's — he just walked in there.
The interviews haven't even started."
"The position has been filled," Denise said again.
Same words.
Same tone.
The clipboard didn't move.
"By who?" Courtney's voice climbed just enough for the remaining candidates to hear.
The woman near the window looked down at her phone.
The young man found something to study on the ceiling.
"He didn't even speak to me.
He didn't ask me a single question."
"He didn't need to."
Courtney took a step forward.
"I want to speak to someone in HR.
I have a right to—"
"You're welcome to submit a written inquiry through the company's general contact page." Denise turned toward the interview-room door and held it open.
Not for Courtney.
For the next candidate — a middle-aged woman with reading glasses pushed up on her head who stood, gathered her bag quietly, and walked past Courtney without a word.
The door closed.
Courtney stood in the center of the lobby.
The remaining candidates were doing what people do when they have witnessed something they will think about for days — they were looking everywhere except at her.
She turned toward the exit.
The woman in the navy suit was still there.
She was standing near the reception desk now, speaking quietly to the receptionist.
She didn't look up as Courtney walked toward the door.
But as Courtney reached for the handle, the woman in the navy suit said, without raising her voice, without turning her head — "There's a coffee shop on the ground floor.
I'll be down in ten minutes if you'd like to understand what happened today."
Courtney's hand stayed on the door handle.
She didn't turn around.
But she didn't push the door open either.
"Why would you do that?" she said to the glass.
"Because you deserve to know who you were sitting next to." The woman in the navy suit picked up a folder from the reception desk.
"And because I think you're going to want to hear it before you decide what to do next."
May you like
The door handle was cold under Courtney's palm.
She let go of it.
