“Bradley Jensen,” he said. “A pleasure to meet you.”
“You too,” I said, shaking his hand, then gesturing to the chair across the table from me. “Have a seat.”
Just like I expected him to, he recoiled from the seat and stared down at it uncertainly before finally sitting.
“Thank you for having me,” he said. It sounded like he was on a first date with a girl and her parents.
“You bet. Why don’t we start with you telling me why you applied to work here?”
Five minutes of him talking about his father insisting on him having real-life job experience and his future at the family company later, I was done. I stood up and extended my hand again. Bradley looked confused but stood up and shook it.
“Oh, is that it?” he asked. “That was relatively painless. Do I begin now?”
It almost hurt. It really did.
“Well, we do have a few other candidates coming in today. We’ll give you a call when we make a decision.”
“Oh,” he said again, then nodded. “Yes. I suppose that’s customary. How long should I anticipate waiting?”
My teeth clenched so hard it hurt, and I forced a smile. “You’ll hear from us by tonight.”
“Thank you. I look forward to it.”
He turned and walked away, and I relaxed as the door closed behind him. “You probably shouldn’t. Alright, Tyler. Who’s next?”
The second applicant was little better than the first. In fact, she made it seem like Bradley had a sparkling personality. She didn’t even have the understated arrogance. It was essentially nothing. She just stared at me from across the table, no expression, no lift in her voice at any point. When I ended the interview, she stood and left without a word. I watched after her, stunned.
“What the hell was that?” I asked, turning to Tyler.
He looked up from his corner stool where he was going over kitchen inventory lists to turn into me later and shrugged. “I mean, she sounded better than that on the phone man.”
Tyler handed me the final application, and I scanned over it. The way it was laid out, the personal information about the applicant was on the last page, so the first thing I saw was education and previous job experience. The first thing I noticed about it was this applicant had earned an MBA. That immediately made me question why they were applying for a job as a bartender. I pushed that thought out of my mind, feeling judgmental. I had no idea what was going on in this person’s life. Maybe it was a tough time and they needed some extra income to pay off student loans from a graduate degree.
In all honesty, this could work out ideally for us. Somebody with an MBA could be a perfectly fine filler for behind the bar and could maybe later help us in other elements of the business. Feeling more optimistic, I flipped to the last page of the application. And my heart dropped.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” I asked.
“So, you noticed, huh?” Tyler asked.
“Were you not going to say anything?” I asked. “You were just going to let Ava walk in here and apply to work at our bar without giving me a heads up?”
“I couldn’t decide if it was better if you knew ahead of time or worse,” he said.
“Better,” I said. “Much better. That way I could prepare myself for it rather than getting a kick in the gut.”
“Better prepare fast,” Tyler said. “She’s here.”
My body tensed and my spine straightened. I drew in a breath, trying to make my expression as calm and unemotional as I could before turning around. When I did, I saw her standing just a few steps from the door. We both froze. Our eyes burrowed into each other, and neither said a word for what felt like hours but was hopefully only a few seconds. Finally, I managed to claw back my composure and waved.
“Hi, Ava,” I said. “Why don’t you come back with me and we’ll get started?”
There was no way in hell I was holding this interview out in the full view of my brothers. It was going to be awkward enough as it was without them staring at us. Without a word, Ava fell into step behind me, offering a brief wave at Tyler and Jesse, and we went into the back office. I closed the door, and as soon as it clicked, I wondered if that was the right move. Maybe I should have left it at least partially open. But if I did that now, my discomfort would be even more obvious. I forced myself to walk away from the door and sat down behind my desk. Turning the spinning chair around, I pointed to the other chair in the room so she would sit.
“I was wondering if the Tyler Anderson who called me was that Tyler Anderson,” she said as she sat down.